My child, time spent with Me is your most productive time of day. Don’t let distractions enter in to our time together. I have much to say to you so let your ears be attentive. Don’t let the thoughts of the day take over. I am jealous for you. I want our time to be just you and Me. Be single minded in your pursuit of Me. I am in hot pursuit of you!
Your King and lover of your soul.
Created in the image of God? How so? For years I believed that the true essence of man is that he is a spiritual being. This seemed logical since we ultimately will share eternity with God, and the Bible clearly tells us that “God is spirit.”(John 4:24) Only later did I begin to realize that God’s purpose for man demanded that he be fashioned in quite a different way. So God added another aspect to man’s immaterial nature, a soul. And He also gave us a physical element to our being, a body. These three elements of our nature—body, soul and spirit—are clearly laid out in Scripture.(1 Thes. 5:23)
Yet for me the threefold nature of man raises a question. Why would God bother to create a physical universe at all? Since God is spirit, why not merely fulfill His plan strictly within the bounds of some sort of spiritual order? Well, the obvious answer is that God created all that He has in order to fulfill His special purpose for man. And mandkind had to be fashioned in a specific way to achieve that objective. In reality, the more closely we look into our design, the more apparent the brilliance of God’s plan becomes. Here we are; just look at us!
Being human means much more than simply putting up with a physical body for a time before it is cut loose by death to allow our spiritual being to inhabit eternity with God. We need to understand that man is an inextricable mixture of body, soul and spirit, and that anything less simply means being less than human.
Excerpted from: Free from the Power of Sin: The Keys to Growing in God in Spite of Yourself
My child, it is for freedom that I have set you free. Keep standing firm and don’t let yourself become a slave again. And don’t use your freedom to indulge your flesh. Choose to serve others in love instead.
Galatians 5:1 & 13
Ingredient # 6 – Nutrition! Finally we’re going to talk about food!! An ancient Egyptian doctor once said, “Man eats too much. Thus he lives on only a quarter of what he consumes. The doctors however, live on the remaining three quarters! So true. Our doctors are living on our western diet obesity epidemic. Over 1/3 of the U.S. adults are considered obese. That doesn’t even take into account the ones in the overweight category.
Our bodies need to be nurished. When you give your body nutrient dense foods they will fuel your cells. Eating foods as close to the way God made them as possible such as whole fruits, vegetables and grains will give you energy and leave you with a feeling of satisfaction. When you eat processed, empty calorie foods, you’ll be left hungry and craving more because you’re not nurishing it.. Your body wants to be fed, but not only just to fill up your stomach, it wants to be nourished with whole, natural, live foods. When you put these types of foods in, your brain’s hunger mechanism automatically turns off. It KNOWS when your body has received what it needs and says “ENOUGH FOOD! YOU CAN STOP EATING NOW!”
If you need to lose weight, keep track of the calories your taking in. You need to eat at a deficit. When you eat less than your total daily energy expenditure, you will lose weight. If you don’t keep track, you’ll have a tendency to forget those few nuts, the cafe’ latte or that bite of cake you just didn’t want to go to waste…but ends up going to your “waist”. Do you want to double your efforts? Add exercise.
There are many tools on-line that will help you track your calories. MyFitnessPal.com and Livestrong.com/Dailyplate are free and easy to use. Keep track for a few weeks to get an idea of how many calories you’re actually eating. You might be surprised and it may be just the information you need to start you on a plan to lose those extra pounds. It sure works for me.
The foods I’d highly recommend that you start decreasing are sugar, sodas, white flour, cakes, cookies, processed foods, fried foods and ice cream. Add in green leafy vegetables, high protein grains such as quinoa, beans, lentils and fresh fruits.
Eat smaller meals three hours apart. You’ll keep those hunger pangs away if you make sure you’re eating nutrient dense foods every three hours. And did I mention that my energy is through the roof eating this way? It’s true. Try it and see for yourself.
Compliance is what’s important. We’re not expected to be perfect 100% of the time. There will be those occasions to have a treat. But if you are compliant 85 to 90% of the time, then you can enjoy your treats with out any guilt. Who needs extra guilt these days? Go a ahead and have that treat. Only make sure you enjoy it on special occasions only!.
Ingredient #5 is Accountability.
