Archive for the ‘Spiritual Growth’ Category

Dealing With Depression

Personal, Spiritual Growth | May 16th, 2012

 

“Depression is when you have lots of love, but no one’s taking.”

– Doug Coupland

Depression doesn’t just go away.

No pill, counselor, or person can help me understand something that I don’t even understand myself. I don’t remember when I first recognized something was wrong but there has always been something in the corner of my mind reminding me that something was “off.”  Depression is a switch. We can wake up one morning and feel fine and as the day progresses something happens and we’re back in our comfort of darkness.

Depression isn’t a sin.

There are deeper underlying causes of depression and most are rooted there from our past. Maybe not being able to completely move on from my past has allowed me to internalize a lot of things which in turn makes me depressed. Honestly, I don’t know and it’s not something I want to sit and dwell on. I am not responsible for what was done to me in my past, but I am responsible for how I deal with them. Sinning is a choice, I never chose to be depressed.

Depression deepens my faith in God.

Most people say that because we are depressed, we don’t trust God.  It makes me trust Him more.  It breaks my heart when people are attacked because they’re depressed. People are so quick to give others advice on how to manage their depression, “Go talk to someone,” “I’ll be praying for you,” “You need to see a Doctor,” all those things stir something in my heart and ultimately breaks it.  While the initial intent is coming from a genuine place, why not just be there for them instead? It is not enough to lend a hand to the fallen to help them up, if you’re not willing to stand with them afterwards.  Where others have chosen to abandon me in my time of need, I cling to God. I focus on His promises for my life and the fact that no matter what I’m going through He will never leave or forsake me. The break in my heart slowly heals and something inside me says, “Julie, I love you, you’re going to be okay.”

2 Corinthians 4:8-9; 16-18

8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair;9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

Regardless of how depressed I am, I don’t let the depression define or destroy me. I know God is working through me and I am being renewed daily. While there is a lot of work left for Him to do, I know He’s working. Though I do wish I wouldn’t get depressed at all, I know it’s temporary and it only perfects the work God is doing in my life for eternity. 

God doesn’t want us to be depressed.

God wants us to think positive and trust Him in our trials. When I feel overwhelmed, I pray to Him and ask Him for comfort and peace of mind. I trust in and wait on Him to do the rest.

That’s how I deal with mine. 

Matthew 11:28-30

28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Have you ever been depressed?

How did you deal with it?

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Freedom From Our Feelings

Spiritual Growth | May 15th, 2012

 

“Do not give in too much to feelings. A overly sensitive heart is an unhappy possession on this shaky earth.”

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Feelings are unreliable.

We rely on our feelings and they are unreliable. We do and say things by the motivation of our feelings. There have been a number of times in my life that I reacted by how I felt. Maybe it’s because I’m a woman and 80% of the time I’m an emotional wreck, but it’s no excuse. Our feelings lie and we can’t rely on how we feel.

There are roots to our feelings.

Getting to the root of the problem of why we feel the way we do is important. My issue is that I relied on other people to make me happy and when they failed to do it, I got hurt. I depend on others more than I like to admit and I’ve been hurt more times in my life because of it. The root of the problem with me started in my childhood and how I was raised. Truth is, I wasn’t raised by my parents for most of my life. Being passed off  to relatives and one babysitter after another, my parents never took on their responsibility as parent.  When most of your childhood is spent in neglect, you tend to depend on others to fulfill the need your parents couldn’t.

Our feelings are not the Word of God.

Everyday I wake up I am reminded of how I feel. When I close my eyes before bed I am reminded of how I feel. When I am not even thinking about anything, I am reminded of how I feel. You get the picture.  My feelings tell me how I feel in any given moment, but they don’t tell me anything about God and His Word. We need to follow something more wiser and dependable and that’s the Word of God.  ”No matter how we feel if it doesn’t agree with the Word of God then it’s wrong.”

We confuse our feelings with the will of God. 

Our feelings are our enemy and they keep us out of the perfect will of God.  Satan uses our feelings to manipulate, control, and deceive us. He turns our feelings into false “truths” and even distorts the Word of God into his own context. My prayers for the past 10 months have been very selfish and self-centered. I spend a lot of time telling God to give me what I want but only He knows what’s best and if it’s not His will for my life, then it’s wrong.  ”Some of us are asking God for things that we are not prepared to handle because we are still living too much by our feelings.”

