Joanna's Approach to 'Going 100%'

 

Joanna and I went on a grocery shopping trip a few months ago, but having good quality foods in her house was only a temporary fix.  She sent me an email of her thoughts a few days ago that I want to share with you.  I added a bit more that she sent me yesterday morning on how to succeed.  She wrote this part on how to succeed while I was writing yesterday's challenge post.  I praise God that He was telling us the same thing without the other knowing it.  I hope God is speaking to you also - go to Him and He will.

 

Thank you, Joanna, for letting me share this email you sent to me with everyone.  I hope you find Joanna's words an encouragement and that you see the vastly different approach she needs to use compared to me.  You are probably somewhere in between and I pray that you find what works best for you!  Remember as you read Joanna's post, that man-made foods are MADE to make you crave them, making your struggle to eliminate them from your diet even harder.

The email I received from Joanna: 

P.S.  I'm going to  begin with a P.S.!  This may seem like a blur of words!  SORRY, as I finished it, I almost deleted it.  It was so cool today thinking of all this....but now...well ...I might should spare you!  But maybe there is a little something below that could be helpful. 

 

I wrote:

Dear Mary, Julie, Phyllis, and Camary, and....whoever is seeking "100 %" with their eating on the FoodsByGod blog,

 

The question:  what is 100%?  what does it look like, what do you mean!!!????

 

Today I was sharing with Camary on the phone, and I told her all that Phyllis and I have been giving to God and praying for PLUS what Mary and Julie were discussing before God on Friday and it was really great how it was all working together beautifully.

 

I think the victory of 100% will be found in unique ways for each of us because that is the way God will be most glorified.  This area of food for me certainly comes from a wounded past and from an eating disorder, so it is not easy to be free in this area. 

 

As we walk up and look over 100%, it will play out differently for every single person.

 

There just is not going to be some magical list of '1,2,3, yay', or we would not need God.

 

Nothing wrong with the list of 1,2,3....the problem is I don't have the strength to follow that list!  Even though the list is 100% logical and wise and healthy and even yummy. 

 

Background:   

We (Julie and I) had asked Mary last Friday to write a post to explain what 100% means on her FoodsByGod blog.  But I really already see what has brought her into such 100% victory with her weight and health.  She follows the lists!!!!   1,2,3 and it works but  the reason it works so well for her is because of God who has given her a gift of a very analytical, mathematical, scientific mind.  (Why would ANYONE not follow these lists, she must think!)

 

God gets the glory in her amazing strength and victory!!!!  Analyzing labels and all this research motivates her and gives her exact guidelines so she shines in that line of thinking/living. I have never seen anyone so amazing in the kitchen as her.  I appreciate it greatly, it glorifies God and His amazing invention of food, ....

 

.....but honestly every time I try to pick up her victory, I begin to suffocate;  it quickly turns to ...as my friend said concerning how she saw the blog, "It looks like legalism".  It is not legalism for Mary and perhaps for many others, it is freeeeedom and joy!  I admire that and I love that mind and the logic of it all.

 

God gifted Mary to create these lists for His glory and for the blessing of His people. The blog is not legalism, it offers critical information...but for defeated people it is a chasm to cross!

 

I HATE lists!!!  I hate routine and boxes.   I am wildly creative, but put me in a box and I will quickly wilt.  I suffocate under analysis and mathematical logic.  (Ask my friend that I teach with!!!!  I LIVE outside the proverbial "box".) 

 

I am all words, words, words, relationships, exhortations.....in that realm, I begin to float up to the clouds and there in my happy place and in that place I could care a less about overeating or junk food!  I want nothing but healthy simple foods.  In Africa, I ate only healthy foods, craved only healthy, freshly grown foods.  WHY can I not crave that here!!!  What has been missing?????   Perhaps it has been all the to-do lists I'm living under in MISD, so I found a refuge...food.

 

Camary and Phyllis and I have been trying to figure out our missing link, the root of our indulgent spirit in eating, we have stayed in Romans 6-7, "I do what I don't want to do, I know what to do but I cannot carry it out..."

 

We were discussing the whole matter before the LORD today, here is our verse that directed our thinking process:

 

Haggai 1:3-6

"Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while my temple remains in ruins?"  (Our bodies are the temple of God, mine is in ruins because I have created a paneled house of pleasure for myself, eating for pleasure.)  "Now this is what the LORD Almighty says, "Give careful thought to your ways. Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build the house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be glorified," 

 

I haven't given "careful thought to my ways"!!!!  (Mindless eating.) 

 

He said, "go to the mountains"....  ("I will look to the hills, where does my help come from, my help comes from the Maker of Heaven and Earth."  Psalm 121)

 

He said, "His pleasure and His glory!"  That has not been in my little self-made paneled house where I'm focused on my pleasure!