Accountability is huge and it’s a key component to your success. Find someone that you can trust and that you will be accountable to. Show them your goal cards and check in with them regularly. If you want to be successful in your fitness and nutrition goals, get an accountability partner. They can help you stay on track with your fitness goals. Sharing your goals with each other increases your odds of success. Commit to meet often and work together. You will discover a greater level of enthusiasm and energy and achieve more in less time. Other benefits include having a cheerleader or coach to help you when you feel like giving up. – It encourages loyalty, friendship and trustworthiness. – Knowing someone is counting on you keeps you motivated. When I know my running buddy is waiting for me then I know I can’t just blow off my workouts. I also have someone to celebrate my successes with! It’s a great added benefit!
Reaching goals is a lot more fun when it’s done together!
My child, do not fear for I am with you. Be strong and courageous. Do not tremble or be dismayed, for I the Lord your God am with you wherever you go. Be strong and very courageous. Go out and be who I’ve told you to be and do what I ‘ve told you to do. Do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may have success wherever you go. Cling to Me and My promises. I never told you this life would not have difficulties and challenges. You just need to keep believing Me in the midst of them.
Your Father who leads you on the path of life.
Joshua 1: 7-9
“What is man that You take thought of him? And the son of man that You care for him?” asks David in Psalm 8:4. He then goes on to say, “Yet You have made him a little lower than God, and You crown him with glory and majesty.” Does this sound like you, or anyone you know? I know some pretty wonderful people—some whose character may even hint at this portrayal—but it would be a stretch to see even them as mirroring this magnificent prophetic description.
God knows better. He knows who we really are. When He said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness,” He meant it (Genesis 1:26). And the fact that God cared enough to create us in His own image speaks volumes about His special purpose for man. We are nothing less than the pinnacle of God’s created order. His entire creation revolves not around angels, nor any other created being, but around human beings—those of us who have received Christ Jesus as Lord in particular (Romans 8:19).
Excerpted from: Free from the Power of Sin: The Keys to Growing in God in Spite of Yourself
Ingredient #4: Discipline. Happiness and health is the result of what you do, here and now. As Christine Caine from Hillsong Church says, “Daily disciplines may not seem glamorous, but they provide the foundation to do what we need to do in the future.”
Joyce Meyer says, “We need to meditate on the word of God and here’s the problem. We have bad habits that have to be broken. We are undisciplined in these areas. We are going to have to work with the Holy Spirit diligently and consistently over a period of time so don’t expect that just because you hear this message on discipline you’ll never have a battle again. You’re going to have to fight! It’s much better to fight for your life and fight for victory than it is to try to fight the devil all the time while he’s trying to defeat you.”
She goes on to say that our flesh is a gambler. It thinks it can get away with every little thing it wants. But our spirit is an investor. We might not see rewards right away, but down the road we will have success if we keep doing what we know we need to be doing. Ephesians 4:23 and Romans 12:2 says that our mind and attitudes must be renewed and Proverbs 23:7 says as a man thinks so is he. Set your mind and keep it set on victory. Make your mind up that you’re not going to remain unhealthy, out of shape and tired all the time.
When I made my mind up things changed. Make up your mind to leave a healthy legacy for your family. Making your mind up and resolving to be healthy and get in shape will bring joy and vision and will increase your energy. Shake off lukewarm, lazy, passive, apathetic, poor me attitudes and say, “I’ve made my mind up! I’m going to be healthy. I’m going to lose the weight I need to lose. I’m going to be an excellent person.” Joyce still speaking here!
Discipline your mouth and watch what comes out of it as well as what goes into it. Every day make your mind up to eat the right foods and get some exercise. Discipline yourself to have a positive attitude and to be obedient to God. This will cost you. You won’t get your way all of the time. It doesn’t FEEL good all of the time. But you will become someone God can use and be proud of.
I was getting ready to go running with my 21 year old running buddy one morning recently and as I was putting on my hat I looked in the mirror, and the thought crossed my mind, “Who do you think you are? Who are you trying to kid, going out running with a 21 year old?” I had to immediately take that thought captive and turn it around to, “Why not me? I’m in pretty dang good shape and I can do this!”
We’re going to have to constanly take our thoughts captive as it says in Second Corinthians 10:5. Negative thoughts will continue to bombard us. Picture the devil as a little “insignificant guy” with a huge mouth that sits on your shoulder and whispers lies into your ear. All we need to do is flick him off!