We can feel like doing the wrong thing and still choose to do what’s right.

I’ve done and said some really stupid and horrible things due to how I felt and I paid for them. While I want what’s best for me and my walk with God, I am sitting here hurt by someone right now.  My feelings have taken its toll on my mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual health. When I get into that place where my feelings are controlling every area of my life, I take a step back and reevaluate the problem.  When we are motivated by our feelings we do things that we end up regretting. Doing whats right is praying and getting into the Word of God so we can find peace in our shaky feelings. “Victory is impossible if we dont learn to live beyond our feelings.”

We don’t have to live by how we feel,  we need to set ourselves free. 

Why do you feel the way you do?

 Proverbs 14:12

 12 There is a way that appears to be right,  but in the end it leads to death.

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Spark in the Heart

Spiritual Growth | May 14th, 2012

 

“The most powerful agent of growth and transformation is something much more basic than any technique: a change of heart. ”

- John Welwood

God will place the desire in our heart for us to follow Him.

Almost a year ago that was me. I was in denial for pretty much my entire life about needing God and when I least expected it, He sparked something in my heart and I desired to seek Him. It didn’t happen over night and it was a process. Even now, it’s a process as He continues to work through me.  He is looking for people in the world He can work through and bless.  All it takes is a spark.

2 Chronicles 16:9

9 For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.

God is looking for someone with a blameless and right heart.

Yesterday morning in prayer, I repented to God about a thought I had two nights before. It was a thought that surprised me because it was vengeful and happened because I was hurting. We don’t realize how right our hearts aren’t when we find ourselves thinking negatively about other people or our life.  If we really want a right heart and be the person God wants us to be we need to get our hearts right with Him. “God would rather have someone who makes a few mistakes but has a really right heart, than someone who does everything right.” We are no surprise to God, He knew what He was getting when He made us.

Right hearts always grows spiritually.

Though I am not perfect, I am growing. Every day God changes my attitude, behavior, and heart. Our relationship with God isn’t just Sunday, it’s every breathing day.  It’s about having Him in every part of our life, every single day.Spiritual growth starts with us and if we aren’t desperately seeking to improve our behavior then something is wrong in our hearts.  The worst thing that can happen to us is for God to leave us alone and let us stay the way we are.

Right hearts are fully committed to God.

God is looking for hearts that are completely His. That means our thoughts and feelings too. The other day I said if I wasn’t careful with my thoughts and feelings I was going to have a heart attack before the age of 30. I have been under a lot of emotional stress lately and it’s been weighing me down. Then like always, God sparks something in my heart, gets my attention and I focus on Him, not the person or problem that is bothering me.  If we aren’t committed to God and don’t want to change then we have a heart problem and something is wrong. “Being a Christian doesn’t mean sneaking through the back door of Heaven, it means how we are living our life.” 

Every day I pray for God to work through me and change my heart. God sees our heart and if we really crave doing what is right, we will get our hearts right with Him. We need to ask ourselves daily what’s in our heart and dedicate our life in doing what’s right.

All it takes is a spark in the heart to change.

How is your heart today?

Ezekiel 36:26-27

 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.

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Love in Action

Spiritual Growth | May 9th, 2012

 

“Come live in my heart, and pay no rent.”

– Samuel Lover

I love you.

Those three words are tossed around so frequently they have lost their real meaning. I can count on one hand how many times I’ve been in love and I can count on one hand how many times I’ve had my heart broken. I can also count on both hands and toes how many times I chose to be hateful rather than loving.  A year ago I wasn’t happy. I was a mess emotionally, mentally, physically, and spiritually God was invisible.  I took my messes out on the wrong people and hurt them.  Almost a year later and God is doing some of His best work in me and He has changed my heart. It is through my restored relationship with Him that I have a better grasp on what it truly means to love someone.

Love others even when it hurts.

