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Sugar Coated Sin

I eat too much..... I don't take care of myself the way I should..... I lack will power to stop myself.... I like to eat, what’s wrong with that? Leave me alone, it’s the last vice I have. At least I don't ______. (You fill in the blank) Do you say these things to yourself and others? I have and they were all true.

You could roll it up in a ball, sugar coat it to make is look good but that didn't change the truth, it was sin. It was the sin of gluttony.

The definition of a glutton according to Webster’s is this:

Glutton - a person who greedily eats too much, great devourer (wolverine).

Greedily is defined as this - desiring more than one needs or deserves, wanting or taking all that one can get, with no thought of others, having to strong a desire for food and drink.

This is not the same as an eating disorder. Eating disorders are serious and need a doctor’s attention. Neither is this about a medical imbalance of some kind. There are some people that have issues with eating that are due to medical problems. These types of problems should be taken to a doctor and are not what I am talking about here.

What I am talking about is over eating due to over indulgence. Eating more than you should because you have no self restraint or self control. I am talking about not taking care of your body, the temple that houses the living God inside you.

God calls us to feed and care for our soul, but He also calls us to feed and care for our body the same way.

From the beginning of creation we have been tempted by food. It was food that tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden and caused her to fall. Genesis 3: 6 says So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. Eve saw that the tree was good food and it looked good to eat which made her greedily want it. Why not, it looks really good....

It was also part of the destruction of Sodom. Ezekiel 16:49 says - Look this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom; She and her daughter had pride, fullness of food, and abundance of idleness; neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. Sodom was full of pride, gluttony, idleness, sexual sin and neglected those in need. Gluttony was one of the sins that brought down the great city of Sodom and made her and her daughter an abomination to God.

Proverbs 23:21 - For the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, and drowsiness will clothe a man with rags.

Titus 1:12-13 - One of them, a prophet of their own, said, "Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons." This testimony is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in faith.

Proverbs tells us that the glutton is the same as a drunkard and will find only poverty. In Titus, Paul’s calls the glutton lazy and tells us to sharply rebuke him so that they may be sound in faith. In other words, gluttony will pull you away from being completely sound in the faith and should be rebuked.

In Philippians 3:19 Paul tells us this: Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things.

Paul is warning us, that gluttony will eventually lead to destruction because we will be putting it before God as an idol. He further states that a glutton’s glory will actually be his shame because they are looking at earthly things and not at heavenly things.

If we as Gods people are going to really become serious contenders for the faith, we must begin to put aside the "acceptable sins" in our lives. We must call a sin a sin and stop pouring sugar on top of it to make it look sweeter. Gluttony is a sin, and in Gods eyes it is not something to gloss over and accept in our lives. We are called to serve, which means we put our desires aside and do the will of the Father. Our body is no longer our own, it belongs to Christ. We must begin to treat it as such.

Finding Freedom Through Fasting and Prayer - Part 1

Do you have a burden that you just can't seem to lay down? Something that no matter how hard you try you can't seem to overcome it? Maybe it’s something you have just resigned to live with because trying to overcome it seems impossible.

I have felt this way. For years now I have struggled with taking care of my body. I have a bent towards compulsive behaviors and the last struggle that I had to deal with in this area is my diet and exercise. I have prayed and surrendered it to God, only to do better for a time and then go back to my old ways. It has been a frustrating battle. It’s acceptable in Gods kingdom among Gods people to be out of control in the area of eating.

As many Americans do, with so much abundance available, I have struggled with disciplining myself when it comes to this area. I have always given in to my appetite and hated to exercise. So several years ago after God convicted me of another vice, smoking, I quit and immediately gained 40 extra pounds.

The way that I had always treated my body and the extra weight made me feel bad. I didn't like the way I looked or felt physically. Since then I have gone through a process of renewing my mind, changing the way I thought of myself but I still found no victory over my lack of discipline. I drank diet coke from the time I woke up until I went to bed at night. I ate horribly, and craved sweets all the time.

I knew all the things I needed to do, I just could not make myself do them. Then one day I finally came to the end of myself and really cried out with all my heart to God. What he said to me was this, "Your problem is not about health or feeling better, your problem is sin, and it’s called gluttony" This hit me square between the eyes and I dropped to me knees. I was broken. I asked for forgiveness and placed the issue in Gods hands asking him to help me turn from it. What He informed me was if I wanted freedom from this, I needed to fully obey Him.

The first thing God required from me was immediate. I was to give up the diet coke. I had given it up before only to allow myself to have one when I went out somewhere. I soon found excuses to go out so I could have one. Need milk, great, go to the store, buy myself a diet coke and drink it on the way home.

