Worship
2 Maccabees 1:2-5 (Good News Translation)
2 May God be good to you and keep the covenant he
made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, his faithful servants.3 May he
fill each of you with the desire to worship him and to do his will eagerly with
all your heart and soul.4 May he enable you to understand his Law
and his commands. May he give you peace,5 answer your prayers,
forgive your sins, and never abandon you in times of trouble.
For years my definition of worship has been going to church,
singing praise songs, and hearing the sermon.
I am learning that while those things are worship, there is a much
deeper meaning involved in the act of worship.
It isn’t something I do; it is something God does in me and it is
amazing. It is a heart change, meaning
there is not anything I do not praise God for these days. I praise Him for troubles, I praise Him for
blessings, and I find myself praising Him when I don’t even realize I am doing
it. It has become so much a part of me;
it is like breathing, it just happens.
When I totally surrendered myself and my desires, basically died to self,
and made the choice to only live a life according to God’s Will a change took place.
Galatians 2:20 (Good News Translation)
20 so that it is no longer I who live, but it is
Christ who lives in me. This life that I live now, I live by faith in the Son
of God, who loved me and gave his life for me.
God has been very busy changing me, the list is really
endless as I sit here and think about it, so grateful *sigh* BUT there is still a lot of changing left for
Him to do! Each day I am in awe at how I
view things differently, my biggest shock is the desire eat differently and
workout! Shortly after my first few
visits with my family Pastor it occurred to me overeating was a sin. I knew sin broke God’s heart and I had a
vision of Him crying from a broken heart because I was not taking care of myself
the way He wanted me to. This does not
mean I need to be super model skinny, no wrinkles, or anything else our society
tries to communicate to women. It simply
means that I need to be healthy. I need
to eat good for my body food with proper portion sizes and I need to
exercise. There is not a magic number on
the scale or all day sweating it out in the gym. It is a desire to be healthy and taking care
of myself so that I am capable of being all God created me to be. God addressed my eating first; I come from a
long family line of food lovers because my sweet grandmother showed us love by
cooking. Food & love became one in
the same, which sadly lead to every emotion equaling food. Eventually all the emotional eating led to
being overweight. Like most women I have
done diet after diet. I have been
successful lots of times, but eventually the weight came back. The real issue was a worshiping issue,
meaning a heart issue and God had to deal with it because it was keeping my
focus off Him. Food was my God! Food was my focus all day long. God is very clear about having other God’s in
my life,
Exodus 20:3-6 (Good News Translation)
3 Worship no god but me. 4 Do not make for yourselves
images of anything in heaven or on earth or in the water under the earth.5
Do not bow down to any idol or worship it, because I am the Lord your God and I
tolerate no rivals. I bring punishment on those who hate me and on their
descendants down to the third and fourth generation.6 But I show my
love to thousands of generations[a] of those who love me and
obey my laws.
The day I had a mental picture of God crying as I ate past
the point of being full, sinful behavior, changed me. I was able to relate to a broken heart
because I have suffered from one many times myself. I don’t wish a broken heart on anyone and
certainly do not want to be the cause of one!
I would love to say that I have never overeaten again since then, but
that is not the case. The difference is
it is not an everyday, every meal occurrence.
It is very seldom and I am convicted when it does happen. Living a life according to God’s will is a
learning process and I will surely stumble along the way. The great news is when overeating happens now
it is because I am not paying attention.
I no longer look for food to comfort me; I only look to God for comfort
these days. He is the true source of
lasting comfort :)
2 Corinthians 1-3 (The Message)
3-5All praise to the God and Father of our
Master, Jesus the Messiah! Father of all mercy! God of all healing counsel! He
comes alongside us when we go through hard times, and before you know it, he
brings us alongside someone else who is going through hard times so that we can
be there for that person just as God was there for us. We have plenty of hard
times that come from following the Messiah, but no more so than the good times
of his healing comfort—we get a full measure of that, too.
For my friends who LOVE to work out and have spent YEARS
trying to convince me how wonderful it feels afterwards will know God has
worked a miracle in me! Like most people
I have worked out because I knew I needed to, wanted to lose weight, be
healthier and so on. I never enjoyed
going, doing, or being done…EVER! I
never felt that rush of greatness or accomplishment when I finished. I can say I truly HATED every aspect of it
completely. I have gone with friends and
I have done it alone, nothing made it more fun.
It is truly a MIRACLE that I actually want to go workout and that I
enjoy it too. I miss it when I am sick
or my schedule is filled with appointments and I just can’t make it to the
track. I find myself in pure amazement
every time I go to the track and grateful for the change God has done in my
heart. Of course there have been times
my old thought patterns have popped up, but instead of giving into the thoughts
I pray for God to workout with me.
Before I know it my workout is over, my heart is full of gratitude, and
I am totally captivated by God’s presence.
Daniel 1:8-16 (NIV)
8 But Daniel resolved not to defile himself
with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission
not to defile himself this way. 9 Now God had caused the official to show favor and
compassion to Daniel, 10 but
the official told Daniel, “I am afraid of my lord the king, who has assigned
your[a] food and drink. Why should he see you looking
worse than the other young men your age? The king would then have my head
because of you.”11 Daniel then said to the guard whom
the chief official had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah,
12 “Please test your
servants for ten days: Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink.
13 Then compare our
appearance with that of the young men who eat the royal food, and treat your
servants in accordance with what you see.” 14 So he agreed to this and tested them for ten days.15 At
the end of the ten days they looked healthier and better nourished than any of
the young men who ate the royal food. 16 So the guard took away their choice food and the
wine they were to drink and gave them vegetables instead.
When I made the choice to take care of my body because I no
longer wanted to break God’s heart I had no idea what I was really doing was a
form of worshiping and honoring Him. I
can honestly say I have never felt better and I am in awe of all the blessings
in my life. I am so grateful God
designed me to have a longing for Him and changed my heart so that all I want
to do is glorify Him no matter my circumstances. Life is good and I am forever grateful for
His unconditional love and forgiveness. I am so thankful God is removing all
the false God’s in my life. I am finally reliant upon the One who has all the
power and who will never leave me or forsake me and loves me unconditionally just
as I am. My life is one hot mess but because
of Jesus I have never felt more peace, freedom, contentment and joy in my life!