People are going to hurt us and we’re going to hurt them too. We are all flawed and while we never intentionally try and hurt any one, it happens. No one wants to be the bad guy, but we all play the victim card well. When someone hurts us, we are quick to post subliminal Facebook statuses thinking the person will get the hint, we tweet passive aggressive messages in 140 characters or less thinking it will get our point across to our wrongful doer. When the people we love hurt us, it has nothing to do with you, it has everything to do with them. When we choose to hurt other people, it has nothing to do with them and everything to do with us.  We’re all flawed and we’re all going through something. Unfortunately, we take it out on the wrong people and the person we claim to love becomes our temporary enemy and our target of blame. God is the only person that can give us the ability to love someone the right way and until we possesses that ability, we’re always going to end up hurt.

Love others without expecting anything in return.

There is a difference between loving someone and being taken advantage of and loving someone simply because you want to. Love is natural. It’s a natural quality we all possess somewhere in the depths of who we are. The problem is we go into every relationship whether friendship or other with the expectation that the other person should conform to our standards. We can’t change other people, God is the only person that can change a person’s heart.  Love them anyway and watch God do His work.

Love is selfless, not selfish.

Loving others isn’t about us and should be the most selfless act we practice daily. Selfless love is about loving others regardless of how they treat us. For the past month or so I’ve been hurt over something that only very people know about. I felt the pain and darkness of a year ago trying to overshadow everything that I know to be true about God and His plan for my life. It’s not easy to act lovingly towards someone when they intentionally and abusively tear you down. Especially when it is someone close to you. That’s not the way God designed us to love each other and while I was upset for a while over it, it didn’t change my love towards this person. It made me love them more.

Love is unconditional and doesn’t change.

There are no conditions on love and regardless of what is going on in our life, it shouldn’t change. If a relationship or friendship falls apart or circumstances happen that cause us to question another person’s love toward us, we should still love them. If a relationship or friendship can survive every obstacle that is thrown in its path and be stronger because of it, that’s love. Some of the best friendships and marriages have survived because they actively loved each other through every storm and we should too.

Currently, I am  going through a lot of different things in my life  that are weighing me down emotionally. The person I thought would be there for me, instead turned their back on me and is ignoring me. When we really love someone our hearts shouldn’t change. While my heart is hurting, I still love and care about them.  Love is the very essence of my being, it’s who I am and without it, I’m nothing.  Love is what Jesus did on the cross for us and without Him, we’re nothing.

Love is an action.  Go love.

How are you going to show your love today?

1 John 3:18

 My dear children, let’s not just talk about love; let’s practice real love. This is the only way we’ll know we’re living truly, living in God’s reality.

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Emotionally Unstable & Finding Stability

Spiritual Growth | May 8th, 2012

 

 “By choosing your thoughts, and by selecting which emotional currents you will release and which you will reinforce, you determine the quality of your Light.” 

– Gary Zukav

Being emotionally unstable is probably the worst feeling in the world. What’s worse is not being able to convey how you feel or when you’re able you’re ignored or verbally abused.  Welcome to my life for the past month. Every day I wake up thinking “Today will be a good day, I will not be defeated. I will not let the enemy kill the joy I desperately want and need.” This thought and outlook lasts for a while and then something happens and I’m emotionally spent.

We’re in a spiritual war and our enemy is Satan.

He manipulates our thoughts and emotions to tempt us into believing the lies he feeds our thoughts. I can’t tell you the number of times I have gotten up in the morning with a positive attitude and within an hour of being awake I’m already upset. This is an area of my life that I am trying to improve daily and it isn’t easy. My emotions are like a switch and I want to control them. We can avoid a lot of anxiety we encounter with Satan if we could keep our emotions under control.

Satan sets us to be upset.

Proverbs 25:28

28 Like a city whose walls are broken through is a person who lacks self-control.

We are a city that is broken down when we don’t control our emotions and we are wide open for Satan to attack. He knows our most vulnerable places and he doesn’t hesitate to kick us when we’re already down. Satan doesn’t know us better than we know ourselves, but he throws the meanest punch and it hurts deeply.

God wants us to be stable.

He wants us  not to be easily shaken and in control of our emotions. When we are stable it says to God that we trust Him. We can control and change how we think, but until we accept that truth, we can’t change.

God’s word is our rock and stability in life.