Start saying out loud: “I am healthy, fit and strong.” “I have more energy than I know what to do with.” “I am living to my full potential in Christ.” “I am giving today my best effort.”
Speak these out loud to yourself until you believe them. When you believe them you will become that person.
How do you view yourself? What image do you see? If it’s negative or not right, change the way you view yourself. It takes discipline.
My child, I am your peace in times of trouble. I bring comfort in times of mourning. I am the solid Rock when all else seems like shaky ground. Don’t rely on anyone or anything else to comfort your soul. I am the only One who can bring the deep peace you long for. Come to My living water and immerse yourself into My river of life.
Ingredient #3 and a very important ingredient is MENTAL TRAINING: Mindsets and Attitudes or bottom line, CHOICES! I’ve learned when you put good stuff in your brain, good stuff comes out and the opposite is true as well. Garbage in-garbage out.
I’ve been involved in fat loss challenges since 2009. I followed the plan, did the nutrition part, the workouts and even the mental training part like they say athletes do. You know, visualize the body you want, see it as if you’ve already achieved it. Golfers do this. They visualize every shot before they take it, as well as basketball players before they shoot a hoop. It’s done all the time in sports.
But what I failed to do was “believe” that I could actually achieve what I wanted my body to look like. Now some people have unrealistic expectations of what they’d like to look like. For me, I wasn’t visualizing myself with a 20 something’s body. I knew what I had to work with. I chose a picture of a 45 year old silver medalist in the Olympics a few years back. I wanted a lean, strong and fit looking body like she has.
What I’ve struggled with most is the lower part of my anatomy. Off goes the chest long before the hips budge. I was complaining about this to a coach I was working with on-line and this is the advice I was given. “Whatever body issues you think you have start in your head. Change the way you think about yourself as of now. Create some positive affirmations to take the place of the negatives and keep repeating them until you believe them. Telling yourself that you are not genetically gifted and talking about problem areas and working for every ounce of muscle etc. is extremely counter-productive to your program and will really slow you down. You are who you are and have as much opportunity for change as anyone else. Believe that. You lose from the top down. It is a given with both men and women, not just you specifically. Be diligent, work hard, eat clean and please, please change the words you use to describe yourself. The more you talk the way you do, the more your subconscious obliges.
Now when I heard those words a light bulb went on. I finally understood that I needed to start being thankful for how far I have come and stop belittling myself. I was doing myself more harm than good in thinking and speaking negative things about myself. I needed to thank God for who He created me to be and give Him the credit for the ability and drive to do whatever He has called me to do.
The most powerful and life changing thing you can do is start saying the right things out loud to yourself. Say things like, “I am a child of God. I am chosen and loved. I am God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works. I am called. I am the bride of Christ and He adores me. I am the one He came to die for. I belong to Him. He rescued me out of the domain of darkness and transferred me into the Kingdom of His beloved Son. I am His. I am an honest, intelligent, organized, punctual, goal directed person. I am teachable, loyal and clearly understand God’s word. I am a self starter who is a disciplined, focused, dependable, persistent, positive thinker with great self-control, and am energetic and a diligent hard worker who appreciates the opportunities that God brings my way. I am thrifty with my resources and apply common sense to my daily tasks. I take honest pride in my competence and appearance, and am motivated to be and do my best so that my healthy self-image will remain on solid ground. These are the qualities which enable me to manage myself, help me be the wife, mother, grandmother and friend I need to be. I suggest you make your own “self-talk” cards and repeat them out loud in front of a mirror every day until you start believing them. If you don’t have these qualities yet, or think you’d be the biggest liar if you started saying these things about yourself, just look up Joel chapter 3 verse 10. “Let the weak say I am strong.” Believe me, when you say these things to yourself every day, you will change. You will start seeing yourself in a new, true light.
How do you look at life? Do you lack vision? When you catch a glimpse of your potential, and I believe this process will allow you to do that, that’s when passion is born. Passionate people get things done. God can work with passionate people. Just look at Saul before he became Paul. He was one passionate man. God just needed to direct him down the right road.
Dr. Joyce Brothers said, “You cannot consistently perform in a manner which is inconsistent with the way you see yourself.” She went on to say, “Success is a state of mind. If you want success, start thinking of yourself as a success.”
Mental Training works and is a key ingredient to your success.