Take My Life - Eyes
on the Sky to Die? –Purity 685
Purity
685 03/22/2022 Purity 685 Podcast
Good
morning,
Today’s photo of the view of
the sky and several palm trees comes to us from a friend’s recent visit to
Florida’s Treasure Coast. I am sure the
view of the ocean must have been nice that day, but our friend had the presence
of mind to look up and realized that the vertical view was worthy of capturing
too.
Well, Happy Tuesday, while I am rejoicing
this morning over the fact that, if the Lord wills it, I will be reunited with
my wife this evening at our countryside home because I have Wednesday off from
my “day job” I have to admit that I am feeling the after affects of being “on
the go” and working nearly 16 hours yesterday.
With that lament you may suspect that it was a “bad day” but on the
contrary while the day was long and filled with activity none of it took my
peace away.
My secret, of course, is that I “prayed
without ceasing” by keeping a running dialog with the Lord through out the day
to ask Him to go before me, to be with me, to show me the way to go and to
inquire of why somethings had to be the way they were. I also thanked Him for being there, for
showing me what I needed to see, and for directing my path to see some
wonderful sights and to be used to give some people comfort.
Through my job with the phone company, I
was able to resolve a few people’s telecommunications problems. I fixed ‘em
all, and I also got to see a whole lot of real estate of up State New York as
my tasks sent me far and wide under yesterday’s blue skies. Throughout the day,
I thanked God for the bright although windy spring day and for the resolvable
problems I encountered along the way.
Those days are not typical in my line of business,
so I was thankful and it was with a overall attitude of satisfaction and peace that
I went into my second job as a psych tech for mobile crisis assessment team. When you are helping people in crisis, you
have to put your problems aside, so I was happy that I didn’t have any when I
started my shift at MCAT.
I was reminded last night that not all
conversations with God are as jovial as mine were throughout the day. Last night, our team was dispatched to assess
a young woman who had made suicidal statements and she admitted to us that because
of the stress in her life she had been continually asking God to take her
life.
Faced with the stress of broken relationships,
financial hardship, the responsibility of raising her young children, this
young woman had made inquires to friends to take care of her kids “when she was
gone” causing her mother to request the assessment. The good news is that she wasn’t alone, her
mother had made the right call, and now she can have a network of support to
help her with her problems.
As vastly different as I am from this young
woman, I could really relate to her story because there were times in my life when
the stresses of having to transition to adulthood and rise to the challenges of
supporting my family and raising young children had brought me to the brink of
suicide.
That stress of being a “grown up in the
real world” is rough and I remember how my feelings of inadequacy filled me
with hopelessness that filled my youth with destructive behaviors and a pretty
consistent death wish.
The wish to not “grow up” is not just for “toys
‘r us kids” as the stress of “adulting” can cause us to call on God to enact a “final
solution” that will end our pain and send us to heaven. These life responsibilities don’t end and if
we don’t learn to manage our stress and come into harmony with the realities of
life these “death wishes” can be a cyclical phenomenon that can repeat throughout
our lives.
The world’s answer to focus on our careers
or families can work when things are running smoothly but it can be the cause
of the loss of our hope if things in those areas go awry. The failure of the American dream to work in
our lives can cause us to shout out to heaven to end it all.
So while this young woman’s dreams have
seemed to have failed her and she had been asking God to take her life, I know
that God used her mother and the Mobile Crisis Assessment Team to save it.
Sometimes our problems can seem so big that
we can’t see a way past them or don’t think we have the strength or
capabilities to overcome them but the Lord wants us to live. He gave us life with
the purpose to know Him, to love Him, and to love our neighbors as
ourselves.
So last night the mental health agency that
was created to help the neighbors of our local community answered a cry for
help that was sent in God’s direction and even though this woman’s struggles
aren’t over, we left her with the hope that comes from knowing you are not
alone and that there are others that will help you in your time of need.
So I don’t know where you are today, but it
is possible that you are in a season where the stress is high and you have
thoughts that tell you it would just be better to die. But I am here to tell you that those thoughts
are a lie, your death won’t make things better for the ones you leave behind.
God created you and placed you where you are in life for a purpose: to love
those around you.
