It's day 3! The start of my actual juice fast. I'm down 1lb more today. The thought occurred to me this morning after weighing myself, "If I can continue to loose just one pound a day, by the end of this fast I'll have lost 20 lbs!!" That's an encouraging thought, BUT I have to keep reminding myself that this fast is not so much about loosing weight as it is about learning to feast on the Word.
This morning one of the scriptures I read was Job 22:21-26. In my NIV it reads like this, "Submit to God and be at peace with Him; in this way prosperity will come to you. Accept instruction from His mouth and lay up His words in your heart. If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored; If you remove wickedness far from your tent and assign your nuggets to the dust, your gold of Ophir to the rocks in the ravines, then the Almighty will be your gold, the choicest silver for you. Surely then you will find delight in the Almighty and will lift up your face to God."
This spoke to me of regarding my most valued possessions as dust compared to the fulfillment I receive from Christ Jesus. Yes, Lord, I want to seek my fullness in YOU, not in food or even my family or my crochet!
"Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man (woman) who takes refuge in Him. Fear the LORD, you His saints, for those who fear Him lack nothing. The lions may grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing." Psalm 34:8-9
Amen!! I can trust my LORD to give me everything I need!! All I need to do is be feasting on HIM!
I will be needing to remind myself of these verses and truths as my stomach complains. Last night, even though I had a salad for dinner, I was tempted to have a bite of the rice the rest of the family had left over from their dinner. I quickly reminded myself that was not allowed. Then I turned and saw the loaf of bread in the pantry, "Oh, one slice of bread would be so good right now!" "Nope! You're not going to have one!"
Leaving my crochet alone has been almost as hard. Yesterday, I finished taking out some stitches on the afghan I'm making. I was not pleased with how they were turning out and need to rework them. Also, we have a part-time doggie friend who stays with us during the day while her "mommy" is at work. Eloise has a history of pulling out and generally making a knotted mess of her "mommy's" knitting project. I didn't want the same thing to happen to my crochet project and wanted to get it up out of her reach. To do that I needed to finish pulling out the stitches I'd started pulling out a few days ago. I didn't do any actual crochet, just pulled out the stitches.
I'm dying to get back to this project though. Partially because it is NEARLY done and that is the time when I usually get that surge to push on and finish it. But also simply because my hands miss the feel of my crochet hook. I'm going to be obedient and leave it alone until I'm given the go-ahead by my LORD. Not sure, just how I'll know when that is. Perhaps when my arm completely heals, it's still been sore.
I'm thinking that God wants to break something in me concerning my crochet though. As much as I hate to admit it, I think it has become an idol in my life. I'm trusting that God will give it back to me. Please, Lord?? Perhaps I just need to continually examine my heart motivation to crochet and make sure that it is for God's glory and not my own.
Starting Weight: 173
Current Weight: 170
2 comments:
Just a reminder, Dee, and I don't mean this to be negative. You may lose 20 pounds but your digestive tract can hold 5-7 pounds of food so you'll gain a few back. I gained back 4 of the 17 I lost the first time around just replenishing and not from overeating.
That is so good to know! I would have been so discouraged when I gained back those lbs and didn't know this!
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