As believers we are pieces of of that rock. ”If we remain emotional stable, the gates of Hell cannot prevail against us.” In every new level of spiritual growth there is always a new enemy waiting to attack. Being led by our feelings is dangerous because it places lies in our thoughts that aren’t true. We think and expect the worst and sometimes we believe those lies so deeply they sink deeper into the depth of our hearts breaking apart the truth that should already be there; God’s Word. Our emotions can be deceitful and confusing, but we’re not supposed to be led by how we feel. Instead, we need to let God lead us through the truth of His Word.  His word is our rock and in it we find peace, comfort, and stability. When we make God a priority, He is more than willing to help us control our emotions.

God wants to heal us and He wants our emotional stability to be based on our relationship with Him.

I wish I could say that I’m okay emotionally, but the truth is there is a lot of work left for God to do in me. Every day is a battle I am fighting internally, but every day is another day I am blessed with the gift of life.   God is my light in the darkness that prevails in the corners of my mind and through Him I will not be shaken.  He is my light and He’s my life.

Be stable and find stability in Him.

How do you manage your emotions?

How do you feel today?

Philippians 4:7

7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

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He Didn’t Look Back

Personal, Spiritual Growth | May 3rd, 2012

 

“Forgiveness is the remission of sins. For it is by this that what has been lost, and was found, is saved from being lost again.”

– Saint Augustine

An hour of silence, words not spoken, but they were felt

Out of no where you placed your hand in mine and squeezed it tight

The same hand that in a fit of rage threw a chair at me and attempted suicide while I sat a few feet away from you

The same hands that promised to keep me safe, instead made me cower in fear

I didn’t think about that day or any other day where heightened emotions were the cause of two years of abuse

Emotional, mental, physical, I got it all from you

All those times I cried hoping for change that never came

Wishing for the better man I knew you had the potential to be, the man who two years prior wanted to spend the rest of his life with me

I didn’t think about the abuse in that moment, the moment when you squeezed my hand to say things you couldn’t with words

Instead I looked at your actions in that moment and it brought me back to the moment of why I gave you chance at all

I felt your heart 

As we entered the airport, the sun high in the sky, I tried not to fall apart

We said our goodbyes and I watched you walk away, five years of my life fading into a memory

I waited for you to turn around to get one last look at the life you were leaving behind

You didn’t look back, so why do I?

Forgiveness. Love. Grace.

2 Corinthians 12:9

My grace is enough; it’s all you need.  My strength comes into its own in your weakness. Once I heard that, I was glad to let it happen. I quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating the gift. It was a case of Christ’s strength moving in on my weakness. Now I take limitations in stride, and with good cheer, these limitations that cut me down to size—abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks. I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become.

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The Habit of Hope

Spiritual Growth | May 1st, 2012

 

“Hope is the anchor of the soul”

Have you ever gotten up and thought, ”Nothing good will happen today,” or there are some days when you struggle to get out of bed at all?

Admittedly, in the past two weeks it has been difficult for me to get motivated each day and see a glimpse of hope in the mess that has been my mind. I have had some very vivid and horrific dreams in the past week that have kept me up in the middle of night. My nerves have been shot and some days I am tethering on the edge of what feels like insanity. It is when I get alone with God and pray that my perspective of my days begin to change.  I’m able to change my attitude and align my thoughts to what I know is true and somewhere in the midst of the mess, there is hope.

Hope is a positive attitude.

Hope is an expectation that something good is going to happen. We have to keep an attitude that allows God to work in our life and He can only work where there is hope. We need to learn to believe that something good will happen. Some of you are probably thinking, ”Well that’s easy for you to say, but you aren’t living my life. You don’t know how I feel.” You’re right, I don’t. Just like you don’t know how I feel too. I’d like to believe though that good things happen to those who wait and in times of waiting we learn to cling on to hope stronger than ever. More importantly, we learn to hold on to our faith.  Without faith, there is no hope.

Hope is a decision we make about an attitude we’re going to have that allows God to work in our life.

God’s hope doesn’t disappoint and we have to keep our hope in Him. Some of us instead choose to sit and be miserable. If the door of hope is closed, there is no room for God to work. Satan’s best work is through our hopelessness.  Whether through fear, depression, or disappointment, Satan does the most damage when we are at our weakest. God works through us being positive and believing what He says. There is nothing negative about God and His word. 