So instead of asking the Lord to take your
life to make you die, I would like to encourage you to ask the Lord to take
your life to make you live.
Focusing on the world can be pretty
depressing and we can instinctively call on God to take us out of it, but He is
the one who put us in it and He knows that if you walk with Him you can find
the meaning and purpose to your life and live in the peace that goes beyond all
understanding that He has for you.
So look to the sky and tell the Lord that
you know in your heart that He is there. Say a prayer to Him and ask Jesus to
be your Lord and Savior so you can be at peace with the Lord and enjoy the new
eternal and abundant life that the Lord wants you to have.
Be real and honest in your decision to let
the Lord “take your life” and to use it for His glory. When we trust in God we can overcome “the impossible”
and we can face each new day with hope because we know that we are not alone
because He will never leave us or forsake us and that some how and in some way,
the Lord will help us in our struggles because our hearts instinctively reach
out to Him in our darkest hours.
So keep walking and talking with God. I know for a fact that if you do, He will see you through. He will lead you out of the darkness and into the hope for today and tomorrow. And if you keep walking with Him, one day you will reach out and show another lost soul the way into His mercy, grace, and peace.
______________________________________________________________________
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Today’s Bible verse come to us from “The NLT Bible Promise Book
for Men”.
This morning’s meditation verse is :
James 1:4
(NKJV)
4 But let patience have its
perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing..
Today’s Bible verse encourages us to grow in patience to the point where we can see that the Lord has given us all we need.
Okay, this verse is speaking to the church, meaning you who are in a relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ. I remind us all of that because the practice of patience in that context is the only way we will experience being “perfect and complete”.
Colossians 2:10 tells us we are “complete in Him”, meaning Jesus. Sorry Jerry Maguire, only Jesus completes us.
Christ makes us complete, but we don’t always realize that. Our situation on earth can make us feel far from perfect and can make us feel that we lack a whole lot of things.
But when we go through trials and we patiently lean on the Lord for His strength and wisdom, we can experience “patience’s perfect work” of coming to the realization that we are undoubtedly a Christian, because of our committed trust in Him through the hard times that would want to cause us to go into despair, and that means that we have all the promises of God.
Our patience in our trials, that is born of our faith in God, can give us the “perfect and complete” understanding that we are indeed members of God’s royal family and that means that we lack nothing!
Our faith in Christ and our perseverance in trusting in Him.
even during the hard times, shows we really are “in Christ” and it is only
through Him that we could be “perfect and complete”.
Today’s verse is pointing to our growing into mature Christians that have the assurance of our salvation and the assurance of our continuous and unbreakable relationship with God, and because of that relationship, we are complete, perfect, and lack nothing.
So rejoice because the Lord has called you to walk with Him forever and every step we take in His direction that we make is another leap into the complete peace that He has for us and that He wants us to know perfectly.
As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.org where I always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk.
Today we continue sharing from June Hunt’s Overeating: Freedom from Food Fixation.
As always, I share this
information for educational purposes and encourage all to purchase June Hunt’s books for your own private study and to
support his work. This resource is
available on many websites for less than $5.00.
III.
CAUSES
Food … can function like a drug.
Food can be
eaten in an attempt to numb us from pain, thereby turning necessary sustenance
into a form of solace. The term “comfort food” identifies its role in our lives
… to console.
But it’s
pacifying ability isn’t permanent—the “fix” is only fleeting—because only a
short time after eating, we can find ourselves rummaging through cupboards and
cabinets, raiding the refrigerator … again. As with drugs, food can become an
addiction, consuming our thoughts … preoccupying us with when and where we’ll
get the chance to eat again.
Jesus
instead offers food for both the soul and the spirit that will deeply satisfy,
thereby minimizing the fixation on our physical appetites. He calls Himself “the bread of life,” the only One who
can provide lasting spiritual sustenance and can shift our focus from what’s in
the fridge to what’s in His Word. To be totally filled, to have your thirst
fully quenched, heed Jesus’ words.…
“I
am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever
believes in me will never be thirsty.”
