Day 91 until Easter~~~~~~Death to Self

Dec 12-30-12

When I think of the subject of “death-to-self” the hair on the back of my neck stands up and I get offensive. After all, I’m an adult and have been for several years I should not have to deny myself anything. I have a job I can pay for whatever it is I want. If I want a banana split I can get it, I don’t need mommy around anymore telling me what I can or cannot do.

Wrong!

 

The job of mom if you think about it is to do their job so well that they work their way out of a job. As the child grows up they are to take over where mom or dad left off and are able to care for themselves. One of the lessons to be learnt is the lesson of dying to one’s self. To be able to say “No” once in a while in order to maintain proper discipline and good choices.

Just because I can say “Yes” doesn’t make that the right answer. If I’m eating too much and I’m gaining weight I need to die to myself and the desires I have to eat in a greedy, glutton, selfish kind of way.

 

After doing this for a while I have found that I still manage to live, duh! It doesn’t kill me totally to say “no” to a cookie today because tomorrow I may be able to have one if I’m truly hungry and one cookie doesn’t turn into a jar full of cookies.

 

By nature we are selfish people and we need to learn the lesson of dying to ourselves. Learning quickly how to say “No” and to think of someone more than ourselves. Once again just because we “can” do something doesn’t make it right. We need to be living our lives in a manner that glorifies God and benefits us and those around us. Dying to one’s self doesn’t kill us, it causes us to grow in the right way and mature more and more into the person we need to be.

 

Growing beyond the size I am today into the size of clothes I should be requires death to self and the bad choices I’ve been making that got me to where I am today weight wise. It’s a choice, a discipline worth taking. In the long run it causes me to gain something much more than extra pounds. I gain maturity and satisfaction in Christ.

 

© 2013 Karen J. Gillett at Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing for Growing Beyond

92 Days Till Easter~~~~~~~Falling Links

December 29, 2012

Well its 92 days till Easter and already I have noticed some links falling off the chain that had me bound. As nice as it would have been to have the whole thing drop off instantly it just doesn’t work that way.

 

That’s one of our biggest problems is patience and waiting for the results to happen. We live in a society that expects everything instantly. We don’t have time to wait. We expect the traffic lights to turn green the minute we get to them. We expect the bank teller at the drive thru banking to be helping no one but us, after all isn’t that why they are there waiting in that booth just for us!

 

Whether we noticed it at the time or not the chain we find ourselves attached to, went on one link at a time and that is exactly how it’s going to come off. For me I find the link of making bad food choices is starting to fall off. Also the link of not being able to say no to the temptation of food is beginning to lose its grip.

 

Thank you Lord for giving us the ability to remove the chains we ourselves installed. Forgive us for our laziness and unwillingness to do our part. Having the right attitude going forward is one of the biggest pliers that will help remove unwanted links to a chain that doesn’t have to be there as long as we stick with You Father God. Praise you for this journey and may I learn what I need to learn and share with others what needs to be shared in order to help them remove the links and uninstall the chain.

93 days till Easter~~~~~~~~Enslavemenrt

December 28, 2012           Enslavement
                                                             

Too often we are enslaved by something and don’t even know it. Even when we know it we don’t want to do anything about it. We accept it as our new norm instead of putting out the effort to free ourselves from what it is that has a hold on us.

 

The other day as I looked through old pictures of myself, I noticed I have been overweight my entire adult life. Thirty years or more I’ve been enslaved by something I just would not take the time to free myself from.

 

Once again isn’t that what Easter represents is the freedom that Christ has set us free for. Not the freedom to do what we want but the freedom from the enslavement of sin. God put the key in the door of that entrapment to sin and unlocked it with the blood of Jesus Christ. However, for some odd reason we remain standing in the jail cell that once held us. Indeed the jail cell of sin wallpapered with our acts of doing whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted and ignoring the commandments of God.

 

How foolish is that? Pretty foolish I must say. Every time I eat what I shouldn’t be eating the clicking sound of the key to my cell needs to go off in my heart. A sound to remind me whether I’m going to accept my enslavement to food and bad eating habits or walk free out of my cell that God already released me from.

 

We don’t need to be afraid, we need to be determined to take action and truly find the opened door to our freedom in Christ. Daily by our choices we need to accept our new norm of not allowing things like food, drugs, alcohol, money, sex, attitudes, and more to control us.

 

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Free from sin, not freedom to sin.