Day 3: Breaking Up with Food

I ended yesterday with a headache. Having a headache is a trigger for me, food-wise, because I get an upset stomach that is often only calmed with food. I laid down for an hour and woke worse, with a very unhappy tummy. I had already scheduled yesterday’s update to post, and so despite really, really wanting to overeat, I ate a reasonable snack, tracked it, and went about my headache-y business. I am prone to headaches, so I need to continue to look for solutions for settling my stomach that still qualify as breaking up with food.

Today was better. I even felt a glimmer of joy and hope. Yesterday, I felt really down as my headache grew. Food has been the friend I run to during trying times. I sat outside, praying and realizing for the millionth time that only God can fill that need. He may not always heal the pain, but He is always near if we draw near (as I coincidentally read today in James 4:8).

I’m writing this really late after work because I had a very busy day. I will leave you with a Scripture, all of which I wrote in cursive in my journal after coming across it in my daily Bible reading (I print my own thoughts in my journal and use cursive for God’s Word). It’s long, but please read it. It was both extremely convicting and oddly comforting.

“You are like an unfaithful wife who loves her husband’s enemies. Don’t you realize that making friends with God’s enemies—the evil pleasures of this world—makes you an enemy of God? I say it again, that if your aim is to enjoy the evil pleasure of the unsaved world, you cannot also be a friend of God. Or what do you think the Scripture means when it says that the Holy Spirit, whom God has placed within us, watches over us with tender jealousy? But he gives us more and more strength to stand against all such evil longings. As the Scripture says, God gives strength to the humble but sets himself against the proud and haughty.

So give yourselves humbly to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. And when you draw close to God, God will draw close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and let your hearts be filled with God alone to make them pure and true to him. Let there be tears for the wrong things you have done. Let there be sorrow and sincere grief. Let there be sadness instead of laughter, and gloom instead of joy. Then when you realize your worthlessness before the Lord, he will lift you up, encourage and help you.” James 4:4-10

Bible Reading: James 3-5
Prayer Cards Prayed: Check
Food Tracked: Check
Activity: Check
Daily Reading: Check
Choosing to Trust: Check

Day 2: Breaking Up with Food

Some people tell me I overshare – that I’m too transparent.

This is one of those times I think I agree.

But not because it’s really an accurate assessment.

I like to share about things I have gone through and figured out. Yes, many of them are deeply personal. But I share because look! The problem is now tucked away in a box and tied up with a neat, little bow. I can speak freely of it because I (oh, yeah, with God’s help, of course) solved that problem.

I mentioned I’ve been looking over old journals. I have to see it feels pretty pathetic to see how year after year, I write about the same struggle with food.

That’s why I hesitate to write about all of this – but I’m going to write anyway. Despite the fact that I feel like I should have this figured out already, every day but Sunday, I will share a few (likely) random thoughts about breaking up with food.

I read this in James 2:12-13:

You will be judged on whether or not you are doing what Christ wants you to. So watch what you do and what you think; or there will be no mercy to those who have shown no mercy. But if you have been merciful, then God’s mercy toward you will win out over his judgment against you.

Perhaps that’s not the most encouraging Scripture, but I needed to read it today. I’m grateful for God’s mercy today because I haven’t always been obedient in this area. God wants me to break up with food and the improper place it has held in my life, and so I trudge forward.

Thanks for trudging with me.

Daily Stuff
Bible Reading: James 1-2
Prayer Cards Prayed: Check
Food Tracked: Check
Activity: Check
Daily Reading Read: Check
Choosing to Trust: Check

Trusting in Your God-Given Identity: This Week’s “Coffee with Brenna”

How do we learn to trust and rest in the identity we have in Christ? Today’s Coffee with Brenna addresses this important question!

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1. Trust in the Identity Giver.

Two things that help people to grow:
1. Knowing who God really is.
2. Knowing who we are in Christ.