Romans 5:3-5

3 Not only so, but we[a] also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

God’s hope doesn’t disappoint, because it is sealed with the Holy Spirit as a Spirit of Love.

When we find our hope in God, we are able to stand firm and we are safe against the enemy. ”Those who have hope for the glory of God, have enough to rejoice in now.” There is always hope with God and He never leaves us stuck in our mess.

Wake up every day and say ”Something good will happen today” and practice the habit of hope that something will.

How do you practice the habit of hope in your life?

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The Point of Suffering

Spiritual Growth | April 30th, 2012

“To live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering.” 

- Friedrich Nietzsche

Trial after trial, we suffer. We cry, we complain, and some days we feel like quitting, or worse ending our life.  If you looked at someone, would you know they were suffering? Most of the time, we don’t.  When we suffer the pain is deeper than the surface.

Suffering requires us to look deeper than the surface, it forces us to look into the heart of Christ.

Suffering is more than dying to self.  It’s about loss, pain, depression, rejection, and betrayal.  It means dying for the sake of Christ.

Colossians 1:24

24 Now I rejoice in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church.

Hebrews 13:12

12 And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood.

Francis Chan depicted this image raw and beautifully:

“Imagine you’re on the other side of Jesus as He’s dying on the cross and you’re looking Him directly in the eyes as you’re being beaten too. As painful as it would be, imagine the fellowship. We hate pain, but imagine the fellowship that would happen between you both. Imagine the comfort and security of looking Jesus in the eyes and saying, “I’m right here with You.” Imagine how intimate you are with with Him and how safe you would feel.”

Suffering forces us to draw closer to Jesus.

In our suffering we are forced to be in deep fellowship with Christ. When we have been hurt past the point of return, we are forced to draw closer to His love, His grace, and in them, we find joy. “We must be faithful in our sufferings and through every trial, so we can receive the crown of life and to obtain the salvation for our souls.”

Regardless of the adversity that falls on us in this life,  accept suffering gratefully from the hand of God and count it as great gain. “For with God nothing that is suffered for His sake, no matter how small, can pass without reward. Be prepared for the fight, if you wish to gain victory.”

Anything is possible through the grace of God. We suffer little in comparison to the way Christ suffered on the cross and we are easily discouraged. Let the torment suffered by Him on the cross be a reminder that any suffering in this life is forcing us to draw deeper into our faith and closer to our purpose.

1 Peter 2:21

21 To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.

No one wants to suffer or experience any kind of pain.  The reality is we will at some point, all of us.  Some of you have already and it’s tough. Our first reaction is to give up because we ask ourselves, “Whats the point?”  We sometimes lose too much and wonder what more could be taken from us. When we experience loss or pain of any kind, God gave back more than we could ever hope for.

God gave us His Son and that’s the point.

How have times of suffering strengthened your faith in God?

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Silence Speaks Volumes

Spiritual Growth | April 25th, 2012

 

 “We receive only when we are recollected; only in silence is heard the beating of the heart of God.”

— Father Bernardo Olivera

Something happened to me almost a week ago that I’m still reeling over. Words were said that I will probably never forget. Forgive, yes. Forget .. that’s another story. For most of my life I have never really “reached out” to any one. Trust has to be established before I will open up or let someone in. I reached out to someone who I consider a close friend and I was ignored.  Even now the silence continues.

God’s voice is loudest in silence.

I pray and He tells me it’s going to be okay. He reminds me not to blame myself for this because it isn’t my fault. I am reminded that while there will be people who will close the door on you and shut you out, His door is always open. God turns my focus off my worries and problems and puts it back on Him.

God speaks to me in the silence of my heart.

God speaks with me deeply in silence and He changes me. He forces me to draw closer to Him and deeper into His grace. My life has been too cluttered with the noise of my mind and by the things in my life. All of these things have been weighing me and my heart down.

Silence allows me to be more present with God.

I draw closer to Him and I find rest in Him. In silence, I have learned what it truly means to wait on Him and His promises. It has taught me that the person I thought I needed in that moment, ignored me for a reason and it’s part of God’s bigger plan for my life. Their silence has made me more intentional in my relationship with God.

