Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Delighting in Obedience

Oh my word!  Friends, I knew this journey was going to be tough, but I'll admit that the first couple of weeks were smooth sailing.  I was motivated, had family encouragement, and I felt GREAT.  Then, BOOM!  I should have known the devil wasn't going to let go so easily.

I was working out Thursday night with some nice yoga.  Right in the middle, I started to feel nauseous, but I had started and I was NOT going to quit.  Friday I woke up with an achy body and sore throat.  NO!!!!  I didn't work out because I was just so tired by the time I got home from work.  Well, what's one day?  And then, I didn't work out Saturday...or Sunday...or MONDAY.  Oh, dear.

I did keep up with my M2C reading and morning devotionals, but I just couldn't get that nagging feeling out of my stomach.  Have I just undone everything I've been working for?  Is it going to be impossible to start again?  WHAT HAVE I DONE???

If you were a part of the M2C Monday morning conference call, you know what the message was about...WILLPOWER.  Do these ladies have cameras set up at my house or something?  'Cause they were talking to ME!  The #1 LIE of willpower is that it won't be a struggle.  Boy am I learning that lesson this week.  Along with that little gem of advice, I was also reminded that I have to keep the perspective that I am creating a NEW LIFESTYLE and that I needed to make it HARD for myself to fail.  Time to get some accountability, girl!

Somewhere along this journey of learning how an online Bible study (OBS) works, I missed the post about getting into a small group.  So, to keep myself accountable, I am creating my own small group for this Bible study on Facebook.  Let me say that again---a girl who has never done an online Bible study before (ok, you know what, it's time to get real with you....I've never done ANY Bible study!) is going to create her own small group.  YEP!  I sure am!  I felt led to do so.  Here's where the delighting in obedience comes in.

Our verse from this week begins with "I give you treasures of darkness..."  The end of last week and beginning of this week were starting to get dark, y'all.  I was not standing up to overrule any objections the devil was putting into my head.  In order for me to follow the advice to make it hard for myself to fail, I HAD to get some accountability going on.  Then, the Lord put the small group idea into my head.  And I just jumped into the light feet first.  Pray for me, people! ;-)

From our reading this week, Lysa's sentence from p. 82 jumped out at me: "We are never supposed to get the satisfaction our souls desire from our looks".  Add to that a couple of verses that I felt like I needed to add to my notes this week: "A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones." Proverbs 14:30 and "The Lord does not look at the things man looks at.  Man looks at outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." 1 Samuel 16:7.

I am guilty of trying to satisfy my soul's desire through my looks.  But the truth is, I'm never going to be satisfied with it.  NEVER.  I'm super guilty of being envious of what other's have...especially in the looks department.  I have BEAUTIFUL friends...and it's hard to go in public with beautiful friends when you're secretly wishing you had something that each of them has.  The guilt of that is a difficult pill to swallow.  But, you know what???  The Lord isn't looking at my outside.  He wants me to get satisfaction in Him!  So, I'm going to continue to strive in delighting in the obedience of that.

On that note, since our blog message today on M2C was full of inspirational songs, I thought I'd share one of my favorites as well...



And if you've made it this far (whew, it's a long one!)  I'll share something funny.  After I finally decided to get up off my butt Tuesday, I got on the elliptical and worked hard for 60 minutes.  HARD...like I LITERALLY wore the wheels off of my old elliptical.  I'm not even joking.  The wheel came flying off and the workout was over!  It was SOOO funny.  Hahaha!  I hope you get a little chuckle out of that one.  No worries, though, I got a new one today.  No excuses!

8 comments:

Linda Hagopian said...

Your wheel fell off? OVERRULED!! (LOL!) Thank you for the wonderful truths you shared. And the chuckle! God bless you!

Jeanie said...

Thank you for these words. I needed to hear them as well. Keep up the great job,

Sherrie said...

Great blog - and good job for getting back up on your feet. We all fall down, but the getting up part is what is most important - and trusting in Him will make all the difference!

Thanks for sharing and for the morning chuckle :) (Hope your elliptical can be fixed!)

jcbtkbmom99 said...

LOVE your writing style.....giggled the whole way through the post BECAUSE I am right there with 'ya girl!!! Prayers to you for continued trust in God and endurance to get you through this! Hugs!!!

Anonymous said...

New wheel or new elliptical? Lol. My name is Sara and I am the small group leader of group 43. I loved your blog! I couldn't help but chuckle throughout and shake my head as if you were reading my mind. Awesome blog. Thank you so much for sharing!

Unknown said...

Ha ha!! What a great post. I loved your honesty about ups AND downs. This is definitely a journey for us all!!! I find...even though my motivation is still high..I am using the dieting as ANOTHER supplement for Soul Food. I fill myself through binging...I seek satisfaction from my looks...and now..I feel PROUD that I'm doing "okay stopping those idols". Oh geez. Time to get back on my knees and keep praying!!! I loved your song - here's one that's been speaking to me: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuvfMDhTyMA. God bless, Miriam of http://cravingsconfidential.blogspot.com.

Angie McGuirk said...

I wish I knew how to respond to each post. Thank you all so much for stopping by to read my ramblings! I feel so supported!
Sara--I got a new elliptical!
Mirium--I love that song, too!

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