Matthew 6:33 
But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

The experience of God is slightly different for all of us, I think because God knows how to reach each one of us. Since we are different, His approaches are different. That's why I often don't write about how close God can be, because if your experience of Him is different from mine, that doesn't make your experience any less, and you don't want to miss how He reaches out to you because you're looking to find Him in the same places as others. The Holy Spirit knows you uniquely and will reach out in whatever way is best, it's why the Bible is so important, the Bible is the authority from God to discern with...not what anyone else says and not what anyone else's experience of Him is.

Matthew 11:29  Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My Yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

Losing weight while enfolded in God's love Page One

Putting on the Armor of God

    Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.  For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.  Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

      Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness,  and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace;  above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.  And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints—  and for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel,  for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak. (Ephesians 6)

So just how does someone put on the armor of God? First of all, prayer. Simply ask. God loves us, He told us to give Him our burdens. For me, this is a huge one. So I ask. I ask Him to show me if my motives are correct. I can fool myself but I can't fool God, and He knows. If my motives aren't correct, if God looks down the barrel of time and sees me flaunting a thin body even if my motives began innocently, then I have to accept (and I do), that He knows better than I do what is best for me and I have nothing but sincere gratitude in that. Trusting my Shepherd to lead me to the right places...this is rest.

But if my motives truly ARE correct and my requests godly, God is all about helping me. He is the Giver of all good gifts, and right now He is gifting me with the insight of what this battle truly is about. It's about picking up where great grandma Eve left off except THIS time, Christ is in me, and He who is in me is greater than he who is in the world (1 John 4:4)

In fact, Jesus fasted for 40 days and the Bible says:

"Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.  And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry.  Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”

"But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’”

So the first maneuver that Satan used was to tempt Jesus with bread. It worked on Eve but not the Christ. Jesus responded with Scripture. He didn't shout at Satan, He just responded with the Truth. Jesus here shows me how to respond to temptation as well. It IS the Sword of the Spirit.

But there isn't always time to look up Scriptures when temptation comes. I find that there are many "darts" of the enemy aimed at me. Insecurity, anger, stress, guilt, mistrust, even plain exhaustion...those are what I call "toxic thoughts." Accumulate enough unanswered toxic thoughts and I fall to temptation easily. I believe it's why God said:

Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. (Philippeans 4:8)

I am working on a list of Scriptures to memorize. I need to be battle ready. The enemy is gunning for me, for all who seek God. The Bible says:

Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.  But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you.  To Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen. (1 Peter 5)

The thief does not come except to steal, kill, and destroy. (John 10:10)

Did you think this battle didn't matter? Satan and his minions are seeking to destroy God's people. This battle is SERIOUS, but it's the battlefield we are born for. It's where we get to choose whom we belong to. 

But Jesus came that we may have life, and that we may have it more abundantly. (John 10:10)

I choose life. I choose to be hungry as Jesus was hungry. We don't live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Easily said, much more difficult to follow....the Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. And that is why, when I think of Jesus and the hunger He felt...for me...

Jesus suffered hunger for me and so much more

He laid down His life and picked it up again....

He came...for me. For you and for me.

The love of God changes everything. <3

Losing weight in Christ's love, Page 7

 "For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you." (Matthew 7:2) 

If we look to criticize others, we internalize it ourselves. Negative thoughts about others are toxic thoughts to ourselves.

"Whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things." (Philippians 4)  

First, be honest. If you want to lose weight for Godly reasons, for health, for energy, to repent from possible gluttony, for husbands, to find a godly husband, (most important) to give glory to Him; then God is wherever you are to carry that burden. If your goal is to drive men wild, to lord it over other women in social settings, to feel superior, well, believe me, God knows and I highly doubt you will find much here. 

Dieting almost always fails because so many of us approach it with an attitude of "I'm not good enough" as we are. Many beat ourselves up while mentally dangling seductive visions of ourselves born from today's culture. If we are in Christ, then the Holy Spirit is indwelling us, and we might be able to lie to ourselves about our motives but He knows us better than we do. So first and foremost, be honest with yourself. Once you have that, get ready to love yourself through Christ's eyes, which melts away that kneejerk reaction to toxic thoughts that cripple us. Toxic thoughts about ourselves and those around us. Anger, guilt, rebellion, there are so many reasons besides good taste that cause us to eat too much. My prayer is that all of us discover God's truths about how He sees us, about the love that He has for us, about His protection and strength in carrying the burden as we discover Him through our trials and the trials of others on this page. 

Losing weight enfolded in God's love, page 2

I don't know about anyone else but the only success I have had is when I wait until I'm hungry, I learned it with the Weigh Down Workshop, and with that you can eat ANYTHING YOU WANT as long as you're hungry. It's awesome, you never feel deprived, you just have to wait, it teaches patience. You also learn to listen to your body signal what it's craving because I believe God gave us bodies to help us know what it needs. So I started out a LITTLE hungry but...I pray to do better tomorrow. Other than that it was pretty good. Anyone else? I know you have different strategies.

