[Kelli]

AAAHHHH! I must be really thick headed. I really, really, never saw or thought I was upsetting anyone. My heart is so full of love for everyone here. I guess I just have such a burden, and feel so passionate about showing people what God has shown me. There is such a freedom about not worrying about what I look like. Our bodies are just not that important (our bodies are the only part of us that's not eternal). Pursuing what God put you here to do, is the thing that is important, and will give you passion and fulfillment.

I have written a website, for those of you who are interested. It is totally free. I just want to show other hurting people what God has shown me. its at flowersoverthewall.com

Love, Kelli

[linda45]

I love this thread & agree with it completely. Beginning Aug 30/10 I've been listening to the Father moment by moment in my weight loss journey. I'm eating only when hungry & stopping when barely full. God has led me to correct portions & has broken the cravings totally.

I'm down 40 lbs & have found freedom from the diet addiction & obsession.

Helpful books are Thin Within & The Eden Diet (Rita Hancock).

How wonderful to face the diet madness of January in total peace.

[Kelli]

My husband and I used to provide foster care for teenage girls; and because of the trauma they suffered, they all had issues. When we would try to help them deal with a negative character trait such as depression or anger, they would sometimes say, “That’s just the way I am,” and I can relate because I was stuck that way for years. Always looking back at my past mistakes, I felt trapped forever with the behavior, looking to the future with fear of what I might do or what might happen to me. Then Jesus began to show me something cool. Once you become born again, you are a new creation. Satan’s worst fear is that you recognize that. This new man doesn’t look at the mistakes of the past because he knows God has forgotten those failures. The new man doesn’t look at the future, because he knows God’s promised He will provide. The new man looks at this moment right here. God promises he will help us overcome. Most of the time when we sigh and think or say “This is my cross to bear” we are talking about things we think will happen and not things which have actually occurred. Or we are talking about things that have occurred in the past, things which God has already brought us through, but we continue to hold on to. When you are being tempted, you simply live in that moment and that moment alone, deal with the present circumstance.

If you can grasp this concept, you will find it easy to resist temptation. You can do anything for one moment. When that moment is gone go to the next and the next. Don’t think ahead or behind, practice it. Call on Jesus in that moment. Fight the battle in that moment and that moment only. It works by taking the pressure off; you don’t have to deal with this forever. God will fight for you. After a few minutes of testing, God takes over the fight. Just hang on for that moment. Then if you still want to overeat, do it. Let it go, take the pressure off yourself.

You see, it’s not only overeating that numbs your feelings and gives you an escape, it’s the whole process. You can feel sad about something less painful than the hurt you have suffered, and are trying to stuff down. With overeating there is hope that you can change things. The numbing process goes like this. You start out feeling good, you found a new diet and counting calories and writing down list and weighing everything you eat, and it takes your mind off your true pain. Then because you can’t allow yourself to succeed, (what would you run to for the zoning out process), you fail. Then you will just eat a little; you will be strong tomorrow. You will just have a small piece of chocolate cake even though you’re not in the least bit hungry. Then you take a sliver and eat it fast before you change your mind. Then you say, “I’ve blown it anyway might as well have another, I am so weak. Then the process of self-abuse begins. Then you eat the whole cake, one sliver at a time, all the while telling yourself how weak and stupid you are. Then the depression about how overweight you are. Then your friend calls and tells you about a new diet and the whole process of zoning out and not really taking care of the real problem begins all over again.

Next time you get tempted to overeat, think about what you are doing right at that moment. What thoughts, feelings, or projects are you trying to avoid? Then ask God to help you deal with the issue. God revealed this to me this morning, and when I was tempted to overeat today, I stopped to see what was making me want to zone out, or change the subject of the way my thoughts were going. I realized that every time I got frustrated with something I wanted to eat. I have ADD, and sometimes things are hard for me to figure out. I wanted to avoid doing a hard part of my work, so I would reach for a candy. Just remember to stay in the moment. I have a friend who is doing this Study with me and she wrote something I thought was so smart. She said, “God puts a cap on how long Satan can tempt us.” He will flee, just stay in the moment.

II Corinthians 4:16-18 Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. 17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, 18 while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

Before God showed me this concept, I would get trapped in my thoughts, the “I have always done it that way” thoughts. The suggestion of, I’ll always do it that way. Thinking in the future of the work involved with resisting temptation, adds a lot of pressure to that moment.

James 1:12-15 Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. 13 Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. 14 But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. 15 Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.

