Devotion #12

Hi, Everyone. Thank you for your replies to yesterday's devotion. I love hearing from you! It encourages me. In advance of today's devotion, I want to say that we all know that God forgives the second we ask for it. However, for me, both God and I knew I needed to get to a place of true heart repentance to break the stronghold of overeating in my life, and I knew I hadn't gotten to that place of breakthrough yet. Today's devotion is from my personal journal dated April 20, 2007. The Lord had me "sit" with repentance again today. He drew me to Joel 2:12-13, "'Yet even now,' declares the Lord, 'Return to Me with all your heart, and with fasting, weeping, and mourning: and rend your heart and not your garments. Now return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in loving kindness and relenting of evil." Has my heart been pierced, torn over my rebellion in the sin of overeating? The Lord just challenged me on using the word "overeating." That's a nicer word to say than "gluttony." I want to call it a "weakness" or a "lack of self-control." I don't want to call myself a "glutton"! I balk at that! I resist it, but that is what I am unless and until I repent. When I repent, I will experience the following blessings from Joel 2: I will be "satisfied" (v. 19), "refreshed" (v. 21-24), "restored" (v. 25), and "unashamed" (v. 27). I want that! I want it all! In Romans 8:13 and Colossians 3:5, Paul tells me to crucify the desires of the flesh. Overeating certainly doesn't accomplish that. Food is not evil. Eating is not sin. Gluttony, the habit of overeating and indulging the flesh, is sin. Anything that enslaves is sin, and overeating certainly enslaves. Oh, how I look forward to the day when I can sing, "My chains are gone! I've been set free!" Today, if there are any "food chains" binding you, go to Him about them. Consider how God is gracious, compassionate, patient, loving, and kind, in response to your repentance. Express your thanks to Him. Blessings, Mary

Hi Mary, Just wanted you to tell you to try to stop being so hard on yourself! I truly enjoy your devotions. I had a stroke a couple years back so my memory of where the verse is is not there but this is what I remind myself of. Our Lord is a caring non judgemental and is so forgiving. Remember he died for our sins to get rid of all the sin and guilt we carry. When we ask him to forgive us he does and it is erased never to be brought up again.Unlike us humans. LOL. I heard a pastor a long time ago when I was a little tell the story of a man smoking the man felt terible he was not able to quit and the pastor told him son smoking won't send you to hell it will just make you smell like you already been there. his morale I believe is once we repent that it. Now we are to try to not do it again but what a wonderful God we serve that he knows we will stumble and fall and he just picks us up again. Remember all sins are equal in his eyes. I just want you to know I really enjoy your post and I am sorry to rattle. God Bless you! Karla

Hi, Karla. I know it may seem I'm being hard on myself, but I (and God) both knew that I had not gotten past the "I'm sorry" to true repentance. God was helping me get to the place of breakthrough. It was just around the bend. Once that breakthrough happened, it was done! It was just that I needed to be sure I meant business. Have I overeaten since the breakthrough? Yes, but not on a daily, often hourly, basis, as before. This has been an amazing journey. I don't think I do a good-enough job of writing, to say how much I love God and His Word, to say how gently He has led me in facing my past and my failings, but it's all true for me. Thank you for your reply. Please know that I'm not too hard on myself. Sometimes I do need a good kick in the get-along, but that's what my husband is for. hehe I am accepted in the Beloved. Blessings, Mary

Mary, You are a wonderful writer! And your devotions have made me do a reality check since I have been back on here. Honestly I look forward to them daily now. Remember even though some people may not reply they are reading it and it will make them think. Have a wonderful rest of the week! Karla

Thank you for your words of encouragement, Karla. I appreciate them, and it is such a blessing to know that you look forward to reading the devotional each day. I told the Lord that I'd do this for 2 months and then would see what He would have me do beyond that. There may be someone else that God lays on their heart to pick it up from there. That would be awesome! Blessings, Mary

Praise God for whom all blessings flow! Our God has such an awesome way of bringing us to where he wants us. Painful, sometimes, yes but always gentle. I wish I knew the Word well enough to know where to go when I need help. I suppose that's why God has led me to this message board and to the wonderful devotions that Mary writes! Thanks Mary, you do a wonderful job. I'm so glad to have found this board! I know that gluttony is a sin and God convicts me of it on a daily basis. I too will be glad when I can say that I'm free from those "food chains" that bind me! Janie

Hi, Janie. Thank you for your kind words. Yes, I love how God leads us to one another. I desire to know more of God's Word, too. I want to memorize much of the Word, but I struggle with memorization. I rely on my _Strong's Exhaustive Concordance_, to help me locate scripture. It goes with my King James Version, which I grew up on. I enjoy reading the Word in many different translations/versions. If you like the New International Version, there's a great concordance for it, called _Strongest Concordance_. I don't have one, but I plan on getting one. Anyway, it helps me find verses, when I either can't remember where the passage is or when God plants a word or a phrase in my mind and heart. He knows I love those adventures! And, of course, it's the best place to go to, to look up a word in its original Hebrew or Greek, to get the meaning. For example, I'm sure you know the verse in Psalms which says, "Delight yourself in the LORD and He shall give you the desires of your heart." Guess what the word "delight" means in the Hebrew, for that verse? It means "to be soft, pliable." Isn't that precious?! We can delight ourself in the Lord, just by being moldable. When we're moldable, God is able to give us the desires of our heart. Wow! Well, I'd better get some sleep. I can rattle on, for sure! Oh, your chains must go, in Jesus' Name!!! Blessings, Mary