To be obedient, in the very moment that God spoke to me I was to do just that, give it up. Mind you now, I had a 12 pack in the frig and half a can still in my hand when He told me this. I resisted and argued in my mind for a few moments and the conviction became so strong I knew if I really wanted freedom I needed to go pour it all out and be done with it. So that is just what I did, poured out every drop.

Since my step of repentance and obedience in that area God has helped me in so many ways to overcome my sin. It has been a process of submission by humbling myself before Him, prayer and fasting.

Each day I humbly bow before God with my face to the ground to acknowledge His majesty and glory. I place my life in his hands and ask for Him to guide me that day. Then I spend time in prayer and worship. Recently He has put me on a journey of fasting for freedom and to go deeper in my walk.

I will be sharing more tomorrow on what God has to say about the sin of gluttony and the freedom that can come from prayer and fasting....

Being Gods Ears

I have a dear friend that had back surgery several weeks ago. Yesterday she went to the doctor’s office to get her stitches removed only to be told that the incision didn't look good and they were readmitting her to the hospital. Needless to say she was a bit upset to have to go back in the hospital.

I went to the hospital to visit her today. She is a sweet woman with a huge heart and the most encouraging person I know. She gives encouragement to everyone she meets. In her job as a children’s counselor she has a gift with helping people. But when I walked in to her room she was crying and it was my turn to encourage her.

As we were talking she said something that I thought about all the way home. In her line of work she sees many that need her expertise but sometimes there are those that only really need a friend to talk too. She doesn't charge high prices but most counselors do. And there are some clients that will pay 12o dollars an hour just to have someone to talk too.

It set me thinking about how we as Christians need to be Gods ears. We need to care enough to sit and listen to someone in need. To be that friend to talk too.

Sometimes we just need a human pair of ears to hear us. We need someone to give us a nod of encouragement and the touch to our hand that says I hear you. Life is complicated and yes we can and should go to God with everything. But once in a while we just need a little God with flesh on. That can only come from another believer being used by God to show his love and compassion.

These days we have so much media coming at us. So much noise to cloud our thoughts. We are assaulted by pictures and words from every angle. These things affect us and make it difficult to keep a calm and peaceful mind. It creates thoughts that take us to places we don't want to go but end up at anyway. In times like ours, I believe we need someone to listen even more. We see so much more with our eyes then any other generation, how do we process it all.

We must begin to slow down and see those around us. Put ourselves in there lives and care. Stop trying to fix all the problems and leave that part up to God. Our part is to listen and pray. God will do the rest.

Humility Brings Us Glory

Glory and humility..... Sounds funny even speaking these two words together. Glory is normally spoken of something given to God and humility something done in ourselves. Seems strange to think they could ever be connected.

Today, let me give you a different thought concerning these words....

Humility brings us glory. I know it sounds rather odd to think on the word glory as something given to man but I believe we are.

I am speaking of glory in the definition of: honor resulting from a good opinion, glory emanating from God, an appearance commanding respect, exellence.

Proverbs 3:35 says The wise shall inherit glory, but shame shall be the legacy of fools.

Wisdom is something given to man by God, not something that we learn anywhere else. We can gain all the knowledge the world has to offer but to be wise we must seek God and His ways. Wisdom is a gift of knowing the ways of God that is only given to those who ask for it. God does not impart wisdom to the proud. It is the humble that inherit the wisdom of God. It is in the breaking of our self pride that our eyes open to the vastness of God and His ways. In our humility, we are lifted up to know who God is.

James 4:10 -Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.

When we are humble, we are then lifted up in wisdom and then because of Christ we inherit glory.

Hebrews 2:7 - You have made him a little lower than the angels; You have crowned him with glory and honor, and set him over the works of Your hands.

We were made a little lower than the angels but because of the blood shed for us, we have been crowned with glory and honor. We didn't deserve it, we still don't, but yet, we are given glory because of Jesus.

In John 17, Jesus prays for the believers, those then and those that would come later. In verse 22 He says this, "and the glory which You gave Me, I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one."

Jesus has given us honor and glory, the same as was given to Him by the Father. We share in His glory by no right of our own, but by grace, the unmerited favor of God.

When we break our foolish self pride, we are emptied, we become an available vessel to be used for the work of God. It is our humility that allows God to use us fully. When we are used fully by God, people around us notice and are changed. We then recieve glory that we humbly turn back and hand to our savior.

We through no merit of our own have been given a place of royalty. A glory and magnificence that could never be earned by works of our hands. A crown has been set on our head and we are called to shine before men. Not with the light of ourselves but the light of Christ. It all comes by bowing low.