Don’t let Satan trick you with suggesting you can sin in this moment, because you always have the next moment. You only have this moment, this one right now. If you give into that suggestion, you are living in the next moment. Use this moment to live for Jesus. You want to get rid of the negative behavior of overeating, or you wouldn’t be reading this. Just do it! It’s easy. In Him, you can do anything and living for this moment makes it easier.

[EZMONEY]

Hi Kelli!

[Kelli]

Hi Gary! Love ya brutha.

[Kelli]

After David was confronted with the sin of committing adultery with Bathsheba, and killing her husband. He prayed, Psalm 51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me.

What do you think David meant when he asked God to “renew a steadfast spirit within him”?

The Dictionary defines the word, Steadfast as:

1. fixed in direction; steadily directed: a steadfast gaze.
2. firm in purpose, resolution, faith, attachment, etc.,
3. unwavering, as resolution, faith, adherence, etc.
4. firmly established, as an institution or a state of affairs.
5. firmly fixed in place or position.

Negative thoughts are what steer you away from having a steadfast spirit. If you are focused on the pains of the past you will be defeated and depressed. The only thing keeping you from losing weight is your own attitude. Satan will keep you defeated if you stop paying attention and let him. You have to deliberately decide you will be steadfast in your joy. Even if you don’t feel joyful, sing and dance. That’s how you fight, you praise and dance with joy even though you are crying in sorrow.

Remember any suffering you are going through is nothing compared to the spiritual knowledge you gain from the experience. He will turn your mourning into joy! Quit complaining to anybody that will listen, you will never reach your full potential if you are negative. Don’t let Satan steal your joy! Keep getting back up. Pray for a persevering attitude. Even secular medical science tells us a right attitude will have an impact. You say you can’t, God says He will. I’m sure one of Satan’s favorite tools is a negative, complaining Christian.

If you are like I am, you think you’re not one of these Christians, as a matter of fact I always considered myself to be a very positive person, but one time I decided to listen to myself for a day to see how many negative things came out of my mouth, I was amazed! I discovered I would say something negative to start a conversation, I would say, “man it’s miserably hot, I can’t wait until winter”, or man it is miserably cold, I can’t wait until summer”.

Philippians 4:8,9 Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. 9 The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.

Every moment presents us with a new opportunity we can start new, fresh, and forgiven. Every new moment affords us an opportunity to discover and experience Gods mercies. We can put the former things behind us and press on.

Colossians 3:1-3 If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. 2 Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. 3 For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

Decide to stand by faith and get rid of the strong hold. You have the power of the most high God, the same power that raised Christ from the dead dwells in you. Everlasting, unstoppable, the strongest power in the universe is available to you, as long as you are in God’s will, fighting Satan by submitting to God is always in God’s will.

You cannot allow discouragement a place in your mind. Sometimes it just feels good to feel sorry for ourselves and let discouragement and negative thoughts flow, but it is not going to get you what you need. Get up, sing “The Joy of the Lord is My Strength”, or “This Is a Day that the Lord Has Made, I Will Rejoice and be Glad In It.” That is why we sing and praise God, to remind us of all He has done. It’s not because God is narcissistic, He knows He is all good and perfect, He doesn’t need you to tell Him. It’s for your benefit we praise God with song and scripture, it is positive affirmation to us of God’s love and His power.

II Kings 6:15-18 And when the servant of the man of God arose early and went out, there was an army, surrounding the city with horses and chariots. And his servant said to him, “Alas, my master! What shall we do?”

16 So he answered, “Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” 17 And Elisha prayed, and said, “LORD, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.” Then the LORD opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw. And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. 18 So when the Syrians came down to him, Elisha prayed to the LORD, and said, “Strike this people, I pray, with blindness.” And He struck them with blindness according to the word of Elisha.

The servant couldn’t see the huge army God had in the hills, until God opened his eyes. These things were written and passed down to make us remember God’s power. Believe in His mighty power. Remember these things as you are being tempted. Dwell on them, not negative self talk. When Jesus was being tempted by Satan, it was his steadfast use of the positive Words of God, His calm and unfaltering faith, defeated Satan.

Through Christ you can overcome this obsession. We are more than conquers we have the most high God, the most powerful force in the universe. A right spirit is a persevering, humble, dependent upon God, spirit.

Romans 13:11-14 And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. 12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. 13 Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. 14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.