2. Ask for help.
James 1:5-6
Psalm 37:4

3. Practice silence and solitude.
Learning to Walk in Freedom:
Kindle: http://amzn.to/19kbG6t
Paperback: http://www.learningtowalkinfreedom.com/buy/

4. Rest in Him.
Isaiah 30:15-18

Conclusion
John 16:13
Hebrews 4:12
2 Timothy 3:16-17

God’s favorite video: https://youtu.be/YVFuLzF-EpQ
Rest video: https://youtu.be/BUCdmD1ihxA

Scriptures in Prayer
Psalm 139:13
Isaiah 43:4
Song of Solomon 6:3
Jeremiah 31:3
John 15:9
Matthew 10:31
Matthew 7:9-11

So You Want to Hear God’s Voice? Coffee with Brenna

The Means Through Which We Hear God’s Voice
1. God’s Word
2. Holy Spirit
3. Books or devotionals I’m reading
4. Conversations with believers/Godly council
5. Song lyrics or worship songs

The Obstacles to Hearing God’s Voice
1. Noise
2. Not making the time
3. Not listening
4. Fear of approaching the Father.
James 4:2

Practical Tips for Hearing God’s Voice
1. God wrote you a love letter: Read the Bible
“If you want to hear His audible voice- read your Bible out loud.” Barry
Here is one of Barry’s videos.

Christians who say they read scripture at least once a week: Majorities of Jehovah’s Witnesses (88%), Mormons (77%), evangelical Protestants (63%)
In 2014, about four-in-ten Christians (42%) said reading the Bible or other religious materials is an essential part of what being Christian means to them personally.

2. Making the Space
Pausing to hear
Quieting the noise
Christians must really develop their private devotional time with Christ.
Sitting in silence.
Luke 24:31-32, 45

3. Trusting His leading
John 10:27
Marked with a Seal blog post
Ephesians 1:13
1 Corinthians 3:16
John 14:26

4. Journaling
Patterns: A theme emerges in certain verses, topics, or conversations around me, leading me to consider, imagine, or grow a certain way.

Coffee with Brenna: So You Want to be Healed?

You asked, and here it is! Coffee with Brenna talks about my 2 experiences being miraculously healed, hindrances to healing, and why God sometimes doesn’t heal. Grab a cup of something, and enjoy!

Does Healing Still Happen?
Matthew 15:29-31
John 14:12-14

My Two Stories of Healing
Back, chest, wrist and elbow healing
IBS healing

Are there hindrances to healing?
“Before you can heal, you need to ask yourself if you’re willing to give up the things that are making you sick.” https://www.instagram.com/p/BxuTfkiFpZV/
Joyce Meyer: Pray for healing but also pray if there’s something I could be doing.
1 Corinthians 3:16
Romans 12:1
1 Corinthians 10:31  

Why doesn’t God heal?
“Faith is trusting in the character of God when life gives you reasons not to.” Corrie Ten Boom
Jesus Heals the Paralyzed Man (Matthew 9:1-8; Mark 2:1-12)
Ask God what you can do.
Was I going to trust God in the meantime?
James 5:14: prayer for the sick
John 9:2: man born blind
John 15:15: Jesus calls us friend

Books Referenced
Learning to Walk in Freedom: Kindle: http://amzn.to/19kbG6t Paperback: http://www.learningtowalkinfreedom.co…
Quest Bible: https://amzn.to/37orRBl


Read about my affiliate links here.

Freedom Friday: Avoiding Moral Failure

This is a topic that has been brewing in my mind for a while. This is due in part to things I’ve been reading in the Bible (Isaiah, Acts & James right now, with a little of Hezekiah’s story mixed in), assignments I’ve been working on for grad school (a big essay on plagiarism), and partly because of life events I see occurring around me.

I also just needed to write this for me. It’s a timely reminder that we don’t just “fall into” sin. We will sin. Otherwise, we’d be perfect like Jesus 🙂 But there is a difference in the way various sins impact your faith and your life. I may lose my temper with my spouse today, and that may break trust a little momentarily (especially if it’s a pattern of mine), but if I were to have an affair, that changes our relationship in a different way.  All sin may be equal in the eyes of God (in the sense that there aren’t particular sins that are more difficult for Him to forgive or required Him to hang from the cross longer), but some sins are inherently different because of the way they impact our lives.