(John 6:35)
In reality, no snack food can create
an obsession. (Manufacturers only wish they could make that claim.) The causes
for compulsive overeating are much more complex and deep-rooted. Compulsive
eating for many people is not based on physical hunger, but on emotional
hunger, a craving for the love and gratification they missed during their
childhood.
As you
search for the truth about your past and see within your heart the truth about
your present, honest answers can be the first step toward healing, as confirmed
by Scripture.…
“You
desired faithfulness even in the womb; you taught me wisdom in that secret
place.”
(Psalm 51:6)
A. What Are
Situational Setups for Overeating?
Cultural trends from country to
country can lead to situational setups for overeating.
In Egypt,
considered the 5th most overweight nation in the world, cultural taboos inhibit
women from exercising or playing sports. So rather than reaching for a tennis
racket, Egyptian women may be more prone to reach for another plate of food.
Obesity among Egyptian women is particularly high.
And a study
in New Zealand concluded that children who spent the greatest amount of time
watching television were at a far higher risk for developing adult obesity than
children who viewed little television. A sedentary lifestyle can be a
situational setup for overeating … and can become your “master,” when instead
God wants to be your Master.…
“If
you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have
you, but you must rule over it.”
(Genesis
4:7)
Other setups include …
• Childhood Circumstances
— Overweight parents (modeling poor eating
patterns)
— Rejection (using food to mask emotional pain)
— Sexual abuse (gaining weight to appear
unattractive and to insulate inner self)
— Verbal/emotional abuse (eating to soothe poor
self-image)
— Deprivation (turning to food as a source of
security)
• Physical Dynamics
— Less active lifestyle (discontinuing student
P.E. classes, changing jobs, retirement, becoming physically disabled)
— Childbirth (gaining weight during pregnancy)
— Hormonal changes with aging (lessening of
metabolism affecting the rate the body burns fat)
— Underactive thyroid gland (having a
hypothyroid condition that decreases production of fat burning hormones)
— Medications that cause weight gain (taking
steroids, certain antidepressants, or hormones)
— Genetic factors or chemical imbalances in the
brain
— Abnormal functioning of hypothalamus region
of the brain, which controls appetite
• Emotional State
— Depression (eating for emotional comfort)
— Grief (relying on food to replace feelings of
emptiness)
— Anxiety (focusing on food to calm the nerves)
— Loneliness (looking to food to compensate for
lack of companionship)
— Current abuse (feeling out of control except
for being able to choose food to eat)
— Substituting one bad habit for another
(replacing smoking with overeating)
• Relational Patterns
— Business engagements (conducting business
meetings over a meal)
— Social gatherings (fellowshipping around
food)
— Busy schedule (eating out or on the go rather
than cooking healthily at home)
— Boredom (preparing and eating meals to help
pass the time)
— Celebrating (using food as a reward)
• Decision Making
— Weak impulse control (not saying no to the enjoyment of excess food)
— Poor judgment (not considering size of
portions)
— Family, peer, and cultural pressure (not
wanting to “hurt people’s feelings”)
— Consumption of too much alcohol (not limiting
the high calorie content of alcohol)
— Conclusion of a diet (not realizing healthy
eating is a way of life)
— Substituting one bad habit for another
(replacing smoking with overeating)
Whatever situations from the past
served to set you up to be an overeater, you are no longer living in the past
and you have the power to break the hold those situations have on you today.
Even if your circumstances haven’t changed, you have. You are no longer a child
but an adult. You are no longer powerless but powerful. You are no longer
unable to choose for yourself but free to exercise your will. You can walk in
freedom from overeating.…
“It
is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let
yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.”
(Galatians
5:1)[1]
---------------------------more tomorrow------------------------
Join our “Victory over the Darkness”, “The Bondage Breaker”,
"Freedom in Christ" series of Discipleship Classes via the
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at https://mt4christ247.podbean.com, You can also find it on Apple podcasts
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Email me
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My wife, TammyLyn, also offers Christian encouragement via her Facebook
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(https://feed.podbean.com/tammalyn78/feed.xml)
Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship
[1]
June Hunt, Biblical Counseling Keys on Overeating:
Freedom from Food Fixation (Dallas, TX: Hope For The Heart, 2008),
19–21.
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