"Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." -Mark 14:36
What a great verse for this journey!
Jesus, Peter, James and John were in the Garden, and Jesus was preparing for his betrayal, arrest, and death. How intense it must have been to know what the near-future (and the far-future!) held for himself and his beloved disciples.
Peter had just 'assured' him earlier that he surely would not be the one to deny him. His spirit was surely willing to follow Jesus to the ends of the earth. But, as we see later on in the chapter, his flesh is weak - he does just as Jesus had said to him and denied him 3 times before the rooster crowed twice.
Later, as Jesus goes off to pray ("Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.") the three disciples fall asleep...repeatedly. Jesus has these stern, yet comforting words to say... "Simon, are you asleep? Could you not watch one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." (my emphasis added)
Here's what I think... Truly, in the journey to living a healthy life, and losing weight, there are plenty of temptations. But the key to strength in the midst of these temptations, the key to "not entering into" is to "watch and pray." We're repeatedly told throughout scripture that our bodies are to be temples of the Spirit... and other similar things. Our physical health and well being is obviously important to God... not because we look good when we're not obese... but because it shows discipline and the ability to overcome temptation, it shows that Christ is the center of our lives, not food!. However, just trying to do this on our own is obviously not God's plan (and in my opinion, not truly possible).
Through prayer we can overcome temptation and make wise choices!
Still at it!
I'm back! Sorry it's been a while since i've posted, but with traveling and the busyness of life, my good intentions haven't actually gotten me to writing.
Things are going well. At last Wednesday's weigh-in I had lost 2 pounds, which is great. I had already lost some prior to our first 'official' weigh-ins at church.
My bible study ladies and I are still walking every Wednesday, which has been a lot of fun and great to be able to fellowship.
More good news, I may start going to Bally's Total Fitness soon. Keith had a lifetime membership there from his bachelor days that he had allowed to go in-active. We're thinking of reactivating and transferring the membership to me! Yay! I really need to go hard-core on the exercise, and then be able to scale back as I get closer to my goal weight.
My wonderful husband is being 100% supportive. Up until now we hadn't totally cleansed the house of bad foods, but we're pretty much cleaned out now and on our next grocery store run are planning on getting all healthy foods and planning our dinners (breakfast & lunch are easy! Clif Bar and Lean Cuisine!). He's also committed to picking up Victoria in the afternoon's for me so that I can go to the gym.
It's been great to see how God is really working in me through this, I feel like as much of a physical change as it is, I'm also having a real heart and attitude change about my health and eating. I look forward to what lies ahead, and pray that God can use me to help other people who struggle with eating and health problems.
Things are going well. At last Wednesday's weigh-in I had lost 2 pounds, which is great. I had already lost some prior to our first 'official' weigh-ins at church.
My bible study ladies and I are still walking every Wednesday, which has been a lot of fun and great to be able to fellowship.
More good news, I may start going to Bally's Total Fitness soon. Keith had a lifetime membership there from his bachelor days that he had allowed to go in-active. We're thinking of reactivating and transferring the membership to me! Yay! I really need to go hard-core on the exercise, and then be able to scale back as I get closer to my goal weight.
My wonderful husband is being 100% supportive. Up until now we hadn't totally cleansed the house of bad foods, but we're pretty much cleaned out now and on our next grocery store run are planning on getting all healthy foods and planning our dinners (breakfast & lunch are easy! Clif Bar and Lean Cuisine!). He's also committed to picking up Victoria in the afternoon's for me so that I can go to the gym.
It's been great to see how God is really working in me through this, I feel like as much of a physical change as it is, I'm also having a real heart and attitude change about my health and eating. I look forward to what lies ahead, and pray that God can use me to help other people who struggle with eating and health problems.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)