How a Relationship With God is Like Chaffing (No, not that kind)
Wow, do I love Taco Bell. I could seriously eat there every single day for the rest of my life. Hmmm, now that I am thinking about it, I love Chik-fil-a but it is too expensive to eat on a regular basis, that is more of a treat when I eat out. I also love Lasagna of any kind. It is my favorite food in the whole wide world. I also love Chili's and thier Queso cheese dip and thier fajitas. I spent the first 2 years of my college life eating out every day for lunch and dinner. The college food was disgusting. Before too long, i realized that I had gained the freshman 20 and the sopohomre 20. I have tried in vain over the last few years to lose weight but the one fact remains. I love to eat. Not that I am a glutton but I love to snack. But I don't just snack, I also eat lunch and dinner and while I may skip breakfast every morning, I usually make it up by eating something along the way throughout the day.
I look at pictures of my self when I was 18 - 20 and wonder what happened to that healthy guy. I still ate the same way but I was way more active. I look at the pictures of me at the beach with my shirt off and wonder where that guy went too. The guy who was always trying so hard in high school to put on weight has now become a weight gainer when he just thinks about food. I am amazed out how much I have let myself go in a physical sense. I guess getting married and having kids has alot to do with it but that is no excuse to not maintain a physically healthy body. A few weeks ago, i realized that it was time to lose some weight. I realized that ot was hard to do the normal things in life like play with my kids, put on a pair of socks or climb a flight of stairs.
After 2 weeks of thinking about it, a friend of mine put me on a Herbal life diet plan. I just started it yesterday and as I was reading through the literature it gave me a list of side effects. A few of them were headaches, diahhera (oh boy), irritabilty for a few days, maybe a rash or 2 could develop and over all body aches and cramping could lead to a 24 hour cold. Believe me, I wasn't stoked about this at all after reading this news. But the final sentence read, but don't give up because of a few moments of discomfort because the outcome and results are well worth it. When I used to work out everyday, I lived by the motto "no pain, no gain" but the sound of having constant diaherra doesn't sound like a pain that I want to experience all that much. Your probably wondering where this is going and I am almost there.
Basically what happens os this. Your body is flushing out the negative, fatty, greasy junk and it is producing cleaner and healthier cells and antioxidants. When your body is used to something for a long period of time, it starts to learn to survive off of that, even if it is junk. When disrupts the body's normal cycle, like replacing that bad with the good, it causes an inner turmoil or batlle. Eventually, if you stick with the new diet, the good stuff will overtake the bad stuff and a healthier you is the result. More energy, more strength, more developed muscle tissue that replaced that old fatty tissue. I say all of that to talk about this, thinking spiritually now, how many of you can look back at a former time in life when you were strong in Christ and think, "what happened to that person?" It's not like you planned it this way, it's just years of preoccupation with other things and continual moments of neglect will start to break down our spiritual health.
So how do we get back in shape? Well, it is a painful road. I am reminded of the passage in scripture where it talks about the beating of wheat against a rock. In order for the good grains to be seperated from the useless grains (chaff) workers would beat the stalks of wheat against a rock "vigorously" the Bible says and then they would shake the wheat violently in the air. It is a very physical process but it must be done in order for the useless stuff to be sperated from the useful stuff.
So, imagine that you are that stalk of wheat. Spiritually, we must go through a vigorous process of shaking off the crap we've allowed to come into our lives. It is not a pleasant experiene. It is full of pain and set backs. It is almost enough to make you want to quit. But, just like the label listed in my side effects of the new diet I'm, "don't give up because the outcome is worth the pain." We have to hold the same outlook if want to achieve back our spiritual lives. So, what must be beat out of us? Well, only you can answer the question personally but I will give you some places to look.........In the friends you choose to hang around most often, in the weak personal self esteem you hold against yourself, in the music you listen to (this is a big one if you really want to achieve results) There are certain foods that I love that I can't eat anymore and I have to make an honest effort to not eat those foods or I will slip back into eating them. And the foods that I love are now being replaced with things i don't like so much but they are healthier for me. Do you see it. Can you see the comparison here to what we listen to, what we watch, what we say, etc...
