Today is Day 3 of my Dietary Makeover. Last night I was watching Sunday Best on my DVR. I enjoy watching television shows when I can fast forward through the commercials. At the end of a show segment, I was caught up in the emotional response to the Spirit-filled broadcast and forgot to activate the ff feature. A pizza commercial came on and it was mesmerizing!
Commercials, advertisements and billboards are wicked tools used to create temptation proceeded by indulgence. “That looks good” is the response Madison Avenue is going for every time because it gets the temptation wheels turning from viewer to viewer. They have perfected the art of the game! Those of us who are inundated with food addictions, overeating, greed, gluttony and emotional eating are preyed upon by the industry of fast food advertisements.
So I want to tell you how I am “more than a conqueror through Him that loved us” in this circumstance.
First of all I hit the ff button as fast as I could. Next I humbly acknowledged how I wanted to eat something in the moment and it was NOT hunger – it was a CRAVING! This honesty prompted me to pray to the Lord for His strength to realize the truth concerning my body’s needs. His power to practice honesty, acceptance, hope and faith prevailed in me and I did not put ANYTHING in my mouth. Instead, I got up, drank some water and went for a walk. Yes, for the first time in a long time I did not succumb to the deceptive power of the advertisement on the television. I found the willingness to walk to the corner and back, breathing as normally as possible, with the joy of the LORD fueling my strength.
I don’t know why I did not become motivated to use #LiveTCL concerning my weight loss needs earlier. It has worked in so many other areas of my life – why not this one too? I’ll tell you. It was the area of my life where my flesh was in control. Every craving, temptation, overindulgence and contrived fallacious normalcy was the evidence of the works of my flesh. Somehow it felt acceptable because, after all, it is food I am referring to. I never wanted to yield my sinful desires for food to the Lord for His will to be done.
And here’s the kicker, the fatter I got, the more I would find it necessary to pray for God’s blessings over the food. I know now that those prayers were robotic and religious in nature. Internally, I was inundated with the fear of the meal/snack/overindulgence causing me physical harm and damaging my sedentary lifestyle. Greed was fueling my passion for God to keep me “safe” as I willingly overate! Talk about being asleep!!!
I am “woke” now! I have come to know/teach/preach how necessary it is for us to be honest with God about our struggles. The hymn writer said it this way: “Now let us have a little talk with Jesus. Let us tell Him all about our troubles. He will hear our faintest cry and He will answer by and by. Now when you feel a little prayer wheel turning and you know a little fire (in you) is burning. Just a little talk with Jesus makes it right” (Derricks, Cleavant, 1932). It is my heart’s desire to realize how the elements of LiveTCL actually effect real Spiritual change in this area of my life as it has done so many times before. Deceptive tools are not working/winning in my life today.
ConquerorShots 