God has a plan for your spiritual, physical, and emotional health.
God is the Potter, we are the clay. He is the one who gives the commands; we are the ones who obey. He never has to explain Himself; He never has to ask permission. He is shaping us into the image of His Son, regardless of the pain and heartache that may require. Those lessons are learned a little easier when we remember that we are not in charge.
This past Tuesday, I completed 12 weeks of a nutritional and exercise training program with my internist. I feel much better, physically and spiritually. I have seen a change in my body, both inside (through test results) and out. I'm still not model-thin, by any means and I never will be. And most days, I'm okay with that.
I finally came to the conclusion that unless I wanted to remain at high risk for heart disease, diabetes, and cancer, I had to make a lifestyle change. That meant I was going to have to alter my habits and let God give me some discipline (uh-oh!) God challenged me to start looking to Him to meet some of my needs that I was filling through unhealthy eating patterns.
I've learned that my spiritual life is a lot like my eating habits. It's a daily battle to let Jesus, the Bread of Life, be my sustenance. It's much easier to run to the freezer and reach for that chocolate ice cream and French fries than it is to take the time to tell God what's bothering me and let Him work on my problems.
God loves me. French fries don't love me. The only lasting things they give me are cholesterol and cellulite. Living in victory tastes sweeter than any unhealthy delicacy.
Spiritual, physical, and emotional health go hand in hand. They are not a result of a single decision that is made "once and for all." They are results from thousands of decisions that are made day after day, week after week, and year after year.
Every step of your life's journey is a choice....and the quality of those choices determines the quality of the journey.
Blessings,
Dalinda
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Whose Attention Are You Seeking?
Are we too busy lifting ourselves up to pay attention to God? Pride is ugly. Your attitude should be the same as that of Jesus Christ. Philippians 2:5
God reminds me everyday that it's not me that does the work, it's Him.
The thing is, we can spend so much time worrying about what others think about us, that we have no energy left for what God thinks.
As a believer in Jesus Christ, we MUST remember whose we are on order to behave like we believe. What we should be concerned about is whether or not our actions and attitude are glorifying Him. Am I taking the credit for the work He has done in my life? We need to keep Christ and our reflection of Him at the center of our lives at every moment. The more we do that, the more instinctual it becomes. And instead of being prideful we become humble in His sight.
When we try to exalted ourselves above others, we set ourselves up to be dumped on.
God will use whatever it takes to get our eyes on Him and off ourselves.
Joseph dreamed of having authority and being a great man. However, he was young and impetuous. Joseph's brothers hated him and sold him into slavery. God used the situation as an opportunity to test and train Joseph. He spent thirteen years in prison for something he didn't do, but whatever happened to Joseph during those years definitely equipped him for his God-ordained role in history.
The Lord has to humble us before He can use us.
We have to trade in our self-confidence for God-confidence.
"Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up" (James4:10)
My personal challenge is to look at my life not the way a perfect stranger would, but the way a Perfect Savior would.
Humbled and undeserving,
Dalinda
God reminds me everyday that it's not me that does the work, it's Him.
The thing is, we can spend so much time worrying about what others think about us, that we have no energy left for what God thinks.
As a believer in Jesus Christ, we MUST remember whose we are on order to behave like we believe. What we should be concerned about is whether or not our actions and attitude are glorifying Him. Am I taking the credit for the work He has done in my life? We need to keep Christ and our reflection of Him at the center of our lives at every moment. The more we do that, the more instinctual it becomes. And instead of being prideful we become humble in His sight.
When we try to exalted ourselves above others, we set ourselves up to be dumped on.
God will use whatever it takes to get our eyes on Him and off ourselves.
Joseph dreamed of having authority and being a great man. However, he was young and impetuous. Joseph's brothers hated him and sold him into slavery. God used the situation as an opportunity to test and train Joseph. He spent thirteen years in prison for something he didn't do, but whatever happened to Joseph during those years definitely equipped him for his God-ordained role in history.
The Lord has to humble us before He can use us.
We have to trade in our self-confidence for God-confidence.
"Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up" (James4:10)
My personal challenge is to look at my life not the way a perfect stranger would, but the way a Perfect Savior would.
Humbled and undeserving,
Dalinda
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Love Is A Verb
I've been thinking a lot about what makes a lasting marriage.
This day and age marriage is thrown away. Get married today and divorce tomorrow, no big deal. I think sometimes people think new is equated with better. Maybe that is why the divorce rate is so high. If I can just get a new husband things would be better. New things are often used to buy happiness. New things can't make us happy. Why? Because the new soon becomes old.
