Category: Freedom

A Very Monday Tuesday

Margaret2 Comments
Sea Oats (Fort Walton Beach, Florida)

Today begins a month-long commitment of no restaurant food.  (Lord Jesus, please help!)   I’d also like to commit to a beginner’s walking routine (notice my loop holes “I’d like to” and “beginner’s”).  Obviously, I am not as resolute to walking as I am to staying out of restaurants. 

Why no restaurants?   I’m glad you were wondering because I wanted to talk about it!  Aside from the whole “it’s not all that healthy for me,” there’s the truth:  I tend to reward myself for acting like a normal human with a normal appetite through the week by eating out on the weekend.  No matter how well-intentioned my plans are, I make the choice to overeat every weekend.   Maybe not in the first restaurant, but certainly by the second or third one. 

Oh.  I didn’t mention that I like to eat out a lot?   That is one of the reasons I say, “Lord Jesus, help!”  After all the bad choices in the restaurants, I then do something really senseless, I think, “Well, as long as I’ve already overeaten, I may as well have some…”  And everything that follows that line of thinking truly is always a choice.

Let me back up.   After a tumble in a mountainside creek (and issues getting up) last October, I started Weight Watchers.  By February, I’d lost 50 pounds.  Then unexpectedly, my mom died and I got on a 10 pound roller coaster losing and regaining the same 5-10 pounds…repeatedly.  While my precious mother’s death is the best excuse I’ve ever had to overeat, it is ultimately still just an excuse for my choices.

Let me back up even further.   Over the years, I begged God for freedom not realizing that as a child of God, I always had that freedom.  But I also had a free will.  Then there’s that whole reaping and sowing thing, and it all makes a full circle back to choices.   Yes, indeedy-doody.  Choices.  Reaping and sowing.   If I choose to eat an abundance of sugar-laden food, then I’m going to face some pretty intense cravings that nothing will satisfy.   If I choose the food, I chose the cravings.  If I keep eating, you guessed it…that is still a choice.   Hard as it may be to not give into it, that blood bought choice is undeniably mine. 

Did you know that as long as you believe you are a slave to sin (gluttony, that is) you just cannot walk in the freedom purchased by blood on a gruesome cross so many years ago?  Until you (by you, I mean me) take full responsibility for your (my) choices, we remain on that not so merry merry-go-round.   You know what happens when you go round and round too many times?   You get a little sick, don’t you?   

So, there we have it, it’s those ding dang choices!  I don’t always like responsibility, and making better choices for myself is definitely my responsibility.  I favor the path of least resistance, but I made the choice for the month of June to remove a weekend obstacle and get past this 50 pound marker where I have been stalled since February 7.    

That is all.  Carry on with your own healthy choices!

Power Exchange: Part 2

Margaret2 Comments

Before we can fully understand the freedom given to us by Christ Jesus, you must understand the what was purchased on His cross.    When you begin to know the Truth, you will fall deeply in love with the Savior who already zealously and tenderly loves you.  It is at this place that you realize the freedom that is Jesus Christ.

It is not a pretty story, the story of Golgotha, where Jesus was crucified.  He was deeply distressed in the Garden of Gethsemane, knowing He would soon be arrested. He told Peter, James, and John who were with Him, that He was sorrowful to the point of death.  His anguish was so great, Luke tells us, that His sweat was like falling drops of blood.  Three times He asked God to release Him from this mission, ending each request with, “Nevertheless, not My will, but Your will be done.”  Meanwhile, His disciples, who Jesus had asked twice to watch and pray with Him, slept. (Matthew 26, Luke 22) 

When Jesus prayed “If possible, let this cup pass from Me…” it wasn’t as much about the brutal physicality of the cross as it was the heaviness of the sin that He alone would bear, that only He could bear.  The bodily torture He would face was an unthinkable burden to bear, but his grief was about something far deeper than physical pain, more than the knowledge that He would face the cross alone, that Judas would betray Him, His disciples would forsake Him, that Peter would deny Him.  There would be the moment while He hung in agony, beaten (Isaiah 52 tells us that His body was marred more than any man), crowned with thorns, and nailed to an unforgiving slab of wood, that He would become a curse for us.  The depths of Hell would reach up and place on Him the unimaginable weight of all sin, past, present, and future, and He would become all of the vile ugliness of the choices mankind had made and would make, even yours and mine, as he hung gasping for breath on the cross.  With Jesus becoming the sin of all mankind, God cursed Him, and the holy Father would have no choice but to withdraw because sin could not exist in God’s presence.  And God poured His wrath out on Jesus.   For the only time in His humanity, He would be without the Father.  Then, with the proclamation, “It is finished!” He committed His spirit into the hands of the Father, and died an innocent man for our guilt.   (John 19, Luke 23)

With those words, “It is finished,” not one more thing had to be done for our freedom, nothing more from Jesus, and certainly nothing from us.  The full price had been paid, bought with His blood.  Jesus had humbly and obediently completed everything necessary for our salvation and clear the way for us to boldly approach the throne of God’s grace.  The blood shed at Calvary is of much more value than anything we can name or desire, and all that it gives us cannot be fully realized with our human minds. 

When we accepted Jesus as our personal savior, His blood saved us from His wrath (Romans 5:9).  His blood redeems us, providing forgiveness and grace (Ephesians 1:7); and cleanses us from all sin (1 John 1:7). 

As if salvation wasn’t enough, His blood accomplishes even more!  It sets us free:

  • John 8:36 AMP – So if the Son makes you free, then you are unquestionably free.
  • 2 Corinthians 3:17 NKJV –  Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.  When we turn to the Lord, the veil of blindness is removed (verse 16) and we can see and reflect the glory of the Lord (verse 18).  The glory of the Lord knows no bondage!
  • Romans 8:1 – There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
  • Galatians 5:1 NKJV – Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.  The NLT says it this way: “So Christ has truly set us free, now make sure you stay free…” 

How are we free?  By fully trusting in the cleansing, liberating power of the blood. But how do you do that when you are walking around in chains? We’ll talk about that real soon!

