Uncovering an Idol
February 20, 2013 By 11 Comments
Two years ago I went to a “wellness check.” To mine and my husband’s surprise, there was a discovery. Very high cholesterol.
It would take me another full year before I was willing to admit I needed to make changes.
In a heart-to-heart with my doctor last September, I accepted that even though high cholesterol alone doesn’t mean I will develop heart disease over the next 10 years, it does mean I don’t want to wait another 10 years to address the issue.
The immediate diagnosis: get “heart healthy.”
- Quit smoking for good.
- Exercise regularly, emphasis on cardio.
- Eat real food, way less processed food.
- Lose the excess weight and keep it off.
I started tackling the list. The current results?
- Jan celebrates my 4th consecutive month of not smoking.
- Exercised regularly..until November. Cardio is anything but regular.
- Ate much better..until November. I crash landed into the “cycle.”
- Gained back all of the weight I’d lost since August.
The cycle: I have food addictions. When I feel blah, I stuff. When depressed, I stuff. When agitated, I stuff. Sometimes, even when I’m happy, I stuff. Not eat until satisfied–push past the point of satisfied, past the point of comfort, to a stuffed, uncomfortable, sometimes miserable bloat. Then, I feel the other “S” word, shame. Shame I’ve done what I’m not supposed to do. Shame I’m not taking better care of my body, or my heart. Inside of that shame I hunker down, giving up exercise, better food choices, and the physical health of my heart.
Fast forward to these last two weeks, where in prayer with the Lord I have come to a convicting realization.
The cycle of emotional stuffing followed by shame,
also covers my heart spiritually with a heavy covering, weighing it down.
What’s worse, my food addiction is more than just a food addiction.
You shall have no other gods before me. ~Exodus 20:3 (ESV)
When I turn to food before God for praise and thanks,
When I turn to food for comfort over feeling failure before going to God,
When I turn to food to find joy, instead of to my Savior Jesus,
I am making food an idol.
I’m realizing my heart health is both a very real physical, and very real spiritual matter. I need to protect my heart spiritually, and I need to care for my heart physically. “What do I need to change first, and what do I need to change most?” is a question I’ve been taught through discipleship to ask myself. And the answer for me this week has been painfully clear.
I have to give up these food addictions first,
in order to reach the “most” of my health
physically and spiritually.
My “one word” this year is “Redeemed.” I believe, I know, Christ can redeem me from my addictions. He’s already done miraculous work overcoming my nicotine addiction, and this year is the year I need to give Him my emotional battle with food.
I’m using this month to battle my food addiction head on. I’m using it as a time to really take my heart before the Lord spiritually, before turning to food. To take my joys, my sorrows, my failures, and my hopes to Him first instead of food.
To strip away the layers of bondage my heart has been caught up in for years, and breathe in the true freedom He offers. To get my heart the spiritual strength and healing I need, so I can care for my heart physically.
Are there any addictions or idols blocking your heart to spiritual and physical growth and/or healing? If so, I hope you’ll join me this month in bringing them before the Lord so He can take away any weights, that our hearts can beat with the freedom of His enduring Love, and we can care for our hearts physically, giving that glory to Him.
In Love & Faith,
RaZella
How’s Your Heart?
February 13, 2013 By 6 Comments
How’s Your Heart?
Psalms is my favorite book of the Bible. Any time I’m afraid, discouraged, worn down or facing a battle, that’s where I run. The Psalms are so full of raw emotion – nothing held back, nothing prettied up, just life with all its ups and downs. And most of all, with God’s unrelenting love.
I started leafing through Psalms recently, looking specifically for things about the heart, and a couple of verses really stood out to me:
Psalm 19:14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my rock and my Redeemer.
Psalm 62:8 Trust in Him at all times, O people; Pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us. Selah.
This month, there will be a lot of focus on heart disease and physical health. It takes hard work to keep your physical heart healthy – but it’s even harder to keep your spiritual heart healthy. These verses get right to the root of keeping your heart and mind focused on God.
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD…
One of the first signs that I’m not spending enough time with God is when my heart and mind start to wander. I find emotions like envy and bitterness trying to take a foothold in my heart. My mind gets restless and I find it hard to focus. When I feel the symptoms coming on, I can look at my quiet times and see that they are absent or at a minimum.
When I’m not putting God first in my life, I pay the price. Life takes a toll sometimes, and the only way to combat that is to keep my focus on God. Take some time this week to evaluate your quiet times and make sure you’re guarding your heart by spending time in Bible study and prayer.
Pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us.
People would probably think I’m either crazy or a heretic if they could hear some of my conversations with God. I take the “pour out your heart” advice seriously. Some days I pour out joy – but a lot of days I pour out my stress, my heartaches, and my questions. I’ve learned that keeping it all bottled up inside only makes things worse, and nobody’s a better listener than God. He’s more than big enough to handle my questions, my doubts, and my fears – and He always gives me just what I need.