Check this out, cause the SECOND I tell myself I can't have something, I WANT IT. With this you can have it and it makes sense, nobody wants chocolate for breakfast, lunch and dinner, not even me... You can read the first pages and get the idea. But I'm not pressuring anyone in the group to try it, I just think I'd be 300 lbs if I tried to diet these past years
http://www.amazon.com/Weigh-Down-Diet-Gwen-Shamblin/dp/038549324X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1359486187&sr=8-1&keywords=weighdown+workshop

That's a lot easier to take than, NO! followed by self-condemnation because I need to lose weight. That's just so negative to me and toxic thoughts are a huge reason why I reach for indulgence in the first place. It doesn't even have to be toward me, I have noticed anger at others triggers a need, I think it might even be a need to self destruct.

I'm in a situation now in a car pool and they were just obsessed with talking about one woman's new bf and their sex life. Well...her new bf is married and I am having such a hard time with this. Someone else in the group is proud that she "got some" with a married man in her apartment complex. And I just sit there and try to be loving when inside I am seething. My ex was a chronic cheater and I have such issues with women that would lure away a husband. I was in such a sour mood all day after that and I think that has a lot to do with my overindulgence last night.

God is helping me with it though. I found it in Hosea. We all have different lessons to learn and it helps me to know that the Holy Spirit is in control of everyone's lives. She might need to learn not to , well... and I need to learn not to react the way I do, but right now it's the perfect op to learn to recognize how I get worked with this and then self destruct because of negative emotions about someone else.

I really think that happens with me. It's like something inside of me can't differentiate between anger at others or anger at myself, to me, deep in my soul, it's just anger. And part of my self-destructiveness is my effort to destroy that anger. Self-sabotage. It's an ugly beast.

A friend told me she would have said something to these women. The first time they talked like this, I didn't bite my tongue so well and all it did was alienate (which I tend to be fine with but the Lord calls me back) The truth is, this is the world of which we are not a part of. I had to remind myself about my own past, how I got dragged to a Bible study by some awesome women years ago. They all knew I was uh...doing the same kind of thing except he wasn't married. They just loved me and somehow it fell on me to read about how God feels about fornicators...But by then I was hooked on God and had to choose between God and my boyfriend. The boyfriend lost. If those women had behaved toward me the way I feel like behaving toward this cheating woman, well, I would have lost so much. I'm so grateful to them and I need to try to walk in that same light. God is working with her, I just need to pray for her. And NOT laugh and agree and encourage what she does...people can sense that you disapprove just by your looking away and saying nothing. Sometimes that speaks louder than anything.

God calls us to love everyone and I'm really learning in huge ways that when I think negatively about anyone, somehow it turns on me, deep inside, and that leads to unhealthy food for me. It's like I want to bury those negative thoughts with food. Some use drugs, but we want to bury it with something. Learning to combat those negative feelings is truly the battle that belongs to the Lord. Only with His help have I found ways to love people, SINCERELY love people, that I find hard to love. And in doing that, somehow that opens a door to love myself, and when you love and appreciate yourself, self-destruction no longer makes sense. It never really did.

Losing weight while enfolded in God's love

I haven't been posting or writing very much for a long time because I'm being still about certain things, and waiting. In the meantime, I have been active in various ways, one being as part of a weight loss group. If anyone is interested in a closer walk with God as He helps you break a trouble area, addiction, stronghold, these are what I have been posting there and with the prayers of other Christians, I can't believe how much God is blessing me. I have never felt so free. Here is the opening post and I'll be adding to this as time goes on. I pray God give you breakthroughs in your endeavors. Feel free to comment anonymously or by name at the bottom of the page and we will pray for you too. It says, "No Comments" to start with,  just click on that.  God bless!

***

Everyone has their own ways of trying to lose weight and that's great, but the one common thread everyone can have is seeking God for help. So if you want to lose weight for Godly reasons, for health, for energy, to repent from possible gluttony, for husbands, to find a godly husband, (and most important...) to give glory to Him; then I believe God is wherever you are to carry you. If your goal is to drive men wild, to lord it over other women in social settings, to feel superior, well, believe me, God knows and I highly doubt you will find much here.

Dieting almost always fails because so many of us approach it with an attitude of "I'm not good enough" as we are. Many beat ourselves up while mentally dangling seductive visions of ourselves born from today's culture. I know I didn't have the right reasons many years ago and it was like beating my head on a wall. I have learned since then how much God LOVES us, just as we are, today. He knows why we reach for unhealthy foods, He watched us grow up, He saw everything that tripped us up even before we could remember. I don't understand myself but I know God does, and I am always learning to trust Him more. I honestly think the Holy Spirit kept me from achieving my goal because God knew the trouble I would get into if I had the body I hoped for (good grief how I would have!)

So first and foremost, be honest with yourself. Ask God to search your heart and examine why you want to lose weight. Once you have that on the right road with Him, get ready to love yourself through Christ's eyes, which melts away that kneejerk reaction to toxic thoughts that cripple us. Toxic thoughts about ourselves and those around us. Anger, guilt, rebellion, there are so many reasons besides good taste that cause us to eat too much. My prayer is that all of us discover God's truths about how He sees us, about the love that He has for us, about His protection and strength in carrying the burden as we discover Him through our trials and the trials of others on this page.

I had a page like this before and the insights of friends were such a blessing to me. Community prayer covering over ourselves and others on this page is a huge part of it. If you join this page, please come back often and pray over all of us together, openly or alone with Him. Christian, Catholic, charismatic or not, it's all about being born again. God knows His own and His arms are open wide! Praise God!

"Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s." (1 Cor 6)