Tulips (University of North Alabama, Florence, AL)

Power Exchange: Part 1

Margaret2 Comments
Beaver Dam, Rock Spring Nature Trail, Natchez Trace Parkway, North Alabama

I began rebelling against the rules and regulations of diets and food plans years ago.  A lifetime of struggling taught me that the struggle had a way of always winning in the long run, and way too often in the short run.   Binge eating was my way of life I could see no way out.  What a helpless feeling to believe you can’t change!

When we are in the woes and throes of gaining weight, it can be very difficult to follow any of the numerous diet plans available out there.  But we can find ourselves instantly derailed for eating something we consider forbidden or not on the plan.  We then slide so easily into the pattern of the weeks and months, and even decades of eating with abandon.  Why?   Because it’s comfortable. Familiar. Habitual. 

Habitual. There’s the key.  We tend to blame our failures on the lack of our own willpower to do (or not do) whatever the newest diet fad dictates.  I remember over the years asking God, myself, and my mother, “What’s wrong with me?!”  It really felt as if I was controlled by cravings, like I had no power to overcome, and as often and as hard as I prayed, God seemed to be ignoring me. 

How I’d prayed, or rather I begged God fervently for freedom, but now I realize that I didn’t understand freedom at all, and I refused to listen to anything that wasn’t my preconceived idea of freedom, and I would get angry when someone suggested I had choices.  I sure didn’t feel as if I had any choice but to the way I was: bound!   After all, I didn’t choose to be this way, and I sure wouldn’t choose to remain in bondage, right?

Well, not exactly.

I know first-hand the iron grip a binge can have on you.  I know it is so much easier to believe you can’t rather than saying, “Oh, yes I can!”   But if you want out, you must get your head around the truth:  You do have a choice. 

This week, I plan to share a lot about freedom, change, breaking habits, and a complete power exchange…from your (lack of) willpower to God’s will in your life.  If you want to start on the road to freedom, then your assignment today is to believe. You can’t control everything in your day, but when it comes to what goes into your mouth, you are in control, and that’s a fact, no matter what your mind is telling you.  If you binge again all day, do it with your eyes wide open knowing that you have a choice.  Then start telling yourself that you don’t have to live this way:

  • “I don’t have to live this way,” as you gobble down fast food in your car. 
  • “I don’t have to live this way,” as you privately eat all those cookies. 
  • “I don’t have to live this way,” as you polish off two quarts of ice cream. 
  • “I don’t have to live this way,” as you keep eating even though you are so full you are uncomfortable and already feeling guilty. 

And if your find yourself in the store stocking up on carbs for the evening, as you toss those Snickerdoodles in your basket, admit to yourself that it is a choice you are making.  Accept responsibility.  Yes, not eating them would be a whole lot harder, but again, it is a choice, that’s all you need to acknowledge right now:  If you eat it, it is your choice.

I need to be clear on one thing though.   If you are reading this and the main goal you have is losing weight, you may as well stock up on Atkins bars and peanuts.  If, however, you are ready for a closer walk with God, to begin to understand all that was paid for on the Cross of Christ, and to have life and life more abundantly, come visit me again.  I’m not saying I have all the answers, but I know the One who does. 

Rock Spring Nature Trail, Natchez Trace Parkway, North Alabama
(Above and below.)

Read Power Exchange: Part 2

Breaking Good

Margaret1 Comment

We all know New Year’s resolutions rarely, if ever, work. We may not realize why, but we have repeatedly experienced the failures of the goals, aims, or changes we planned for a new year or various Mondays throughout the year. Over the past months, I came to realize something important. All of my past Words of the Year didn’t have the success I’d envisioned because I focused on the goal, not myself, not my own bad habits. It is a whole lot easier to give in a bad habit than it is to break it and build a new, better habit.

The word of the year for 2020:
Break

I was in WalMart a few months ago, looking at some sugary delights. I moseyed over to that section because I was sure I heard them calling my name. I reminded myself to only get a small item so when I ate it all without restraint, I wouldn’t have done too bad. I had already figured out that freedom didn’t look like I thought it should.

The truth of freedom is that, as born again Christians, Christ paid the heaviest of costs for our freedom on the cross. All the years I thought I was fighting demons, addiction, or some force I couldn’t name or understand, I was really only fighting myself. Or my self nature, to be more direct. Me…I was fighting ME! As I stood there looking at the table of sweets, I knew I really did have a choice.

If I chose the cookies, I could then choose to have only one of them, but would I? My habit was to mindlessly graze on junk the way home. Or I could walk away. If I take the cookies then I must consider the baggage that comes with it: I would, most likely, be dealing with the urge to eat with abandon the rest of the night if I overdosed on sugar. Did I really want to fight with myself all night long? How many times did I choose my bad habit over my desire to lose weight?

For all the times I times in my life I felt like I had no choice but to continue on in the very way that made me miserable I have to admit I believed a lie. Every time I said “It’s stronger than me.” I believed a lie and forgot the promise:

“I can do all things through Christ
who strengthens me.”

Philippians 4:13

No matter how strong the urge to give in to the very thing you want to avoid (be it sugar, relationships, addiction, spending…or anything else you fight) with Christ, you are stronger than the pull. If you do it anyway, you choose that path. Discipline comes when we begin to tell self “No.” And in the beginning, that’s a really hard thing to do. Break those habits, those chains, those unhealthy patterns. I know I am.

Happy New Year, my friends!
May you find a BREAK!