Got Handcuffs?

In four days, the three week fast will come to an end. For me, that will have meant 21 days of no desserts, candy, cookies, or any kind of sweets. It will have also have meant no Facebook for 21 days! I have not seen a status update, no ones crazy kid pictures, or made any witty comments (wink wink) in three whole weeks.

When I first heard from God that the fast would be the sweets and desserts, I cringed but I thought that ultimately this would be a good thing. Self control is after all one of the fruits of the spirit.

I must openly confess of one time pouring a bowl of Special K and beginning to eat away. You may ask what is wrong with that?? Well, it had the chocolate chunks in it!! About five bites in I realized what I was doing and had to toss the rest away. :(

However, other than that, God truly carried me through this.

John 6:35 says Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst."


How true this promise is when we lean on Jesus! I am not healed of my food issues yet but I have no doubt that we are very, very close. If I can lean on Jesus and He can feed my spirit so much that for three weeks I did not hunger for those things I commonly fall back on in emotional weakness.......


I cannot wait to see what He does when I ask Him to replace my hunger completely and instead of food, I seek Jesus completely and totally.


I have begun asking him to prepare spirit, soul and body for this. I have asked him to prepare my mind and guard me from my two worse enemies...satan and myself. It's time to come out of the wilderness!


Please pray with me and for me. I need it.


During this fast, God has revealed such wonderful things to me. I am wired for   hard! I can no longer whine to God that it is too hard. God has anointed me for hard! 


Psalm 139:14 says that I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Fearfully not meaning that I am scary.....Well, maybe to some. Haha!  But I am made in the awesome image of Christ. He was tested by the devil three times and because he leaned on the word of God, the devil had to flee. Jesus has given us that same power, through Him. He has given us the promise that He has already overcome the world! (John 16:33) He has already overcome my eating disorder. He has already set out a path and plan before me to prosper me. (Jeremiah 29:11) This extra weight only harms me. This is not God's plan. But what truly got me so excited and so thankful to the point of tears is the revelation that I am anointed for hard! Through Christ (only), I have the ability to send satan running in the other direction! By speaking God's word and promises, by keeping faith, joy and peace, and by staying in steadfast prayer, I (again through the power of Jesus) can make the enemy turn around and flee!


I am not perfect. I will have set backs. I will have bad days. I do not want to set out like I have this under control completely. I don't. 




I am a work in progress and will be until I am called home. However, this stronghold in on its way out.


I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
I am the daughter of the King of kings.  
Heiress
Princess


Psalm 139:3 (msg) says that God knows what we are going to say before we say it.
verse 15 says "Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth;  all the stages of my life were spread out before you, "


We are so important to Him. We are so important that we are made in His image and while He is gently, kind and merciful, He is also strong, courageous, powerful, and mighty.


Through Him, so are we. So am I.I am anointed for hard.

 I'm ready for some freedom. You?

Don't be the devil's trash can.

Today I watched a recorded Joyce Meyers show.I  really like her. Some people don't and I find that either you  really like her or you really don't. I really do and I record her show. Today I picked a message from the bottom of the list and sat back to get my dose of Joyce. I love how God tells you exactly what you need to hear and I love how He uses anything to do it. It may be words from several friends, songs on your way to work, the daily bible reading or devotional, a DJ on the radio, on and on and on.Today the Lord did it by way of my prayer time with Him and through Joyce's show. Joyce said two things today that sat hard (in a good way) with me.

"Your mind is yours. Do not LET satan use it as his own personal trash can."

She talked about how we all have bad thoughts, even the most strong in our walk with the Lord. However, she continued, its what you do with it. She asked,

"How many of you dwell of your bad thoughts? When someone has done you wrong or you THINK they have? spoke ill of you? When you think bad of yourself? satan dumps a lot of trash in our minds or I should say, he does in mine!

She said when the devil dumps trash in your mind and tries to make you have a bad day, turn it around. Take out his trash, put in the gift of God's word and give satan a bad day!

Don't you just love that? I just love that God made ME powerful enough through HIM that I can actually affect satan's day!! That is just too cool! I can, through the power of Jesus, send satan pouting, screaming, and crying in the opposite direction!! I can do that by just taking that trash he is trying to dumb in my mind:

Why doesn't she like me?
Why does this stuff keep happening?
I wish I were pretty like her.
I want to be talented like that.
(add yours here)

and claim God's amazing promises, putting them in place of satan's trash! This will ultimately make the devil have a bad day! Can you picture him pouting?? I love that image!