Are you really wanting to get back in shape spiritually or is it just another attempt done in vain? Are you really serious or have you already pretty much given up before you even started? That doesn't mean that you won't try. It just means that you won't succeed. Do you see the changes that you have to make as being too overwhelming, too drastic, too life altering for you to make? I did but then I realized that if a Savior could wothstand all of the pain he endured for me, I can withstand a small amount of pain to stand for Him. I did a devo the other night about hitting your head on a rock as a consequence to stepping in the wrong places in life. But tonight, I ask you, who is ready to purposefully hit themselves on a rock so we can start to seperate the bad stuff (chaff) from the good in life, so we can become spiritually healthy?
I look at pictures of my self when I was 18 - 20 and wonder what happened to that healthy guy. I still ate the same way but I was way more active. I look at the pictures of me at the beach with my shirt off and wonder where that guy went too. The guy who was always trying so hard in high school to put on weight has now become a weight gainer when he just thinks about food. I am amazed out how much I have let myself go in a physical sense. I guess getting married and having kids has alot to do with it but that is no excuse to not maintain a physically healthy body. A few weeks ago, i realized that it was time to lose some weight. I realized that ot was hard to do the normal things in life like play with my kids, put on a pair of socks or climb a flight of stairs.
After 2 weeks of thinking about it, a friend of mine put me on a Herbal life diet plan. I just started it yesterday and as I was reading through the literature it gave me a list of side effects. A few of them were headaches, diahhera (oh boy), irritabilty for a few days, maybe a rash or 2 could develop and over all body aches and cramping could lead to a 24 hour cold. Believe me, I wasn't stoked about this at all after reading this news. But the final sentence read, but don't give up because of a few moments of discomfort because the outcome and results are well worth it. When I used to work out everyday, I lived by the motto "no pain, no gain" but the sound of having constant diaherra doesn't sound like a pain that I want to experience all that much. Your probably wondering where this is going and I am almost there.
Basically what happens os this. Your body is flushing out the negative, fatty, greasy junk and it is producing cleaner and healthier cells and antioxidants. When your body is used to something for a long period of time, it starts to learn to survive off of that, even if it is junk. When disrupts the body's normal cycle, like replacing that bad with the good, it causes an inner turmoil or batlle. Eventually, if you stick with the new diet, the good stuff will overtake the bad stuff and a healthier you is the result. More energy, more strength, more developed muscle tissue that replaced that old fatty tissue. I say all of that to talk about this, thinking spiritually now, how many of you can look back at a former time in life when you were strong in Christ and think, "what happened to that person?" It's not like you planned it this way, it's just years of preoccupation with other things and continual moments of neglect will start to break down our spiritual health.
So how do we get back in shape? Well, it is a painful road. I am reminded of the passage in scripture where it talks about the beating of wheat against a rock. In order for the good grains to be seperated from the useless grains (chaff) workers would beat the stalks of wheat against a rock "vigorously" the Bible says and then they would shake the wheat violently in the air. It is a very physical process but it must be done in order for the useless stuff to be sperated from the useful stuff.
So, imagine that you are that stalk of wheat. Spiritually, we must go through a vigorous process of shaking off the crap we've allowed to come into our lives. It is not a pleasant experiene. It is full of pain and set backs. It is almost enough to make you want to quit. But, just like the label listed in my side effects of the new diet I'm, "don't give up because the outcome is worth the pain." We have to hold the same outlook if want to achieve back our spiritual lives. So, what must be beat out of us? Well, only you can answer the question personally but I will give you some places to look.........In the friends you choose to hang around most often, in the weak personal self esteem you hold against yourself, in the music you listen to (this is a big one if you really want to achieve results) There are certain foods that I love that I can't eat anymore and I have to make an honest effort to not eat those foods or I will slip back into eating them. And the foods that I love are now being replaced with things i don't like so much but they are healthier for me. Do you see it. Can you see the comparison here to what we listen to, what we watch, what we say, etc...
Are you really wanting to get back in shape spiritually or is it just another attempt done in vain? Are you really serious or have you already pretty much given up before you even started? That doesn't mean that you won't try. It just means that you won't succeed. Do you see the changes that you have to make as being too overwhelming, too drastic, too life altering for you to make? I did but then I realized that if a Savior could wothstand all of the pain he endured for me, I can withstand a small amount of pain to stand for Him. I did a devo the other night about hitting your head on a rock as a consequence to stepping in the wrong places in life. But tonight, I ask you, who is ready to purposefully hit themselves on a rock so we can start to seperate the bad stuff (chaff) from the good in life, so we can become spiritually healthy?