Trust~Delight~Commit

"Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.  Delight thyself also in the Lord: and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.  Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass."
~Psalm 37:3-5

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I am stepping out into new territory.  I have joined the Proverbs 31 Online Bible Study with over 36,000 people signed up.  Wow!  That's a lot of people!  The book focus for this study is Made to Crave by Lysa TerKeurst.  I am excited to see what this study will bring.

God is so good.  My favorite verse is Psalm 37:4, "Delight thyself also in the Lord: and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart."  Delight is described as "pleasure, joy, happiness."  When I enjoy or take pleasure in God, he will give me the desires of my heart.  To be very honest, I struggle with enjoying God.  It has not been until the past few years, that I have really put forth an effort to know my Lord.  I can tell you the more I get to know Him, the sweeter and more enjoyable He becomes.  My desires begin to shift into "How do I get to know God more?" "What does God want me to do?"

When looking at Psalm 37:4, you can't help but read the verses that sandwich it.  Verse three says to trust and do good.  The promise for doing so is food.  How cool is that?  When we trust God, we will be fed.  We won't go hungry!  So we trust, then we delight, and now we commit.  We must commit our way to the Lord.  Our way.  This requires surrender.  We must surrender our plans for God's plans.  Trust Him.  Double trust.  If God repeats something, it must be important.  Trust God, and He will bring it to pass.  He will bring His plan to pass.

This seems like a simple enough recipe for life: Trust~Delight~Commit

These three words are so rich and powerful.  They are nothing until I apply them in my life. I truly want to trust my Lord, enjoy Him, and allow Him to lead me in His plan for me.  Joining the Proverbs 31 Bible Study is one step towards that, and I commit the next few weeks to Him for the purpose of enjoying and delighting in Him.  I want to Crave God rather than food or anything else.

Getting to the Source

I love the acronyms :)

I have noticed a particular set of trends within my circle of friends and family within the last few years.  It amazes me how quickly they seem to catch on.  Word of mouth is powerful if not the most powerful advertising.  I have heard the buzz about several different products from weight loss and weight management, wellness remedies, kitchenware, to organizational tools.  These things aren't bad things in and of themselves.  God calls us to wellness and we should want to be in our best shape to be used of Him.  These products give people a particular result.  Most of them work, some better than others.

 I have been on a long journey to wellness.  I like the sound of that, wellness.  Over the last seven years, I have made steps to a healthier me.  At one point, I lost over 80 pounds for the most part by eating less and exercising more.  That was my motto in the beginning and it still rings true today as long as I follow it.  The last few years have had their bumps along the way with several hundreds of dollars spent on personal training, 10 pound gains here and there, expensive diets, and more.  I learned more about food and how it works with my body, and the more I learned the more I felt responsible to eat healthy (I didn't always do so, and am currently getting out of a funk).

My relationship with food and fitness hit a spiritual note two years ago when I did a book study called Made to Crave by Lysa TerKeurst.  That is where I came face to face with the fact that I turned to food for comfort and support other than for fuel and not to God.  I didn't quite grasp the importance of that discovery then.  A year later, I was afforded another opportunity to participate in a book study entitled Uncommon Vessels: A Program for Developing Godly Eating Habits by Elyse Fitzpatrick.  This study was good as well, but I personally didn't take full advantage of the accountability afforded me at the time.

In 2014, I plan to get to the Source.  God is my Creator.  He knows me best.  He will provide for me the best way to get out of this cycle of over-indulgence and excess.  He will be able to instill in me the discipline I need to succeed.  He is the Source of strength and endurance that I need to overcome.  I can't do this on my own.  No product will do it completely.  Products can assist in the journey, but they can't cure the problem.  Only God is able to do the curing, and I must be willing to do the work.  He has already provided the victory.  I am not sure what 2014 will bring, but I am sure that whatever I do, it will be for God's glory.

By the way, if we shared Jesus the way we shared the latest trends today, I wonder what would happen?  Word of mouth is a powerful tool, share Jesus and see what happens.

For God's Glory,