By having a good day even if we have to really, really squint on some days to see the joy ( and we all have those days, right?) we make satan have a bad day.

Joyce then said " But you may say JOYCE, that is SO HARD to do!"

She replied

"You are anointed for hard."  God has anointed us for hard. I am anointed for hard. I am not pretending that I am not going to have pity party days. And I am not saying I am perfect or strong or anything like that!

I am not.

But I am anointed for hard. I am hard wired for tough. I am anointed and hard wired to give satan a bad day.

And I love that.
:)

blowing up microwaves!

Today I put some bread-sticks in the microwave to eat with our salad. We got the salad and bread-sticks from Olive Garden! We were given a gift card for Christmas and used it for our date night last night. I love the Olive Garden. I especially love their salad!!

Anyway....

Heating up the bread-sticks is not eventful, right? UNLESS you it in the bag that Olive Garden sends them home in which VERY CLEARLY states on one side of it to NOT PUT IT IN THE MICROWAVE! UGH!

I reluctantly showed Tim the warning and then thought,

"Isn't it just like us though? We have the bible. It IS in black and white. It is very clear. Yet, we don't read it, or we ignore it, or we don't seek out its knowledge. Then we put the bread-sticks in the microwave inside of the UNSAFE bag!

or we make that choice without seeking God's counsel!

or we go about our day without reading God's warnings, advice and instruction and just do what we want to do!

or we make the mistake once, twice, over and over of not seeking his counsel and not meeting with our daddy God, not praying, etc and STILL wonder why we" keep blowing up our microwave!"

I don't know about anyone else but all of the above totally describes me! Praise God for His mercy and His grace. Praise Him that no matter how many times I almost blow up the microwave (figuratively speaking and literally!), He guides me back to His word and His most awesome counsel. And Praise Him that he loves me despite how many, many, many times it has taken and will take for me to "get it right."

Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow;
Praise Him, all creatures here below;
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Trail Mix. Picking out the M&M's...

Earlier today my husband took out a bag of sunflower seeds to snack on. Right next to that bag was a bag of trail mix.

"OOH! Hand me that!"

I poured about a cup of it into a bowl to snack on while I walked around the house picking up. I put in a few fingers to snatch up some to throw in my mouth and mid toss I realized what I was going to do! My eyes got HUGE and (politely put) got rid of what was in my mouth. Usually I pick through the mix to find those precious bites of chocolate. Now, here I was picking though the mix to get them out! I was left with a whole bunch of nuts (as i joked with Tim...a bunch of Beane's) and some raisins and that was just fine...I guess. ;)

I then prayed and asked God to pick out my M&M's...even if it left just the nuts. I asked God to take out the little bits of "feel good" and leave me with a lifetime of IS GOOD!

A lifetime of IS GOD!

A few weeks ago a speaker at our church asked us to ask God for how he sees us, what we are in Him. That day I got a word that I still cannot completely sit with. However it goes with the verse that the Lord has given me as my life verse for right now. When I asked him who I was to Him, how did He see me..He said

Perfect.

Even though I may have some M&M's in my mix that should not be there and when you take them out, you are left with a whole bunch of nuts, to God

to the most perfect of perfects...

He sees me as just

perfect.

I have failed so many times before. I have so many rough edges. I am sure that I am not everyone's cup of tea. :) Yet, as I stand here, obviously not done in my walk, God sees me

"just perfect."

And because of that, I want to try even harder. And because of that, I do not even want another M&M.

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.

(Psalm 139:14)

Fasting and Finding..

At midnight tonight, many of us start a fast. I have prayed and thought for a long time it seems on what the Lord would have me give up. I first and almost immediately got word that my "comforts" needed to go. I will be giving up what most would classify as maybe "fun foods." There will be no comfort foods as well. So for me that will look like a diet of fruits, veggies, VERY limited starch only to ensure that I do not bring on migraines, nuts, lots and lots of water....

Second phase is Facebook. I will get on only a couple times a day (less if led) to share anything that God has laid on my heart to share. Otherwise, that will be it. And if you know me, this will be TOUGH!

I am praying for some huge things for me and anyone else doing this fast. In prayer God has already given me some words and some encouraging images that leave me so, so excited to see the end result....for me and for everyone as a church family!

Move God Move!

(image by Sevenapples art)