christineyountjones.com

Category: Diets and Weight Loss

  • He Only Delivers

    He Only Delivers

    Whatever you’re facing today, this week, this year…crying out to God is the only way to deliverance.

    Psalm 107:6 says “Then they cried out to the Lord in trouble; HE delivered them out of their distress.”

    Breaking down this psalm, it’s clear what I do–and what HE does. I want what HE does!

    I give thanks to God and praise Him,

    I wonder and can’t find my way.

    I hunger and thirst.

    HE redeems me from the hand of the adversary.

    I cry out to the Lord.

    HE delivers me out of my distresses.

    I give thanks.

    HE satisfies me with what is good.

    I dwelt in darkness–a prisoner to misery and chains.

    I rebelled against God’s Word and spurned His counsel.

    HE humbles my heart with hard times (I cannot do it without Him).

    I stumble around trying to find answers and no one can help me.

    I cry out to the Lord in my trouble.

    HE saves me out of my distresses.

    HE brings me out of my darkness.

    HE breaks my bonds apart.

    I give thanks for His lovingkindness and His wonders to me.

    HE shatters the prison I’ve been in.

    Amen! and Amen!

    Let it be, God!

  • Stop Bowing Down to the Scale

    Stop Bowing Down to the Scale

    When it comes to the scale, I am like the Israelites who wandered for 40 years as they waited to go into the Promised Land. For 40 years, I had a tortured relationship with the scale and my weight. I longed to go into the Promised Land of Freedom!

    One time at Weight Watchers, the leader asked us what we wanted. I raised my hand and said I wanted to be free. She didn’t know how to respond to that. I longed for freedom!

    There was never a time that I couldn’t tell to the tenth degree what I weighed. That number weighed on my mind constantly. I was in bondage. And the enemy used my weight to beat me down and make me feel worthless.

    Without realizing it, the scale was my idol. There were days that I bowed down to the scale at least three times a day. Stripped and aching, I would look to it to make me feel better.

    And the joy of the scale was my strength–not the joy of the Lord. My sense of self-worth rode the roller coaster of what the scale told me.

    Until three years ago.

    God led me to put away my bathroom scale for an entire year. An entire year!

    Not weighing every day brought me into a place of freedom and peace. It was life to me!

    “For the mind set on the flesh [the scale] is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace.” Romans 8:6

    God led me to be accountable to Him–not the scale.

    “So that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God.” Romans 3:19

    This was a huge victory for me. For an entire year, I put away the scale and walked in freedom from its hold over me.

    I dreaded the end of the year when I would step onto the scale again. Would I lose? Would I gain? What would happen if I gained? Would I go back to my idols of the scale and diets?

    I’m not going to tell what happened. Because that wasn’t the point. The point was the idol God was calling me to put away.

    The point was to stop bowing down to the god of the bathroom scale.

    The point was freedom. Sweet freedom!

  • Are You My Master?

    Are You My Master?

    Sprinkles Cupcakes! Have you ever had one? Just one? I wasn’t even sure that was possible. Ray, should we get more to take back to our place? No. Okay.

    Ray and I did it at Disney Springs’ Sprinkles shop this last week. I had one amazing, mouth-watering coconut cream cupcake. Moist on the inside. Not too heavy. Just the right amount of frosting sprinkled with coconut flakes. Yum!

    It was one of those worship moments of being grateful to God for making all the things that went into this delicacy. And grateful for the hands that made it!

    But…you know that saying…you can’t eat just one? Well, I did.

    But then I wanted another one. It was our last day in Orlando, so where was I to get another one? Hey, maybe we can swing by Sprinkles on the way to the airport? No? Okay.

    Well, maybe there’s a Sprinkles at the airport. No? Okay.

    When we landed in Denver. Hey, why don’t we swing by Buttercream Cupcakery (10 miles north of our home) on the way home? No? Okay.

    Well, honey, do you want to run to the store and pick up some tonight? No? Okay.

    What in the world was going on here? I’d only eaten one amazing cupcake. But then I thought about it, remembered it, craved it, wanted it. I allowed this little cupcake to master me!

    In 1 Corinthians 6:12, Paul writes:

    “All things are lawful for me,
    but not all things are profitable.
    All things are lawful for me,
    but I will not be mastered by anything.”

    Here’s what I take away from this when it comes to my food issues.

    1. I can eat anything.
    2. Everything isn’t good for me.
    3. Nothing must master me!

    It’s not wrong that I ate the cupcake. There have been times in my life that I would’ve felt guilty for eating carbs, sugar, cake, fat–you name it. But God is saying I can eat anything. It’s so freeing to not be driven by the laws of a diet.

    The truth is, though, that everything isn’t good for me. And I can make choices that benefit me just because they benefit me–not because it’s a rule. I’ll blog about this later.

    Nothing must master me! There are foods (and we all know our trigger foods) that can lead us into bondage. Craving them. Wanting more. Eating the entire bag! Making dozens of cupcakes (yes I did that weekend, but I gave most of them away!).

    God wants me to be free. He doesn’t want me to be enslaved to anything. Not cupcakes. Not chips. Nothing!

    And when I experience something trying to master me, it’s time for me to cry out to God for deliverance. And it is God who sets me free!

    Again, God has given me the freedom to eat anything. But I choose to stay away from the things I know will ultimately claw at me with “more, more, more.”

    The taste of freedom is so sweet!