A marriage bound by beauty only lasts as long as the beauty.
Great love isn't two people finding the perfect match in one another. Great love is two people making the choice to be a match.
Marriage takes work. Sometimes fun work. Sometimes hard work. If you see a good marriage, you can guarantee it didn't just happen. That couple has worked on their marriage. Marriage takes humility.
Love, especially in marriage, takes a strong commitment to give even when we feel like we have nothing left to give. It requires a power that reaches beyond who we are. It requires a power that can only be found in Jesus Christ. It does not hinge on feeling, because feelings come and go. It hinges on the Everlasting One.
By letting Christ be the center of your marriage, your marriage can move from, "Oh...that's nice" to WOW THAT'S GREAT!"
We are who we are because of the circumstances in our lives which mold and shape us. We grow. WE CHANGE! Who would we be without change? Change is the only constant in life. Given the option to choose between my husband as the man I first married or the man to whom I am currently married, I'll choose the Jody of today, hands down.
Humbled and undeserving,
Dalinda
This day and age marriage is thrown away. Get married today and divorce tomorrow, no big deal. I think sometimes people think new is equated with better. Maybe that is why the divorce rate is so high. If I can just get a new husband things would be better. New things are often used to buy happiness. New things can't make us happy. Why? Because the new soon becomes old.
A marriage bound by beauty only lasts as long as the beauty.
Great love isn't two people finding the perfect match in one another. Great love is two people making the choice to be a match.
Marriage takes work. Sometimes fun work. Sometimes hard work. If you see a good marriage, you can guarantee it didn't just happen. That couple has worked on their marriage. Marriage takes humility.
Love, especially in marriage, takes a strong commitment to give even when we feel like we have nothing left to give. It requires a power that reaches beyond who we are. It requires a power that can only be found in Jesus Christ. It does not hinge on feeling, because feelings come and go. It hinges on the Everlasting One.
By letting Christ be the center of your marriage, your marriage can move from, "Oh...that's nice" to WOW THAT'S GREAT!"
We are who we are because of the circumstances in our lives which mold and shape us. We grow. WE CHANGE! Who would we be without change? Change is the only constant in life. Given the option to choose between my husband as the man I first married or the man to whom I am currently married, I'll choose the Jody of today, hands down.
Humbled and undeserving,
Dalinda
Monday, January 16, 2012
Jesus Is The Answer For All Of Our Storm Tossed Seas In Life
There are some things we go through in life that we just aren't sure if we will see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Some defeats are only installments to victory. Success isn't the key. Faithfulness is.
We all mess up. We all make mistakes. We get distracted and take our focus off of what is important. We deserve to suffer the consequences, but instead, we are given grace. Grace...because of a personal relationship.
Jesus never said it would be easy. Faith on faith is pointless. Faith in a living, active God moves mountains.
Life's storms redirect my focus on God. It doesn't matter what happens to us, but what happens in us.
You messed up yesterday. But you'll mess up more if you let yesterday's mistakes sabotage today's attitude. God's mercies are new every morning.
Sometimes you just have to let go and let God. God does and can use all circumstances in our lives for His glory, most of all He does His best work in the messiest situations.
Sometimes the most amazing things happen in the midst of chaos when we are meeting with the Almighty.
God is faithful and He loves us!
The secret to having it all...is knowing you already do.
In Him,
Dalinda
Some defeats are only installments to victory. Success isn't the key. Faithfulness is.
We all mess up. We all make mistakes. We get distracted and take our focus off of what is important. We deserve to suffer the consequences, but instead, we are given grace. Grace...because of a personal relationship.
Jesus never said it would be easy. Faith on faith is pointless. Faith in a living, active God moves mountains.
Life's storms redirect my focus on God. It doesn't matter what happens to us, but what happens in us.
You messed up yesterday. But you'll mess up more if you let yesterday's mistakes sabotage today's attitude. God's mercies are new every morning.
Sometimes you just have to let go and let God. God does and can use all circumstances in our lives for His glory, most of all He does His best work in the messiest situations.
Sometimes the most amazing things happen in the midst of chaos when we are meeting with the Almighty.
God is faithful and He loves us!
The secret to having it all...is knowing you already do.
In Him,
Dalinda
Friday, January 13, 2012
Are You Walking Wholeheartedly?
Physically speaking, the heart is the most important bodily organ. Spiritually speaking, I believe the heart is the most important aspect of the spiritual body.
When God asks for your heart, His is asking for your entire life, which includes our personality, character, body, mind, and emotions. The heart is the real person, not the person everybody sees.