There are things we can do to actively avoid finding ourselves in major situations of compromise. Here are some suggestions.

1. Be watchful over your thoughts
Your thoughts matter. Proverbs 23:7 says “For as he thinks within himself, so he is.”

In the article 5 Lies that Lead to an Affair, author Julie Ferwerda shares her experiences about how she ended up choosing to have an affair. She writes, “Few people fall into adultery overnight. As with other ‘big’ sins, having an affair is usually the result of a series of small compromises in our thoughts, choices, and behaviors.” And the place it began for her was in her thoughts.

It begins with a thought, a temptation. Temptation isn’t sin, as I’ve written before. It’s our choice to nurture that temptation that can become sin, rather than choosing to lay it before the Lord.

One of the Freedom Steps is Think Like a Free Person. I share there how God commands us to take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ. The battle of freedom is a battle that begins in our minds.  “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” 2 Corinthians 10:5 (NIV1984)

Be watchful over your thoughts.

2. Be honest with your intentions
James says that we have “evil desires at war within you” James 4:1 (NLT). Believers are not immune from this. James writes earlier in his letter, “Each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.” James 1:14-15 (NIV1984)We need to dig deep inside of ourselves and pray that God would help us be honest about our intentions in every challenging situation.Toward the end of 1999, I had been a Christian less than a year when I met a girl who had been raised in a Christian home but whose family had walked away from God. I couldn’t fathom how anyone could do that, and I desperately wanted to help her. I do believe that initially, my intentions were pure; however, my resolve for purity quickly faded, and we entered into a physical relationship.

Jeremiah writes (17:9 NLT), “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?”

I wanted this woman to know Jesus, but I was still deeply broken beyond my own understanding. This is why I wrote Who’s Got Your Back? The disciples went out two by two for a reason. This is why we need community, to lay ourselves as honestly as we can before others, and trust the Holy Spirit to guide us into all truth (John 16:13), including truth about ourselves.

Be honest with your intentions.

3. Be upfront about your actions
I don’t like the phrase we often use in Christianity to describe our sinful actions. We say we “had a fall” or we “stumbled.” To me, those phrases do not take responsibility for the choices and compromises that led to that “fall.” It’s not as if we are walking down a path and all of a sudden, sin jumps out and grabs us! No. That’s in direct contradiction to the end of 1 Corinthians 10:13 (NLT): “When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.”

In the relationship mentioned above, I didn’t simply “fall” into it. I made a series of questionable choices (not all of them sinful) that ultimately led to grave sin. This is why we need to, once again, stay connected to believers, honestly sharing about our choices and actions, and even the things we are thinking of doing.

Be upfront about your actions.

4. Be desperate for the Lord
God is able. Really. He is able. He is strong enough, He is big enough, He is loving enough. He is enough. Say it with me: He is enough.
So often we live our lives, making our plans, living as we wish (and not even in a sinful way, necessarily), inviting God in occasionally. We simply forget to include God in every decision, every thought, every actions.

We need to cling to God as if our lives depended on it – because they do. “Apart from me, you can do nothing,” Jesus said (John 15:5).

Later in James 4:4b-5 (NLT), James writes, for emphasis, “I say it again, that if your aim is to enjoy this world, you can’t be a friend of God. What do you think the Scriptures mean when they say that the Holy Spirit, whom God has placed within us, jealously longs for us to be faithful? He gives us more and more strength to stand against such evil desires.”

Sin is crouching at our doors, always (Gen. 4:7). Through God’s strength and power, we can subdue it and be its master.

“Because the Sovereign LORD helps me, I will not be dismayed. Therefore, I have set my face like a stone, determined to do his will. And I know that I will triumph.” Isaiah 50:7

Satan deceives; that’s his nature. Sin is always crouching at the door, desirous of us. Yet we can receive God’s help, determine to do His will, and know we will triumph.

Lord, help us.