Silence means being still so we can hear God’s voice that searches our hearts and minds.

In the stillness of silence I hear His voice the loudest, speaking volumes to my soul and He tells me ”It will be okay.”

 Make time for silence. God wants to speak to you.

Psalm 37:7

7 Be still in the presence of the Lord, and wait patiently for him to act.

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Losing Weight & Gaining Faith

Spiritual Growth | April 18th, 2012

 

“Take care of your body. It’s the only place you have to live.”
– Jim Rohn

To date, I have lost a total of 60 pounds.

I looked in the mirror one day and didn’t like the person staring back. I wasn’t satisfied with my body or the way I looked. I was disappointed with how far I had let myself go in the past few years. I remember clearly a conversation I had with a guy I was interested in at the time.  He was the first guy I had been interested in for a while and I valued his opinion. I’ll never forget his words to me, “If you were 20 lbs lighter, you’d be hot.” Something about that conversation changed me. While his statement was pretty shallow, what it did to my inner self changed the way I viewed my life and Men’s perception of me. I remember thinking, “If he feels that way, I wonder if other Men feel that way too.” Obviously, that conversation brought my insecurities to the surface and it was then that I knew I needed to do something.

I needed to change my life.

I joined a gym.  It was awkward territory for me and it was uncomfortable. I saw pretty and petite girls all around me and it made my  insecurities even stronger. Not to mention the horrible wall of mirrors. If you ever want to see every curve or crevice, go to a gym.  It was definitely a reality check for me and even now, it still is.  As insecure and uncomfortable as the experience was for me in the beginning, being there changed me. Being there now changes me. 

Losing weight changed how I view myself.

Most people get discouraged when they’ve been going to a gym for a few months, some after a week and hate the number on the scale. By some miracle people think that after a week they’ll drop a bunch of weight. Like the pounds will magically come off, if only it was that easy.  I didn’t weigh until my third week in and the number staring back at me made my heart drop. However, instead of getting discouraged and giving up, I used that number as motivation. The number on the scale motivated me to push harder towards my goal. Even now, the number on the scale is motivation.  My body is worth more than the number on the scale.

Losing weight has drawn me closer to God.

I prayed to God about my weight and to give me strength not to get discouraged and give up. While there was one month when I went on a gym hiatus due to not having a car, I still got on the treadmill at home or found time and walked around the neighborhood. It made me realize I had an inner strength I didn’t know I had before. That inner strength came from God. He was with me the whole time. That voice in my head saying, “Julie, don’t give up. You can do this. I’m with you.”

Losing weight has made my faith in God stronger.

My relationship with God is stronger now because of my decision to lose weight. What started as a shallow response to rejection, losing weight has deepened my faith in God. I know how God sees me in His eyes. In His eyes, I am beautiful. Curves and all,  He approves. God looks at our heart and while my heart was broken by the rejection, He has given me a better sense of clarity and perspective about who I am in His eyes.  Because of this, I no longer try and find value from any Man or allow their rejection to affect how I view myself. I know who I am in the eyes of God, and that’s enough. His love is enough.  My faith in Him is enough.

Losing weight has given me back my life.

I view life differently now that I’ve lost weight. Losing weight has become a lifestyle change. I’ve changed the way I eat, what I drink, and how I think. More importantly, it has changed the way I view God’s role in my life. My relationship with God is more significant now that I’ve lost weight. There are times when I will see a girl at the gym and think she’s attractive and when that insecure voice comes to the surface, I listen to God’s voice instead. His voice tells me I’m beautiful and to lose weight for myself, no one else.

Losing weight isn’t easy.

It’s hard at first and it’s discouraging. I was there, there are days when I still am. The difference between who I was then and who I am now is that regardless of what the number is on the scale, God loves me. I know who I am in Christ and who I am in the eyes of God. To Him, I am beautiful. To Him, you’re beautiful.

If you are at a point in your life that you want to lose weight, do it for you.  God loves you and you’re beautiful. Be beautiful and accept the truth about who you are to Him and lose weight for yourself, no one else. 

1 Corinthians 10:31

 31 So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.

How has your faith in God changed the way you view yourself?

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