We can do the right thing, and still not be acceptable to God because we do it with a wrong heart. Many believers only have a halfhearted interest in the pursuit of God. They want God to take care of them, but they don't want to make the sacrifice of time and devotion it takes to grow in knowledge of Him and His Word, and they don't want to commit time to pray.
Through prayer we get what we ask for, or what we should have asked for.
Do you only pray in times of crisis? If we treat prayer like a Chinese takeout menu and God as the delivery boy then we will very quickly be disappointed. Prayer is more than a crisis resolution. Prayer is a two-way conversation.
Prayer is an acknowledgement of our need for God.
It is not our job to give God guidance, council, or direction. We can pray for the desires of our heart, but we must be ready for disappointing answers because God knows what is best for us. Sometimes He gives us what we need instead of what we want.
It is our job to listen to God and let Him tell us what is going on and what we are to do about it, leaving the rest to Him to work out according to His knowledge and will, not ours.
God is God- and we aren't. We need to recognize the truth and simply trust ourselves to Him, because He is greater than we are in every aspect and area. We are created in His image, but He is still above us and beyond us. His thoughts and ways are higher than ours. If we will listen to Him and be obedient to Him, He will teach us His ways. But we are never going to figure Him out. We shouldn't even try.
All God is looking for is a sincere heart that chooses to love Him more than self.
In His Mighty Hand,
Dalinda
When God asks for your heart, His is asking for your entire life, which includes our personality, character, body, mind, and emotions. The heart is the real person, not the person everybody sees.
We can do the right thing, and still not be acceptable to God because we do it with a wrong heart. Many believers only have a halfhearted interest in the pursuit of God. They want God to take care of them, but they don't want to make the sacrifice of time and devotion it takes to grow in knowledge of Him and His Word, and they don't want to commit time to pray.
Through prayer we get what we ask for, or what we should have asked for.
Do you only pray in times of crisis? If we treat prayer like a Chinese takeout menu and God as the delivery boy then we will very quickly be disappointed. Prayer is more than a crisis resolution. Prayer is a two-way conversation.
Prayer is an acknowledgement of our need for God.
It is not our job to give God guidance, council, or direction. We can pray for the desires of our heart, but we must be ready for disappointing answers because God knows what is best for us. Sometimes He gives us what we need instead of what we want.
It is our job to listen to God and let Him tell us what is going on and what we are to do about it, leaving the rest to Him to work out according to His knowledge and will, not ours.
God is God- and we aren't. We need to recognize the truth and simply trust ourselves to Him, because He is greater than we are in every aspect and area. We are created in His image, but He is still above us and beyond us. His thoughts and ways are higher than ours. If we will listen to Him and be obedient to Him, He will teach us His ways. But we are never going to figure Him out. We shouldn't even try.
All God is looking for is a sincere heart that chooses to love Him more than self.
In His Mighty Hand,
Dalinda
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Faith, Without Doubt, Gets God's Attention
You can never cross the ocean unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.
I have a feeling that some of my readers have no even begun to live yet, and NOW is the time for you to stop "playing it safe" and start being bold and courageous.
It's easy to get down when we're constantly let down. It takes a powerful amount of trust to believe God has our best interests at heart when the world is crashing down. But remember, we can't ever learn how to live real faith if we never need real faith.
When we depend on our own power we will fail, but when we depend on God's power we will have victory. When you form a working relationship with the Creator, there's no limit to the things that the two of you, working together, can do.
Faith is first a decision, then an exercise in obedience, then a gift from God as it is multiplied. The obedience part is where a lot of us fail. When we pray over a certain situation in our lives and do not see immediate results, often times we just give up and stop praying, thinking God is not listening. We forget that our timing is not God's timing. God is not in a hurry, but we are.
Choosing faith over feeling is a choice we have the power to make. Faith leads the way to answered prayer.
Faith is a spiritual muscle that needs to be exercised in order to prevent atrophy, which makes our entire spiritual being weak.
When it comes to our health and fitness, we make the decision to start, but we eventually fail when we rely, only, on our willpower instead of God's power. If we do not see the results of our efforts immediately, we give up.
We must remain obedient and do what we can and trust God to do the rest.
Depend on it, God's work done in God's way will never lack God's supplies!
A lot of everyday life is spent surviving the "in between" time, en route between where we are and where God wants us to be. Without faith, we're only left with the daily grind.
Have the faith to move mountains!
Faithfully His,
Dalinda
I have a feeling that some of my readers have no even begun to live yet, and NOW is the time for you to stop "playing it safe" and start being bold and courageous.