During your prayer time this week, open up to God. Pour out your heart. Tell Him everything, good and bad. You might be surprised at His loving response.
Take time to care for your heart – you’ll find that the effort has a huge payoff!
(Image courtesy of graur razvan ionut / FreeDigitalPhotos.net)
Friend, How’s Your Heart?
February 6, 2013 By 2 Comments
I don’t know about you, but it seems like it is taking longer and longer to pull out of the post-Christmas funk. Maybe it is because, as a parent of small children, there is no way to avoid the commercialism of Christmas — well, not for us, anyway, since I am a public school music teacher. All I know is that when Thanksgiving rolls around and the list of presents to buy and things to do starts growing, and growing, so does my stress.
Now as a teacher, I have lots of time off to be with my family. But — when you have spent all your money, and are eating ramen noodles until the next paycheck, all that time off isn’t exactly a good thing. (Does your mind go where you don’t want it to, also?)
It is no surprise that at the New Year we are all ready to hit the ground running, get back into a routine, and snap out of the funk. But what do you do when you are putting in the time, and digging into the Word, but the joy seems to be missing?
Why, you go on a treasure hunt!
My resource? The Bible, and a website like Blue Letter Bible. My One Word this year is Rejoice. I decided to study the places where it is mentioned in the Bible. It has been awesome. There are around 150 references in which the word REJOICE is used. So I made a list. Blue Letter Bible has an amazing copy feature that allowed me to transport the results of the search into a Google Doc (so I always have my list with me) and saved me hours of typing and writing. I read through the list and picked the verse that immediately spoke to me. I SOAP‘ed it, I researched it. I found out that the verse I loved so much was written by David, right after he had been rebuked by Nathan about Bathsheba and Uriah, after he had been forgiven. Whoa. The context – knowing the details of the scripture made it even more amazing to me. I spent a few days on the verse, reflecting and researching.
When I was ready, I read through my list, and again picked the verse that spoke to me, and repeated the same process.
Let me tell you — I have found JOY.
That’s right — CAPITAL LETTERS, bold-faced type, JOY.
When I start feeling the disconnect (only a day or two missing my morning study time and it starts creeping back in) it helps me to remember that our God is a God who loves us passionately, and deeply.
Luke 1:45 says, in the words of Elizabeth as she is greeting Mary,
Blessed is she who believed that the Lord would fulfill His promises to her.
Sweet sister– He has made radical promises to you. If you haven’t found them yet, or are afraid to dream (I’ve been there), open your eyes and heart and hands. Let Him fill you up with His presence, and reveal His plans, and His promises to you.
Together, let’s be blessed, believing that He will fulfill His promises to us.
Instinct
February 1, 2013 By 5 Comments
When someone says something harsh about us. When there’s an attack (real or perceived) on our beliefs, values or rights. When we feel betrayed by someone. When we are faced with trials. When justice isn’t served. When we’re unfairly fired. When plans fall through. When discouragement, anger, frustration, irritation, or countless other negative feelings settle in.
What does our instinct tell us to do?
Instinct can be defined as a behavior that is mediated by reactions below the conscious level.
So when something happens, what does our instinct lead us to do? Do we react out of the flesh side of ourselves, or from our spiritual side? Do we allow anger, bitterness, and hate to bombard us, or are we able to meet these situations with love, grace and a prayerful attitude?
The answers to these questions are crucial. For we are told that “the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart.” (Matt 12:34b) This means that the way we react without thinking gives us a deeper truth–the truth into what our hearts are consumed with.
This doesn’t mean that we’ll respond correctly every time. Even if we’re growing in our relationship with Christ, continually sacrificing so that our priorities will remain in the proper order, and looking for ways to honor Him in all we do…we still won’t always respond the way we know we should. The way we so eagerly want to respond.
Even if we don’t choose the best way to react, each time that we choose the better option we take a step toward the best option becoming a habit. With every better step, we make progress.
So how can we begin to make progress toward our instinct resulting in the best reaction?
- We memorize scripture (Psalm 119:11)
- We meditate on positive influences (i.e. music, tv, internet interactions, etc)
- We continuously pray for it (1 Thess 5:17)
- We think before we speak (WWJD anyone?)
- We respond in only ways we wish others would respond to us (Luke 6:31)
If we are faithful to do all these things, I believe that little by little our instincts will align with His instincts. When this happens, we can be confident that our heart is healthy. After all, our end goal is to be so completely and utterly captivated, engulfed, and captured by Him that those who look at us no longer see us, but Him.
That is the place I know each of us here is striving to be.
Won’t you join us?