[Kelli]

So you lose all your weight, then what? If you’re like I was, your thoughts have been filled with dieting, and losing weight for so long, I really didn’t know what would fill my thoughts if I didn’t have the anxiety I had always had about my weight. I realized that if I didn’t get rid of the obsession with being thin, I would replace the getting skinny obsession with the staying skinny obsession. I knew my thoughts would still be absorbed with food, fat, calories, etc. Those thoughts made me tired and unhappy, I realized that being thin would not make me content, I knew I would still yearn for food, and I really didn’t want them anymore. I was so tired.

So how do you replace those thoughts? Use Scripture. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 10, that you can capture your thoughts.

Matthew 6:25 [Do Not Worry] “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?

This passage isn’t necessarily saying God will always have you dressed to the nines, it’s saying no matter what you wear your body is valuable, not the clothes you wear. You wear the clothes, the clothes don’t wear you. Just like you wear your body, your body doesn’t wear you, and life is more than food. It doesn’t matter what the food is that’s not what makes your life. The old adage that says, “Beauty is only skin deep.” Is talking about physical beauty, you can be physically beautiful and have a very ugly heart.

The Bible uses the word “Bread or Food” symbolically, Jesus called Himself “the bread from heaven” John 6:32, “The bread of God” John 6:33 “the bread that came down from Heaven”.

We have all been given gifts and talents that God wants to use to further His kingdom and help others find and develop a relationship with Him. If you don’t know what your mission in life is, don’t worry, God will make it clear to you in His time, your job is to seek out what that assignment is. Instead of worrying about calories, weight, food, etc… get out there and figure out what God wants you to do. If you already know your part of the body, then get busy doing it! Fill your heart and mind with it. Capture all the thoughts of weight, dieting, and food and replace them with the task at hand. Finding and doing your job is the only and I mean ONLY thing in life that will fulfill you. Satan uses the whole cycle of addiction. The fail, guilt, find a new diet, have a measure of success, then failure again, to distract us from our mission.

John 6:55 For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed.

Acts 14:17 Nevertheless He did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good, gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.”

Jesus says so many times in His word that He is the Bread, and doing God’s work is spiritual food. Figuratively, Jesus is Heavenly Manna, the spiritual food given to those who ask seek knock. You are not your own, quit worrying about what you look like, and get busy.

I Corinthians 6:19-20 For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.

[Kelli]

Quote from Paul Campos. He is the author of the Obesity myth.

Is your weight hazardous to your health? According to America's public health authorities, there's an 80% chance that it is. From the Surgeon General's office, the Centers for Disease Control, the National Institutes of Health, and our leading medical schools, America's anti-fat warriors are bombarding us with dire warnings: According to such sources, no less than four of every five Americans maintain a medically dangerous body mass (nearly two-thirds of us are said to be overweight, while almost half of the rest of the nation is categorized as too thin).
If these claims sound implausible, there's a very good reason why: because they're false. Indeed, given that Americans are enjoying longer lives and better health than ever before, the claim that four out of five of us are running serious health risks because of our weight sounds exactly like the sort of exaggeration that can produce a cultural epidemic of fear, bearing no relation to any rational assessment of risk.
On the other hand, given the pervasiveness of America's fear of fat, it's only natural that many readers will react skeptically to a claim that this fear has no real medical or scientific justification. For one thing, it is always disturbing to acknowledge that authoritative social institutions can and sometimes do seriously mislead the public: At some level everyone would like to be able to trust our culture's experts and authority figures when they claim to know what's best for us. Indeed, when I began researching this topic five years ago, I assumed the fact that being "overweight" was a serious health risk was so well established that this aspect of the subject was hardly worth discussing. Yet in the course of plowing through dozens of books, hundreds of articles in medical journals, and countless interviews with medical and scientific experts, I discovered that almost everything the government and the media were saying about weight and weight control was either grossly distorted or flatly untrue.

It does seem strange that we hear so much about how unhealthy we are, yet our life expectancy is increasing every year??? In fact, we hear so much from the billion dollar a year diet industry... They tell us that our children could be the only generation who's life expectancy will be shorter, than their parents. But in fact our life expectancy has risen dramatically since 1960 when the life expectancy was 69.8. in 2008 it was 78.4. I just don't think we should check our brains at the door. I understand that their has been wonderful medical advances since then, but I also don't think that we are as unhealthy and doomed as the diet industry claims either. Google Marilyn Monroe, and look at her images. then Google some of our "idols" for today. You tell me which one is more attractive.

