God's Spiritual Diet Plan (Part 5 of 5)

For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. Romans 14:17
You can take someone who eats perfectly and they have no control over their weight whether too fat or too skinny.
That is because we are a triune being- spirit, soul and body.
We need rightousnesss, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. If the person is on a rigid diet but full of bitternes or unforgivenesss, it will be for naught.
Righteousnes is integrity, virtue, purity of life, rightness, correctness of thinking feeling, and acting.
One of the definitions of peace in the Strong's is: the tranquil state of a soul assured of its salvation through Christ, and so fearing nothing from God and content with its earthly lot, of whatsoever sort that is.
Examine that. Assured of your salvation. Fears nothing. Content in whatever state you are in.
Joy in the Holy Ghost: Dependent on your relationship from Him. This isn't a joy that comes out of an event, it is a joy that comes out of relationship with Him. You cannot not experience that joy if you are a legalist and are in constant black and white thinking.
If any one of these characteristics-righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost- is missing it will affect you on a physiological level. But we ignore the spiritual and do more exercise, change our diets, and get into more bitterness and frustration which further slows down our metabolism and amps up our cortisol levels so we can't take our peace.
I have learned that in order to establish righteousness in my life, I have to give up my right to be right. I do not have to defend myself. I am to walk in humility before the Lord and He will be my defender.
[Because of] his strength will I wait upon thee: for God [is] my defense. Psalm 59:9
Because of years of abuse, I lived in a state of hyper-vigilance. Always checking my surroundings even if I was in a store to see that I was safe. Recently I recognized that I was not trusting God to keep me safe. If I used wisdom in where I was going and how I was getting there, he had my back. I could relax.
Living in a continued state of hyper-vigilance keeps your body amped up and your cortisol drips continually. This destroys your immune system. You are prone to disease and have little energy.
Enter Addiction to make you feel good.
Isn't that insidious?
When we put our trust in Him, we can relax, He's got our back. We no longer have to be in charge of everything. We can take our peace. Then our body comes into peace and we are strengthen.
For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. Romans 14:17

Who Are You Counting On?

If there is one thing that I have learned this year, it is that I am in control of nothing. Although all of my children are adults. My youngest is 31. I am old enough to have two married granddaughters and two adorable great-grandchildren.
Until this year in my desperation to help them avoid some of the mistakes that I have made, I would try to direct or even control situations. There are many subtle ways that you can do this, too.
However, what I finallylearned is when I am in control, I am tying God's hands. If I fix the fix that God fixed to fix 'em, God will have to fix another fix. When I was afraid of not being in control or at least speaking my mind, what I was saying was that I didn't trust God with their lives. I didn't trust God to meet them unless I helped Him.
How ludicrous is that?
Why is it so difficult to give up control of things that we are not in control of anyway? I had to practice. I would release them to father God and then open my mouth or put my sticky fingers in their lives. Then I would repent to both them and to God. The quicker I was to repent, the easier it got to not go there for I would recognize it before I did and stop.
You see always having to give input is a form of self-idolatry and frankly, it is sin. God will have no other gods before Him. Anything that exalts itself above God is an anti-Christ spirit, because frankly it against Him.
This was a very sobering lesson.
As I gave them up and released them, God gave me the opportunity to give up other areas of my life that I had been clutching from finances to my time.
One by one I yielded (and sometimes took back) and got to the point of absolute surrender, God was finally able to move in my behalf. He moved mightily.
Perhaps the biggest show of his grace was our trip to Ireland. It was as if He opened the windows of heaven. He was absolutely extravagant in His provision.
Each time He has required that I step out in faith first. Sometimes that was scary, but I know that "perfect love casts out fear." So I would step out holding on to His perfect love. Now fear no longer has a hold on me.
I recognized that those things, I felt that I needed to control were because out of fear I didn't think they could be met any other way. I believed a lie.
God is more than able. So I am counting on God.

The Hand of the Father

Ray and I have seen the hand of the Father in designing our travel plans for Ireland. This week he got a letter from his Aunt Anna, 83, who gave him towns and names names of ancestors to seek in the Waterford area. This will be a delightful hide and seek game.
He has given us the ability to exchange dollars into Euros at no fee.
He has given us a guide for Dublin.
The myriad of ways that He has woven this adventure together is awesome.
I am reminded daily of how much our Father god loves us.
We are trusting Him at a level we have never trusted Him before. Leaving our familial support and ways behind, we are going on an adventure with God and have no idea what each day will hold. We decided NOT to make a single reservation for lodging, but rather go where the Father leads us. We want to be a blessing to the people there and are expecting to see God's hand in it.
Can you take six minutes to listen to this Love Letter from the Father?
You see He loves you as much as He does us for He is not a respector of persons.