Monday, October 6, 2008

Having a Mary Spirit---- The Flesh Woman Diet


Questions for Reflection
Read Colossians 2:20-23. How should we view the world’s approach to self-discipline? What warning signs does Colossians give for discerning what is good and what is harmful?The world way appears wise because they require strong devotion, pious self-denial and severe bodily discipline-but provide no help in conquering a person’s evil desires. The world’s ways are man’s view not God’s. God has set me free from the spiritual powers of the world. To discern good from harmful I need to determine whose rules I‘m following and cast them away if they are from man.

According to the following scriptures why is the person we are on the inside more important than the person we are on the outside?
Matthew 15:17-20 Matthew 23:27-28, Luke 6:45
The words I speak come from the heart-evilness, sin flows from the heart.
Need to be righteous pure on the inside –that is where God looks.
A good person produces good things from the heart. An evil person produces evil things from the heart. The heart is the center of who I am, it is where my goodness flows from as well as my not so goodness. I CAN MAKE THE OUTSIDE LOOK AS GOOD AS I WANT BUT IF THE HEART IS NOT RIGHT THE OUTSIDE WILL SOON BECOME UGLY, NOT REFLECTING GOD’S BEAUTY.

What spoke most to me?
Discipline is very hard for me and I have yet to conquer it in a number of areas in my life, and there may lay the problem I have been trying to conquer rather than let God do what God do. Like Joanna I give things to Goad and than take back- she helped me to begin to look at discipline differently.
1-Immediately give back to God what I keep taking from Him.2-To remember I am saying no to God and yes to Satan whenever I resist the conviction of the Holy spirit and each time I do this hell clamps chains on my soul this is a WOW moment.
3-Holiness is about choices. I have to make the choice to do what I know is right. It is my choice not to eat the cake, cookies, ice cream etc. It is my choice to order the healthy salad rather than the unhealthy giant hamburger if I desire to lose weight.
4-The problem is I don’t want to be challenged I just want to be changed. How true this is. Why can’t I wake up tomorrow morning and be my desired weight, why can’t I stay focused the entire 8 hrs I am at work. Why? Why? Because than I would have no need of a relationship with my God- truth be told I don’t really want a fairy Godmother- I want the relationship with God- I want to know God as God is and yes as painful as it sometime is I want Him to grow and mold me and take me through so I will truly know Him and I love watching God work in me. “I want to grow into the beautiful woman He wants me to be.”

A Space for Grace
Often in our pursuit of holiness, we experience moments so filled with power that we are enabled to do what we could not do before. We find ourselves in holy places where “heaven touches earth and we happen to be standing there,” as my friend Michael Snider puts it. If you’ve ever experienced an extra ability to overcome sin or a sudden lack of desire for a once cherished indulgence---that was a space of grace.”
A Space of Grace what a way to look at God’s blessings and how He blesses me- yes I have had such moments. Joanna’s say don’t ignore it and I will try to pay more attention to such moments for Joanna says they are a gift from God and truly they are. I look forward to the moment when God has moved me into this sacred space with discipline.

Bold-Joanna Weaver
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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good morning. I very much enjoyed your post this morning. This really hit home with me:

"3-Holiness is about choices. I have to make the choice to do what I know is right. It is my choice not to eat the cake, cookies, ice cream etc. It is my choice to order the healthy salad rather than the unhealthy giant hamburger if I desire to lose weight."

I have a couple of particular issues with which I am struggling and, of course, therein lies the problem. *I* am struggling with them rather than giving them to God.

Thanks for this message today which I so needed to hear.

tammi said...

"Why can’t I wake up tomorrow morning and be my desired weight, why can’t I stay focused the entire 8 hrs I am at work. Why? Why? Because than I would have no need of a relationship with my God..."

Which is why, if we're serious about our faith, trials should definitely strengthen our relationship with God because of our increased dependence on Him. You hit the nail right on the head there!

Sharon said...

Confirmationnnnn, My husband just preached on this Sunday!! Our hearts must be right, "SACRIFICE".
We must sacrifice, to get our hearts right. We know our selves what those things are, and only we can make those changes in our lives.
Great Post
Sharon

Debra said...

Really good food for the spirit here-I have been thinking about this. It helps me to know others struggle with things. Sometimes I feel lost, like I'm the only one 'not there yet.' I know that's not true, but I guess I feel like I need to go higher, and I'm just not seeing the hand He's holding out to me. I think this helped.
Love, Debra