A new outlook - A fresh start

Have you ever read something dozens even hundreds of times and then one day read it again and got a whole new meaning? This morning when I got my daily email from www.daniel-fast.com (if you are planning to do the Daniel fast I highly suggest signing up for the daily emails because they are great) this verse was the first thing in this mornings email...

I know throughout my Christian life I have probably read this verse several hundred times but today I read it in a whole new way.  As I prepare for the 21 day Daniel Fast I am taking a new approach to my health and weight loss by setting aside 21 days to deny my flesh certain things in order to learn to trust Jesus and rely on his strength to make the right choices.  Every effort over the past 2 years has failed because I have had the wrong focus and today this verse reassured the purpose of the fast to me and reassured me of God's pure goodness! Delight yourself in the Lord - over the next 21 days I am doing just that - instead of taking delight in food, instead of finding stress relief in food, instead of comforting a crazy day with food I am going to be learning to delight myself in Him and find my fulfillment in my relationship with Jesus again! Then He will give you the desires of your heart - the desire of my heart is to conquer negative eating and get healthy and learn to rely on Him in a new way.

Wow!  I mean seriously this verse has a whole new level of depth to me!  I keep reading it over and over again slowly and love that each time God is renewing in me the fact that I can do this with His help!  I am going to be healthy, I am going to learn to conquer negative food choices, I am going to lose the weight because I am going to delight myself in Him and learn to rely on Him.  As I said yesterday, I can NOT do this alone.  I have tried and tried and tired for the past 2 years and its has been a roller coaster that ended right back where I started.  This time is different and I am excited to share the honest real journey with you over the next 21 days!  Stay tuned for recipes, insights and exciting things! Here are a few key verses that I am meditating on to help me through this time!

Yesterday in my quiet time I also found new revelation in James 1 - the entire chapter is amazing but these verses really stuck out to me!

2-4 Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.

5-8 If you don’t know what you’re doing, pray to the Father. He loves to help. You’ll get his help, and won’t be condescended to when you ask for it. Ask boldly, believingly, without a second thought.

12 Anyone who meets a testing challenge head-on and manages to stick it out is mighty fortunate. For such persons loyally in love with God, the reward is life and more life.

13-15 Don’t let anyone under pressure to give in to evil say, “God is trying to trip me up.” God is impervious to evil, and puts evil in no one’s way. The temptation to give in to evil comes from us and only us. We have no one to blame but the leering, seducing flare-up of our own lust. Lust gets pregnant, and has a baby: sin! Sin grows up to adulthood, and becomes a real killer.

16-18 So, my very dear friends, don’t get thrown off course. Every desirable and beneficial gift comes out of heaven. The gifts are rivers of light cascading down from the Father of Light. There is nothing deceitful in God, nothing two-faced, nothing fickle. He brought us to life using the true Word, showing us off as the crown of all his creatures

 

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