 

We decided to invite the LORD into our "paneled houses".  When I sit down at the table, I will dine with Him, with my Bible and notepad and fellowship with Him for His pleasure and for His glory (yes, while I enjoy healthy foods). 

 

When I call Phyllis or Camary, I will NOT tell them how I did this week by saying, "I ate well, or I overate, or I ate junk!!!!!"  I will not discuss how bad the junk is nor how great the foods by God are, BUT HOW GREAT GOD IS!!!

 

So far, there has been no victory even though I have made many changes to my eating...I bet my cholesterol levels have dropped more points too!  Still no victory.

 

The food is a burden and a dreary list of things to-do. The focus has been on how I did, not on God's pleasure and glory. This is the way to 100% and weight loss and victory. 

 

I will share with others ONLY words that tell about my time with Him, His pleasure and His glory. 

 

For example, "Oh, while I was eating, God showed me this verse, or wow, I saw a connection of how I am a living temple being nourished "not by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the LORD". 

 

Camary reminded me that gratitude and praise brings victory and joy. 

 

My personality can't follow a list, so I will praise God and bring Him into fellowship while eating.

 

I am so curious to see how this plan works this week!  I am so curious to see what Julie's 100% looks like filtered through her unique personality, gifting, processing.  Thanks for praying for "victory of 100%" for ALL of us...and our families!

 

If you are already enjoying 100% in eating, then I pray for 100% freedom for you in clutter-free living, in letting go of control, in WHATEVER is your personal defeat.  Don't let that area be a paneled house, invite Him in for His pleasure and His glory. 

 

Continued from second email...

 

So how do I get to 100%? 

 

I love escaping to my self-indulging paneled house, I've run into these walls for so long that they are fortified and tall.  I've tried quoting verses at this wall...it didn't fall.  I tried yelling at the devil...it didn't fall.  I've confessed to others, I've tried yelling at myself!  Why doesn't it fall?  WHY am I STILL not free? 

 

Answer?

 

Well, let's look at an impossible wall called...Jericho.   How did the walls of Jericho fall? 

 

Every archaeological site around the ancient times in the Middle East shows walls that fell inward...except one, the walls of Jericho.  The walls of Jericho were the ONLY walls ever found that fell outward.  Why is that important?

 

According to www.bibleprobe.com/jericho.htm , the walls of Jericho clearly fell outward, thus creating a flat surface because God was helping His weak, disobedient people to besiege a city that was impossible to fall, remember they were all like giants to them.    

 

"Jericho is a wonderful spiritual lesson for God’s people today. There are times when we find ourselves facing enormous “walls” that are impossible to break down by human strength. If we put our faith in God and follow His commandments, He will perform “great and mighty things” (Jeremiah 33:3) and give us the victory."  http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/cm/v21/n2/the-walls-of-Jericho.

 

It was all about faith in God, after the people had marched around them for seven days, it was “by faith the walls of Jericho fell down” (Hebrews 11:30).

 

So to bring down our paneled houses, our personal impossible walls that cannot be broken down on our own, it is God alone, "I will go before you and will level the mountains." (Isaiah 45:2)

 

How?

 

Invite God into our paneled house and fellowship with Him, simple.  No battles.  No rebuking Satan.  No lists.  Matt 11:28-29 says, "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."

 

WAIT, you mean the weary can level walls by resting!!!!!!!!  Yes, resting in Him who is great and mighty.

 

I've been practicing this now for 4 days, doing nothing but inviting God into my old paneled house to fellowship with Him, while I enjoy good, healthy foods (okay, foods off the lists, Mary!), and it is gone.  Walls are down, flat, fallen outward as His great big presence certainly didn't fit into my self-created paneled house!  He came in and the walls came tumbling down.

 

How long will my victory last?  As long as when I enter my temptation zone and consider excluding God and rebuilding a little privacy wall from God's eye that I instead, stop and I invite Him in and fellowship with Him and enjoy His presence, seek His "pleasure and His glory."   (Haggai 1:8)

 

Almost every single verse I see today, fits this victory plan!    "The fruit of righteousness will be PEACE; the effect of righteousness will be quietness and confidence forever.  My people will live in peaceful dwelling places, in secure homes, in undisturbed places of rest...and the city is leveled completely, how blessed you will be..." Isaiah 32:17-20      

 

Read Psalm 84.

 

Just sharing all these thoughts....

 

Joanna

 

Amy Carmichael said, "When you have decisions to make, don't look around to others to see what they would do, look UP, and light will come to show what our LORD and Master would have you do."      (A Chance to Die, p 345)