New Clothes for 2013
January 14, 2013 By 9 Comments
I am leading you along a way that is uniquely right for you.
This is the first line, penned by Sarah Young, for the December 30th reflection in her devotional book Jesus Calling.
Have you ever REALLY thought about the fact that all that happens to us in life is uniquely designed just for us, by Him? When I think about this, it can be a bit overwhelming…yet it bears some thought.
In thinking back over 2012 I know I really messed some things up. I made some mistakes. I said and did things that, well, let’s face it – they just should not have been said or done! But He uses these times, these episodes, these moments in my life for growth.
To challenge me.
To stretch me.
To push me out of my box.
To make me uncomfortable.
To force me to say I am sorry.
To make me think.
Ultimately, to make me grow…grow into the person HE wants me to become.
As I look forward to 2013, I think about what I want to do differently. What can I do to make 2013 a better year than last year?
Many bloggers adopt one word for the year….Simply, Faith, Grow, Trust, etc. But that is not for me. At least not now.
But the scary thing is that I ended up not picking just ONE word, but FIVE words!
COMPASSION
KINDNESS
HUMILITY
GENTLENESS
PATIENCE
And they are not just words; they are clothes I need to wear. I need to put them on DAILY.
Paul wrote in Colossians 3:12…
Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.
So, remember that path that is uniquely right for me? While I am walking it in 2013 I will try to wear these clothes.
Oh, I know I will forget some days.
I won’t always do it right, but I will try.
And I will pray on these words every day.
And maybe, just maybe 2013 will be a bit different than 2012…in a good way!
What about you? Did you pick a word or will you join me in trying these new clothes?
Not Where My Story Ends
January 9, 2013 By 13 Comments
The expectation at “New Year” is to look back over the last year, remember it, and turn to the new year with new resolution. While that seems like a wonderful idea, sometimes I think we look back and see things that make us catch our breath.
Things that hurt.
Things that shame.
We see things we realize we’ve been trying to forget. Or things we’ve shoved deep down inside.
Things that feed a voice we start to believe. A cold deceitful voice.
“You are a selfish wife.”
“You are a lazy mother.”
“You will never lose weight, you always give up anyway, why bother trying?”
“Look at some of the things you did. If only they knew who you really were.”
This is something I’ve struggled with. There are things this past year I have said, things I have done, that broke my heart and hurt others. There are goals I set out to accomplish, and I accomplished them. Yet they came at the expense of my family. There are goals I gave up on, fearing failure, or accepting failure before it even made an appearance.
If the cold deceitful voice were true, that is where my story would end. I would be the quiet woman, unable to eat lunch because my insides were so full of failure. Smiling politely at every “Hi” yet keeping a grand canyon distance between myself and others. The wife and mother who stayed in a constant state of lashing out and hiding because guilt breeds frustration, which then breeds more guilt. The woman who finally gorges on dinner because the fullness of failure has given way to gnawing pain.
That is Not Where my Story Ends.
I may have done things that caused me shame. However, those things are not who I am.
I am a sinner. However, I am not lost. I know my Shepherd. I hear his voice calling.
And my story is not about me, it’s about Him.
About how he can take my wretchedness and redeem it, and make it beautiful, and have it glorify Him.
“This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” ~1 John 4:9-10 (NIV84)
I have been redeemed.
Because while accomplishing my goals led to destruction, submitting to the calling of my Shepherd let me see His goals.
His goals to step out in faith. To become a one income family, to stay home and focus on my family, to trust in Him to provide for our financial needs. To open myself up to sisters in Christ, and in the honesty of sharing my heart, finding beautiful women who have brought a gorgeous gift called friendship. To learn how to love my husband in a whole new way, and for it to strengthen our marriage in a way I could not have believed possible.
Because with me, it’s not possible. With Him – the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit – it is possible.
Because He always keeps His promises. Because He offers redemption. Because He redeems.
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” ~1 John 1:9 (ESV)
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.” ~Matthew 7:8-9 (ESV)
“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” ~Matthew 11:28-30 (KJV)
My hope of encouragement for all is that we silence the cold deceitful voice, and listen with all our heart, all our soul, and all our mind for the small still voice of truth and love.
That instead of carrying anything heavy, scratchy, and smelly from last year into our next year, we instead stop and lay it before Him.
Allowing Him to restore us, renew us, and wash us, taking away the weights, the sins, the burdens. So we can live a redeemed life.
Redeemed.
I want to live a Redeemed life. I want to be able to share and show a redeemed life to the world, that all may find eternal hope, peace, and love in Him. I want to succeed in the goals I feel He is already showing me for the New Year. I want to know Him more, give Him more, and love Him more. Redeemed. This is the word I am choosing for my New Year. Because it speaks volumes to my heart, to my life, about who I am, who He is, and all that I hope to accomplish in Him.