In my opinion it's not just the easy access and lower activity rate that has contributed to our obesity. I think it is all the talk of diets. We are obsessed! Dieting my actually lead to an eating disorder.

hummm, it's something to think about. What do you think?

[Kelli]

If you lose weight for the wrong reasons, in the wrong way, it won’t make you happy. You may be skinny, but your soul will be lean. Your weight and diet will still always be at the front of your mind. You will still be obsessed with your weight and dieting. Don’t think that when you reach your weight goal, suddenly your weight thoughts and obsession with dieting stops? No you continue to dwell in unhappiness, worrying you will gain it back, because it’s still hard to resist the food.

Why do you think that many of the patients of Bariatric surgery gain their weight back?

Because they haven’t addressed the issues of why they became overweight in the first place. Do it Gods way and have a fat soul. Feeding on Jesus is spiritual food. When you take food into your body, it makes muscles and tissue grow. The food becomes part of you.

Once you became a Christian, your spirit gained control of your body. Satan will try to convince you otherwise. However, God, the God who made heaven and earth has pronounced; you are a new creation! Your body is what houses the most important thing about you. Your body is wonderful, amazing. It mystifies the most brilliant and educated. each cell of your heart can beat on its own! No one can tell you why it perpetually beats, and yet it does. However, the most important thing about "YOU" is not your body. It is the tent for your spirit, the everlasting part of you.

Your body/flesh is only special because it’s perfectly suited to grow your spirit. To become truly committed to God your spirit has to grow and your body/flesh has to shrink. Your body/flesh is what Satan controls, that is his vehicle. Your spirit is what wants and desires to follow God, pray for your spirit. The stronger your spirit is the weaker your flesh will become.

What happens when you try, and try, and you still can’t stop eating and gaining weight? God wants you to be thin and healthy, but more than that He desires a relationship with your spirit, He wants your spirit to be fat and healthy, Man shall not live by bread alone.

Love, Kelli

[Kelli]

Those who are addicted to food are especially susceptible to the suggestion of Satan to eat when we are not hungry, because it’s not like drugs or smoking, you can get away from those addictions. That is why we have to resist the attacks on our faith.

Jude 1:3 Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.

Contend means to struggle in opposition: to contend with the enemy for control. You have to fight for control of your faith. Recognize the attack and counter attack with your faith, using God’s Word in faith.

Ephesians 6:13-18 (The Message) Be prepared. You're up against far more than you can handle on your own. Take all the help you can get, every weapon God has issued, so that when it's all over but the shouting you'll still be on your feet. Truth, righteousness, peace, faith, and salvation are more than words. Learn how to apply them. You'll need them throughout your life. God's Word is an indispensable weapon. In the same way, prayer is essential in this ongoing warfare. Pray hard and long. Pray for your brothers and sisters. Keep your eyes open. Keep each other's spirits up so that no one falls behind or drops out.

Satan is always on the lookout to find ways to discourage us. We gain ground and we hope we can keep the victory, but Satan always finds another attack. He will keep attacking, and we will keep using our weapons. He will eventually give up trying to tempt us with that particular sin, until a more opportune time. However, it is a process. We gain the strength and faith muscles, by using them. Some of you will lose the weight immediately while others, like me will need more fighting to strengthen our faith. Don’t run ahead of God, He doesn’t need your help. Keep using your weapons when you are tempted. If you still want to eat, go ahead. Don’t let the temptation become the forbidden fruit, don’t give the food or Satan that power, because then you will want it more. Let go give up control to God, stand, trust, and obey.

We can do this! We have God, the God who spoke and created the universe. He is on our side, but your faith is essential. The Bible says that when Jesus went to his own hometown, He could do no mighty works because of their lack of faith.

Love, Kelli

[Kelli]

I LOVE ROMANS!!!!

Romans 8:1-17 (The Message)

Romans 8
The Solution Is Life on God's Terms
1-2With the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah, that fateful dilemma is resolved. Those who enter into Christ's being-here-for-us no longer have to live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud. A new power is in operation. The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death.

3-4God went for the jugular when he sent his own Son. He didn't deal with the problem as something remote and unimportant. In his Son, Jesus, he personally took on the human condition, entered the disordered mess of struggling humanity in order to set it right once and for all. The law code, weakened as it always was by fractured human nature, could never have done that.

The law always ended up being used as a Band-Aid on sin instead of a deep healing of it. And now what the law code asked for but we couldn't deliver is accomplished as we, instead of redoubling our own efforts, simply embrace what the Spirit is doing in us.

