Today, January 15th, 2014, I am beginning a journey of repentance and the destruction of my idols. Since the first of the year, the Lord has convicted me about different idols in my heart some of which have been rooted in me for almost four years. I began this blog to help keep myself accountable to my own resolve to change, but also to possibly encourage my Brothers and Sisters in Christ by my journey.
Now, any change has to begin with confession and calling the sin what it is. 1 John 1:9-10 says, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us." The first I will name is gluttony. I have struggled with what and how much I eat or drink for years, possibly reaching as far back as my childhood, and it only got worse when I left home. I have to be honest here, I love food... no seriously, I Love food! Those who know me, and reading this are probably smirking because they know only how true that is. To me, food has been more that God's provision for my bodily needs, it has been a source of comfort and joy apart from God. Now, I am not saying that we should not find pleasure in the gift of sustenance, but I have taken too much pleasure in it. A verse comes to mind that I have not considered relevant to this situation until now, Deuteronomy 8:3 says "And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD." That may end up being the go-to verse in this journey. One of the things that started my mind down this road is I saw a picture of myself on Facebook recently, nothing fancy, just a picture of me with some friends. I took a look at myself and disgusted I thought, I am nothing thing like the man I want to be. I am tired of being enslaved by gluttony and pleasure which causes me to gain weight and become slow and weak. I don't want to feel ten or fifteen years older that I really am any more. As I continued to think of how changing this one area would impact my life, I found the results would be drastic! To name a few; My stress and depression would greatly decrease, I would have more energy to complete my daily tasks, and really just having victory in one area would be encouraging enough that the same fervor would spill over into other areas. My current weight is 289 pounds, my goal weight is 210. Another area that I need to amend is my idol of media, another way to cope with stress. I have found that I am not using my time wisely when I turn to movies, tv, or computer games as often as I do.
So... all of that to say that things need fixing, but how? To address the first issue, beginning today I will changing my eating habits, which include drinking only water for two months and making the necessary dietary changes to promote a healthy lifestyle. more details of how it will work will follow in a later post.
(In case I was unclear, I will be eating during the first two months of only drinking water. I meant to say I will remove all other beverages from my life for that time.) As for the second issue, I will be abstaining from all movies, tv, and computer games until at least April, I may even extend that time period (with the exception of the Super Bowl probably) I will continue blogging, emailing and facebooking, but I am removing the greatest temptations for a time.
To sum it up, today I am finally taking a stand against the giants in my life, and I ask that if you think to pray for me throughout my journey, I would be very grateful. I also pray this blog will be an encouragement to all who read it.
~WCB~
