Daily Bible Reading - Monday Jan. 12th

How wonderful is it to wake up and spend time with the Father studying His word.  We are now 12 days into reading the bible and I have to tell you my life is already changed.  I’ve gotten more out of reading the bible this year then any other time of reading different parts of it.  I know some of you have different times of the day you read and study, for me though I am finding it better to get up a bit earlier and read in the quietness of my house,  I seem to be able to focus better without any distractions.  I encourage you all to keep reading the word on a daily basis, and to those that haven’t started yet it’s not to late to pick up a bible and start where we are now and read it, it truly is life changing experience.  No matter what our need might be for the day, God will always meet that need through His word, how wonderful of a God we serve. 

This morning I sit here in awe at how God speaks to us through His word.  For years I’ve struggled with different things in life, one being the obvious my weight.  As I sit here this morning and dwell on past struggles I see where struggling with food addiction has carried over into other areas of my life and affected them as well.  Its amazing how one area we struggle in can carry over into many other areas of life and we not even realize it.  By reading His word I’m learning more and more of how discipline is a must to be a success in our own journeys of weight loss just like it’s a must in any area of our lives really.  With discipline comes victory though, a victory that will keep us on the track to success and again we will find that the victory will carry over into other area’s of our lives, that just really struck me this morning.  I just had to share that this morning.  Victory is ours for the taking, all we have to do is reach out and grab it and run with it.  Why do we make the simplest things so hard?  I truly hope you all have a wonderful week,  a week filled with victory over whatever you are struggling with,  just know that God is on our side and is there to meet us and help us get closer to that victory.

***Sugar*** No worries at all, I know it’s hard to study two and three things at one time.  I had a bit of a struggle studying my Sunday school lesson for class this week and I’m not the teacher, I can imagine how confusing that would be for you teaching.  It just thrills my heart that we are all doing this together, even though some days everyone has other obligations I know that you all are there and reading.  It’s just thrills my heart to no end.

Today’s Readings

Genesis 26:17-27:46
Matthew 9:1-17
Psalm 10:16-18
Proverbs 3:9-10

Daily Devotional for Dieters

James 4:8
Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.

Dieting involves a constant struggle between two intense desires: the desire to lose weight and the desire to indulge in the foods we love. This is not an easy struggle. We are double minded. God wants all of His children to learn to be single-minded. Once we decide that something is important, we should learn to stick to it. That's not easy to do on our own. For that reason, it is helpful for us to draw close to God. He will listen as we tell Him our troubles. The closer we are to God, the more He can help us through difficult times. If we ask Him to, God will help us become single-minded. He is as anxious as we are to see us attain our goal.

Today's thought: God will keep us on the right track!

Good Monday Morning...

As I read in the old testament this morning I thought about several sermons I have heard on "re~digging our wells".  They dug wells in that time because it was life giving sustenance that flowed from them!  Wells, dried up or filled back in and had be redug or new ones dug... we are that same way.... we have to have the precious flow of the word in our lives to sustain us.... if we have let it dry up we have to redig and get back into it or if we are at a new place in our lives where we need something new from the Lord we have a responsibility to dig us a new one and find out what the Lord has in store for us... either way we have to DIG DIG DIG! Dig so that we have a fresh flow of life giving sustenance!  Now that's not exactly the sermons I've heard but it's the essence of it... the orator put it much more eloquently with much more embellishments! ~ha

Boy could I identify with the devotion again toady!  There does always seem to be a constant struggle between two desires!  There is much to be said about being double minded...it always seems to get me trouble! ~ha I'm so glad that I can trust the Lord to make me single minded... a fine example came to me about being single minded and for me that is exercise... and I know it is  the result of the Lord giving me a gift.... He has helped me since surgery... truly given me a single mindedness on it... I have not had to get up everyday and say... "am I going to do this today" or feel whiny or complainy about it.  I don't even entertain the thought of not doing it... I have NEVER had that before!  I keep thinking it will end and I will be back to struggling with it... but not so far... I truly thank the Lord for that... it feels so good to not struggle with something for once it seems... but now in other things I am having to lean hard if you will and I am having to draw close to God as the devotional says to see my goals met.  I HAVE to have Him to be single minded in most things... oh how wonderful it is that He is available and will hear our sincere cry!

Have a good day...

Bec