In Love & Faith,
RaZella
Sundays Are For…
September 9, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Welcome! We’ve created a Special Series for you this month! We’ll
take 4 weeks and focus on 4 elements to ‘Reset’ our lives for Him.
We’re calling it ’4×4 Reset’. If you missed the introduction, you
can find more details here. Each post will feature a READ IT
(scripture verse), a SEE IT (motivation), & a DO IT (challenge/
call to action). Our 4×4 Reset Toolbox is available and has links
to all the posts and to our resources, including our Build a Firm
Foundation Printable tracking page. Be sure to subscribe to not
miss a day, & join us on Twitter & Instagram using our hashtag
#4x4Reset!
Sundays Are For…
Worship and Rest.
Enjoy your Sunday.
Worship in your own way,
and remember that God wants you to Rest too.
Take some time today to simply Rest in Him.
Have a Blessed Day!
How to Use SOAP to Erase Doubt
September 7, 2012 By 1 Comment
Welcome! We’ve created a Special Series for you this month! We’ll
take 4 weeks and focus on 4 elements to ‘Reset’ our lives for Him.
We’re calling it ’4×4 Reset’. If you missed the introduction, you
can find more details here. Each post will feature a READ IT
(scripture verse), a SEE IT (motivation), & a DO IT (challenge/
call to action). Our 4×4 Reset Toolbox is available and has links
to all the posts and to our resources, including our Build a Firm
Foundation Printable tracking page. Be sure to subscribe to not
miss a day, & join us on Twitter & Instagram using our hashtag
#4x4Reset!
How to Use S.O.A.P. to Erase Doubt
Earlier this year, our new Pastor challenged us to read the book of Ephesians every day for 40 days. I chose to take on the challenge and combine it with the SOAP method of bible study. (Thanks Meredith & Kristi for introducing me to SOAP!) Each time I sat down to study, I would read the whole book of Ephesians (it’s not that long), and then chose one verse that stood out to me to SOAP. I highlighted the verses in my bible as I SOAPed them, and I quickly learned several things:
- God can speak to you over and over using the very same words to convey a staggeringly different message each day.
- Aaron Shust’s lyrics ”I meet with you and my soul sings out as your Word throws doubt far away…“ are so powerfully true! Meeting with Him in the Word does throw doubt far away.
- The more I read the same scriptures over and over, the more it became like a familiar, comforting friend.
- Just the sight of these colorful verses in my bible now brings joy to my heart.
I didn’t make the full 40 days perfectly or even completely, and I still reaped all these amazing benefits.
Perfection is not the goal.
Connection with Him is.
READ IT:
SEE IT:
Click here to watch My Hope Is In You Lord by Aaron Shust.
DO IT:
Don’t forget to check out our 4×4 Reset Toolbox tab up at the top of every page. Links to previous posts and to our printable tracking journal can be found there. Make sure to connect with us on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter and Instagram with the #4x4Reset hashtag too!
Which Choice Will You Make Today?
September 6, 2012 By 8 Comments
Welcome! We’ve created a Special Series for you this month! We’ll
take 4 weeks and focus on 4 elements to ‘Reset’ our lives for Him.
We’re calling it ’4×4 Reset’. If you missed the introduction, you
can find more details here. Each post will feature a READ IT
(scripture verse), a SEE IT (motivation), & a DO IT (challenge/
call to action). Our 4×4 Reset Toolbox is available and has links
to all the posts and to our resources, including our Build a Firm
Foundation Printable tracking page. Be sure to subscribe to not
miss a day, & join us on Twitter & Instagram using our hashtag
#4x4Reset!
Which Choice Will You Make Today?
Let’s be honest. Life is rough. Stuff happens. Feelings get hurt. People disappoint. And plans don’t go like we want. But there’s a flip side to every dark side. A hope-filled, joy-infusing side. You ready?
God says true things.
I know it sounds cliché, but His Word is alive. God gives promises throughout His Word. He speaks truths throughout His Word. He graciously guides His people with commands throughout His Word. Our daily victory comes through faith.
We experience that abundant life Christ promised when we choose to take God at His Word, regardless of our circumstance. When we choose to look dead-on at that thing that’s trying to steal our peace and say with confidence, “I don’t have to be anxious about this! God promises to guard my heart with His peace as I lay every single thing before Him.”
God says true things. The challenge — the dare — is to believe Him.
Read It:
See It:
Click here to watch Blessed Be Your Name by Matt Redman on YouTube.
Do It:
Guest author Lara Williams:
Speaker and writer, Lara lives in central NC with her husband and three young kids. You can find out more about her at www.LaraWilliams.org or read her blog at www.ToOverflowing.com.
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