Each week we will have a devotional to help you stay spiritually grounded during your journey. Each week I will post them on the blog, but you can access them under the Food for Thought menu!
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September 10, 2011
BAD ADVICE!
For those of us with older cars, remember when you could take your car to the dealership to get fixed because it was under warranty?! You could take it in and in most cases, you would leave with paying little to nothing for whatever had to be fixed. I enjoyed taking it to the dealership because the dealer specialized in the make and model of my car. He knew exactly how to fix my car, while the neighborhood mechanic might or might not have known how. When it comes to my car, I’m not okay with somebody sorta knowing how to fix it!
Well, for many of us, this is how our weight loss journey has been. God is the car dealer and the world is the neighborhood mechanic. Because we are Christians, our lives are underneath warranty. This means that whenever we have a problem we can take it to God and he’ll solve it free of charge! Unfortunately, we usually take our problems to the neighborhood mechanic. Most times he has a general idea of how to help you out, but his advice is usually just ok. We have allowed the world to define how we deal with our weight issues. Whether it is low-carb, no carb, no meat, only meat, crazy workouts, the grapefruit diet, diet pills, plastic sweat suits (you all know who you are who wear these!), we do whatever the world says will help us lose weight. We don’t consult God at all. We pray that he will help us lose weight, stay on our diet,or make it through our grueling workout. Yet we fail to ask him what he thinks. We don’t ask the creator for advice on how his creation should lose weight. Instead of going to the specialist, we settle for substandard advice. We could go to the “car dealer” and get the best care for free, but we choose to go to the neighborhood mechanic and pay for bad advice. Yes, I said it! Bad advice!
If we asked Him what he thought he would tell us the solution is very simple. He would tell us that he has created our body with two sensations so that we would always know when to eat and know when we’ve had enough. He would say there is no need for you to exercise till you drop, buy expensive pills and powders, and eat so restrictively that the very thing that should bring you joy brings you sorrow (eating should be a happy experience!).
In Matthew 11:28-30, Jesus says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” This weight loss problem is too big for us to solve on our own. We need to reach out for help and what Jesus is telling us is that we are to reach out to Him ! He is our go to guy, our first line of defense. Let me break down a couple of important things that he says in this passage:
(1) “Come to me all who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest” : Many of us are tired from our weight loss battle wounds and have battle fatigue from this seemingly endless journey. We are weighed down not only by physical weight, but by the weight of our sin (a.k.a gluttony). Jesus came that we might be released from that burden. Through our relationship with him we find freedom from the chains of sin!
(2) “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me”: Jesus is calling us to enter into relationship with him. He desires for us to be his disciples and to live life as he did according to the guidelines outlined in the Word of God. He desires to show us the way to freedom, we just have to be willing to follow him!
(3)”…you will find rest for you souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light”: Its not that by following Jesus losing the weight will be the easiest thing to do (I wish!), but it will be a path that is not plagued by the cycles of failure, depression, resignation, and the other road blocks we hit when we try to accomplish this task on our own. His method to weight loss is one that is full of restoration, love, joy, peace, strength, and most of all – spiritual freedom!
So, you can choose to either lose weight on your own and follow whatever advice the world might give you, or you can choose to do it God’s way and have Him carry your heavy burdens during this journey.
If I were you, I’d choose God. I’ve never seen a “car” he can’t fix! Can you say the same thing about your “neighborhood mechanic”?
