Monday, April 20, 2009

Biggest Losser - Another 50 day Journey!

Well we have begun another 50 day journey in our Biggest Loser contest, and boy am I glad! I felt myself starting to slip and become comfortable where I am and that is not good! I still need to maintain and lose more weight. I need to make these things that I am doing habits and not get caught back up in the "old way of thinking". You know what I mean, things like: Oh these jellybeans won't hurt me, and these, and these! Or how about I can have a good size breakfast, and a small lunch; then lunch comes around and it ends up being a good size lunch too, etc... etc.... Boy I fall back into the same old routines so easy!


So this morning I am reading day two of "Spiritual secrets to Weight loss", and a new idea comes to me. This devotion is called "Jehovah-Raphe: The God who Heals you. I blogged about it before because it spoke of being a covenant keeper. I know that is what I want to be and what I wrote about a few months ago. Check the post here. But today I saw something new in this devotion! Isn't it great how God does that!


The author says that there are unconditional covenants, such as the one God made to Noah when he said he would never bring a world wide flood again, but there are also conditional covenants. They usually start with the word "if" such as in Exodus 15: 25 & 25


Then Moses cried out to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a piece of wood. He threw it into the water, and the water became sweet. There the LORD made a decree and a law for them, and there he tested them. He said, "If you listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, who heals you."

The author says "They have stipulations that must be met by one or both parties in order for the agreement to be legitimate. When God revealed himself as Jehovah-Raphe, it was in this context. The passage makes it clear that the Israelites had to meet certain requirements in order to experience God as a healer. These conditions were the following:
  • Listen carefully to the Lord

  • Do what is right in His eyes

  • Pay attention to His commands

  • Keep all His decrees (or statutes)

The author also speaks about what you are addicted to is your idol. She says "The addict yields allegiance to a substance giving it authority to control his behavior." She also writes "WE must break the tendency of expecting God to operate on our terms and instead live by His terms. The Holy Spirit enables us to adhere to the conditions required for healing."

Here are more scriptures I have found that I believe show conditional covenants:

Exodus 19:4-6

'You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.' These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites."

Duet. 11: 7-13

Therefore, take care to follow the commands, decrees and laws I give you today.
If you pay attention to these laws and are careful to follow them, then the LORD your God will keep his covenant of love with you, as he swore to your forefathers. He will love you and bless you and increase your numbers. He will bless the fruit of your womb, the crops of your land—your grain, new wine and oil—the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks in the land that he swore to your forefathers to give you.

Duet. 11:13-15

So if you faithfully obey the commands I am giving you today—to love the LORD your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul- then I will send rain on your land in its season, both autumn and spring rains, so that you may gather in your grain, new wine and oil. I will provide grass in the fields for your cattle, and you will eat and be satisfied.

Duet. 11: 26-28

See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse- the blessing if you obey the commands of the LORD your God that I am giving you today; the curse if you disobey the commands of the LORD your God and turn from the way that I command you today by following other gods, which you have not known.

What this means for me is - I cannot expect God to bless me if I do not obey his commands. One of them being to take care of my temple. Anything I put into my temple that is bad, is not taking care if it. Making excuses to eat alot is not taking care of it. If I fall back into old habits and forget his promises I am doomed to fail. Again I need to remind myself that I am in this from now on. I cannot give up or give in! I must press on in God's strength, for there is the victory. I ask for prayers that this will not only be head knowledge, but that God will change my heart forever and that the battle will be won, and I won't have to fight this one any more because HE will heal me!

As of Thursday I lost another 4lbs. Don't know how that happened, but I'm happy with that. After my backsliding I am back on track and ready for the journey

8 comments:

Mari said...

I also took note of the section on conditional covenants. Very interesting. I lost another 1 1/2 last week and am happy for another start!

Fran said...

You go girl!!!! One baby step at a time. I'm proud of you. He's shining all over you. :)

Big hugs,
Fran

Cheri said...

You are doing such a great job Kim- I bet that dancing in church is what took that 4 pds off!!

Denise said...

Congrats on losing 4 pounds sweetie, hang in there.

Beth Herring said...

kimberly - congrats on what you have accomplished so far. I am rooting for you for the next 50 days!

I love these verses in Deuteronomy. So many times we want to claim that promises but we fail to do what is necessary to obtain the favor of God.

THanks for this great reminder,
Beth

~Trina~ said...

I read this book at the first of the year. It was a very good book. I have actually gotten it back out again to meditate on again for the next 50 days.
Blessings to you in your journey!
Trina

Beth in NC said...

Oh girl, GOOD FOR YOU! Four more pounds. Awesome! I needed to read this post. Since Easter, I have been allowing myself to eat chocolate ... sweets, treats. it is making me crave more too. You're right about settling into old habits.

Thanks for posting this.

Love,
Beth

Rhonda said...

Oh YES! I'm so thankful to have found your blog....you;re gonna be one of my daily reads!

Bless you for sharing these Words!
~Rhonda