5-8Those who think they can do it on their own end up obsessed with measuring their own moral muscle but never get around to exercising it in real life. Those who trust God's action in them find that God's Spirit is in them—living and breathing God! Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life. Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God. Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God, ends up thinking more about self than God. That person ignores who God is and what he is doing. And God isn't pleased at being ignored.

9-11But if God himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of him. Anyone, of course, who has not welcomed this invisible but clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ, won't know what we're talking about. But for you who welcome him, in whom he dwells—even though you still experience all the limitations of sin—you yourself experience life on God's terms. It stands to reason, doesn't it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he'll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ's!

12-14So don't you see that we don't owe this old do-it-yourself life one red cent. There's nothing in it for us, nothing at all. The best thing to do is give it a decent burial and get on with your new life. God's Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go!

15-17This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It's adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike "What's next, Papa?" God's Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children. And we know we are going to get what's coming to us—an unbelievable inheritance! We go through exactly what Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with him, then we're certainly going to go through the good times with him!

[Kelli]

Joshua 23: 8-10 but you shall hold fast to the LORD your God, as you have done to this day. 9 For the LORD has driven out from before you great and strong nations; but as for you, no one has been able to stand against you to this day. 10 One man of you shall chase a thousand, for the LORD your God is He who fights for you, as He promised you.


Matthew 12:30 He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad.

Luke 11:23 He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters.

II Corinthians 1:24 Not that we have dominion over your faith, but are fellow workers for your joy; for by faith you stand.

By faith you stand. Remember II Corinthians 10:5. Bring every thought into captivity! Rationalizations, grab the thought, it’s simple every time the thought comes up that does not belong to God capture it by saying/praying "God it’s you war". Much of the Old Testament is about God fighting wars through His people, against enemies of God and the New Testament is how God fights for you against spiritual enemies. He is our Commander-in –Chief, and we take orders from nobody but Him. You do what He tells you to do without question. You are His. You belong to Him.

I Corinthians 16:13 Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong.

If you don’t stand firm in your faith, you don’t stand at all. Every single battle we fight against Satan begins in the brain. It begins as a thought, we allow the thought to ramble around a little in our brain, and then we rationalize. It wouldn’t be so bad. I will pray and ask for help next time. Then we cave in to the temptation, we give up, without hardly a fight, “saying I can’t, I’m too weak, Satan is so strong. Before the thought forms and takes control it’s a lot easier to capture it. Simply turn it over at that moment. Give it to God and it’s over.

Galatians 4:9 But now after you have known God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which you desire again to be in bondage?

You allow sin to take you captive; you walk right up to the enemy and surrender. You give up too easily, because you believe you are too weak and you can’t help yourself, and your right, but that is the deception, Satan makes you think you are alone. You have a vast army at your disposal. You are not on your own, all you have to do is ask for it. What do all the scripture above tell us about fighting the war?

As soon as that sin enters you thoughts you simply pray and say aloud if you are alone “God this is your battle.” It’s as simple as that! A Whispered scripture, such as, "I can do all things through Christ" or "My God will fight for me", are very powerful weapons.

Find some of your own scriptures. I know I have mentioned this before, but when things are simple we often tend to pass them up because we think it should be harder, but this is how Jesus fought the battles. You must stand firm you can’t be wishy washy. Satan is not omnipotent but he is a lot smarter and more devious than we are. If you say “God this is Your battle I think”, or, “God I wish you would take this battle…”

Let’s look at a for instance of when you have used this method and didn’t know it. Think of a sin you would never do, like shoplifting, when you think of that thought, you immediately dismiss it as repulsive or preposterous. You don't let it enter in. Satan knows he can’t use that against you because that is absolutely no question you would ever do it. You stand firm. That is the way you handle every thought.

James 1:12 Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.

James 1:14-15 illustrates so beautifully, how our thought process works. We can look at Eve as an example, she hangs around places she shouldn’t, close to the temptation. Then Satan engages her, knowing by her actions her weakness. Satan introduces the thought, then if allowed; it grows, fed by rationalization. Then you Give birth to it, committing the sin, then the regret.

If you are a habitual dieter. If you make endless lists. If your thoughts are filled with your weight, food, and what you look like, consider that dieting may be your most habitual sin. Ask God to show you the truth.

