extra weight - costs

Last night in Seattle, before flying out to Russia, we had a great meeting with the ladies. 

As women, we constantly are sharing with each other the ‘latest diet trend’ that will help us quickly lose the unwanted pounds.  God has showed me a parallel that runs between our physical and spiritual style of life, which I wanted to share. 
Personally I am far from being ‘fit’ in both areas. However honestly sharing from personal experiences and failures has proven to have the most impact. 

Simple diet that actually works has no secrets!  Change your eating habits, and start exercising!  PERIOD.

With doing these things faithfully one WILL see the change that they so desire. 

It is the same in the Spiritual sense. We refuse to do the simple proven fact that improves our spiritual health: feeding on God’s Word and exercising prayer and fasting.  We substitute the true nutrients with all kinds of other things, like TV shows, novels, and even ‘spiritual reading’ but we neglect the ONE thing that will provide the body the MOST VITAL nutrients it needs for survival, the true living word of God.  We also neglect exercise with a passion.  We often know logically that it is a good thing, but our flesh wins out and we choose to spend our time on something else, than making excuses that we’re busy, with school, work, kids, cooking, shopping, church, chatting, whatever…

We choose.

We choose what we eat.  We choose what we do.

And you know, as God has been leading me in shedding pounds in the physical sense, both in the body, and just in the style of life. I realized something just this morning…

Getting to the airport with 3 huge suitcases, I knew I was overweight on the allotted baggage for my travel to Russia.  It was all the gifts I was bringing.  I prayed and prayer for a miracle. I prayed for the bags to somehow shrink and be lighter.  I prayed for grace that the extra pounds on each bag would be overlooked by flight attendant. 

Neither happened.

I had to overpay.   A lot.

And as I sat in the airplane thinking that God did not answer my prayers my mind wondered to what I was sharing with the ladies last night.   I realized “EXTRA WEIGHT COSTS A LOT.”   When we have, all good and maybe even necessary things in our life, but it’s EXTRA, we could live without it, but we CHOOSE not to.  Those things, in the end, COST US A LOT.  They could cost us our health, wealth, relationships, but mainly it hinders our spiritual wellbeing.  We choose to pay for that extra weight.  We pay to have our physical richness with the spiritual inheritance that God has given us.  We trade in what’s His, for something we want, right now.  Even if it is a good thing.

O Lord, help me to continue shedding the ‘extra’ pounds of my life.  Show me what I am trading in Your richness for.   I want to be truly fit, ready and available for any good work.  I want to invest the treasure you have given me, so that it will grow and multiply, and not squander it away on careless living for simple pleasures of life, right now, in the moment.  O Help me God!!!

The Meeting with Ladies