It's easy to get down when we're constantly let down. It takes a powerful amount of trust to believe God has our best interests at heart when the world is crashing down. But remember, we can't ever learn how to live real faith if we never need real faith.
When we depend on our own power we will fail, but when we depend on God's power we will have victory. When you form a working relationship with the Creator, there's no limit to the things that the two of you, working together, can do.
Faith is first a decision, then an exercise in obedience, then a gift from God as it is multiplied. The obedience part is where a lot of us fail. When we pray over a certain situation in our lives and do not see immediate results, often times we just give up and stop praying, thinking God is not listening. We forget that our timing is not God's timing. God is not in a hurry, but we are.
Choosing faith over feeling is a choice we have the power to make. Faith leads the way to answered prayer.
Faith is a spiritual muscle that needs to be exercised in order to prevent atrophy, which makes our entire spiritual being weak.
When it comes to our health and fitness, we make the decision to start, but we eventually fail when we rely, only, on our willpower instead of God's power. If we do not see the results of our efforts immediately, we give up.
We must remain obedient and do what we can and trust God to do the rest.
Depend on it, God's work done in God's way will never lack God's supplies!
A lot of everyday life is spent surviving the "in between" time, en route between where we are and where God wants us to be. Without faith, we're only left with the daily grind.
Have the faith to move mountains!
Faithfully His,
Dalinda
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Run To Him
Running from God does not help us to be at peace with Him.
What happens when we go in the opposite direction from where God has directed us?
"Okay, you can lead this time...as long as you go where I want." I know for myself personally this can often be at least my first reaction to God. I might eventually come around to follow Him wherever He's leading, but all too often I first dig in my heels and insist that we go my way. The main problem with that though, is God knows best and although He'll let me choose my way over His, it's never the best option. EVER. Regardless of how long I have waited or how many ways I've tried on my own, or how far I've ever run down my own path, His is always best. Beyond my best is His best, perfect.
Many of the storms we face in life are the result of our own stubbornness. In many instances, we have been disobedient to the voice and leadership of God.
No matter how long we avoid God's instruction, it is still there for us to deal with when we stop running.
God's will makes us uncomfortable only as long as we are not pursuing it. Eventually we see that being in God's will, not out of His will, is what brings peace and joy to us. We have to surrender our own wills, because walking in our self-centered ways is what keeps us unhappy.
Satan wants to exhaust the energies God has given is by keeping us too busy and stressed out trying to handle all the things complicating our lives. He knows that if we learn to simply obey God, we will turn that power and energy against him by hearing and doing the work God directs!
The transformation many people desire in different areas of their lives come through forming a pattern of obeying God in the little things. God uses our obedience in the little things to transform our lives.
Stop trying to do everything on your own or running to others with your problems rather than running to God.
We struggled and strain, wearing ourselves out trying to do something that the Lord could do for us with no effort at all- if we would just ask Him.
God wants you to run to Him, not away from Him!
Humbled,
Dalinda
What happens when we go in the opposite direction from where God has directed us?
"Okay, you can lead this time...as long as you go where I want." I know for myself personally this can often be at least my first reaction to God. I might eventually come around to follow Him wherever He's leading, but all too often I first dig in my heels and insist that we go my way. The main problem with that though, is God knows best and although He'll let me choose my way over His, it's never the best option. EVER. Regardless of how long I have waited or how many ways I've tried on my own, or how far I've ever run down my own path, His is always best. Beyond my best is His best, perfect.
Many of the storms we face in life are the result of our own stubbornness. In many instances, we have been disobedient to the voice and leadership of God.
No matter how long we avoid God's instruction, it is still there for us to deal with when we stop running.
God's will makes us uncomfortable only as long as we are not pursuing it. Eventually we see that being in God's will, not out of His will, is what brings peace and joy to us. We have to surrender our own wills, because walking in our self-centered ways is what keeps us unhappy.
Satan wants to exhaust the energies God has given is by keeping us too busy and stressed out trying to handle all the things complicating our lives. He knows that if we learn to simply obey God, we will turn that power and energy against him by hearing and doing the work God directs!
The transformation many people desire in different areas of their lives come through forming a pattern of obeying God in the little things. God uses our obedience in the little things to transform our lives.
Stop trying to do everything on your own or running to others with your problems rather than running to God.
We struggled and strain, wearing ourselves out trying to do something that the Lord could do for us with no effort at all- if we would just ask Him.
God wants you to run to Him, not away from Him!
Humbled,
Dalinda
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