Love, Kelli

[Kelli]

We become so obsessed with how we look, we forget about who we are and what we are to be doing. I was so obsessed with my looks, the thought of going to church or work without makeup was inconceivable to me. Wearing makeup is okay, but if you can’t go to church or you couldn’t do something God asked you to do without it, you may have a problem.

When I was researching the “Fasting to Feast” Bible study, I felt like God was calling me to do a fast to prepare for my ministry. I ended up fasting but it was not what I had expected.

My husband and I carpool to work every day. I love it because it’s nice to be able to just sit and talk, and another bonus is, I can put on my makeup on the way to work. As I said, I knew I wanted to fast in preparation for my Bible study, but I had this huge conflict. The whole premise of the diet is to eat when you are hungry and stop when you are full. I knew God wanted me to fast, but how could I say I lost weight by eating the way God told me to eat, when I was fasting?

One morning on the way to work, I was putting on my makeup while talking to my husband. I told him my dilemma. He said, "you don't always have to fast food you know, you could fast from something else. I started thinking about it; I said well what would it be? I can't fast from my computer, because that's part of my ministry, and how would I do my Bible study. I knew it wasn’t Television, that wouldn’t be a sacrifice, because I don’t watch it that often. I thought it wouldn’t be makeup because God knows I could never do without my makeup…

Well, I don't know how God talks to you, but with me, I usually say or think something, and He will bring a Scripture to my mind that confirms the thought or statement. I have been studying fasting in preparation for a fast and I ran across a Scripture a few days earlier that stuck in my mind, and that's the one that popped into my head as soon as I said, “God knows I could never do without my makeup”

Daniel 10: 2 In those days I, Daniel, was mourning three full weeks. 3 I ate no pleasant food, no meat or wine came into my mouth, nor did I anoint myself at all, till three whole weeks were fulfilled.

I knew God was telling me He wanted me to give up my makeup. Now to most folks this probably would be nothing. But for me it was hard, I have worn makeup since the sixth grade and I look drastically different without it. I had a hard time leaving my house without it. I was talking to my friend about it. I was telling her how stupid I felt at work because I thought I looked so different, she said. Don’t worry about what people think, just worry about what God thinks. That simple statement helped get the whole thing back into perspective. Through the fasting God showed me my make up doesn't define me. My body is the least important part of me and the only part that's not eternal. I knew that intellectually, but now it’s in my heart.

The Christian has to realize, who they are and their position in Christ. We are Christ’s children and we represent His good name. When you go around defeated because you aren’t using your Father's authority and trusting Him, it makes not only your Father look bad, but also your whole family (other Christians). If your father was the president, and you went around telling everyone how poor you are, and you lived like a transient, all the countries of the world would be wondering what is wrong with your dad? Why isn’t he taking care of his child? You would have the news media frenzy. In Christ's Family, we trust that our father will take care of us.

Colossians 1: 10- 12 (NIV) so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;

11strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously

12giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light.

I used to complain, saying yeah, my life is hard... but I know God has a reason for everything. Then I started realizing how blessed I am, no matter what I looked like, I stopped complaining (murmuring). I used to say, "when I am thin, then I will be happy" or "I will do this and that, when I get skinny". The time to do "it" is NOW!!! ABUNDANT LIFE, at 120lbs or 320 lbs, is abundant!

[Kelli]

What is the value of a man? There are different ways of calculating our worth. It's been said that if you break down the basic elements of our bodies, they are worth about 98 cents. However, you can turn around and sell one eyeball for $10,000 dollars.

People pay millions of dollars each year for plastic surgery trying to gain back their youth. The focus of our world is on our outward appearance. Even standing in the checkout line at the grocery store, comparing ourselves with the magazine covers can make us feel worthless. Being just a few pounds overweight, can cause deep depression, but read what the Bible says about that.

Ephesians 2:10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

God doesn’t look at our outward appearance. He loves who we are and what we are about.

The flesh, or the human element of us (our outward appearance) is our carnal side and has the least value of what makes up “You”.

Satan turns it all around. The world places the highest value on what is the least important. Your body is not even eternal, it is wonderful because God created it, but your body does not have everlasting value, not quite worth a buck. You get a new one when you are with Jesus. Your soul is eternal and beautiful, it’s not decaying as your body is, and it grows more rich and full as we grow older.

We become so self-obsessed and depressed over the part of us that is worth the least. God creates you for good works! We know that Satan Is the accuser of the brethren and one of his aspirations is to make you feel condemned.

[EZMONEY]

Hi Kelli