by tpiatt
[Did you know that many of our physical illnesses and even some diseases have been linked to gut health—literally the good and bad bacteria that line our digestive tract and help us extract nutrients from our food? Often, symptoms such as headaches, fatigue, joint aches, etc can be reversed through eliminating something from or adding something to your diet. Many people deal with food allergies manifested in the form of achy joints or skin issues instead of nausea or respiratory problems.]
Last week, a friend on facebook was asking a group of ladies about some health issues her child seemed to have and if any of us had dealt with similar issues and how we handled it. While there were a myriad of answers and all was civil, something struck me when I gave my answer, in part it was this:
I am finding almost every physical “problem” I have comes back to what I eat. It’s really annoying. Lol.
And right as I typed that… before I even finished posting the comment, I felt a tug from the Spirit of God in me saying, Yes, this is true in your Spiritual health also.
It was really like a sucker-punch to the gut- my spiritual gut. lol.
And a few verses came to my mind:
John 4: 13 -Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: 14- But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.
John 6:35 And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. 48-I am that bread of life.
1 Peter 2:1-Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, 2- As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: 3 –If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.
1 Corinthians 3:1 – And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. 2- I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.
Jesus is bread-not just bread, but the bread of LIFE. He is water for thirsty souls–not just water, but water that becomes a wellspring of everlasting life: LIVING WATER.
Bible study of doctrines and life principles are milk and then meat for a Christian-the FOOD of our Christian life.
When I consume excess sugar (or other foods to which I may be allergic, we are all unique) or processed foods that hold little nutritional value, my body gets tired, sluggish; and I do not feel well. My gut, where digestion takes place, becomes off-balance; and sometimes I get a headache. Other times my actual gut hurts or my joints get achy or I may have an unexplained patch of dry, itchy skin.
But when I consume life giving foods such as fruits and vegetables, good meats and healthy fats, other plants such as beans, grains and nuts, my gut is happy and my body feels nourished and energized to do the work of the day…..
So it is spiritually.
When I am not consuming personal Bible study but rather maybe just reading self-help items or relying on previous study, when Sunday comes around and the preacher only spouts “feel-goodisms” (even using Scripture, but there is no challenge to repent and GROW) without confronting sin and challenging me towards growth and a Christ-like life, my spiritual life gets tired. I become bored and sluggish in my attempt to live the Christian life… my spiritual gut becomes unbalanced. My spirit is not properly digesting Scripture for all its nutrients to cause me to grow in Christ.
But when I daily receive something from His Word, when the preacher expounds Scripture with challenges for me to repent of sin and grow and become more Christlike, I tend to feel energized and nourished to the point of growth and spiritual work.
And there are season of my life in which I look back and realize there was such a sluggishness to my walk with the Lord, and other times I look back and rejoice at realizing I grew through a period and am not the same person I was!
These are just a few applications of which the Lord convicted me… there are others, for another time. 🙂
Have you ever thought about spiritual digestion like that before?
I’d love to hear how the Lord taught you! Leave a comment 🙂
by tascha |
This is not exactly a “spiritually or Biblically-inspired” post.
It is more a “I wonder if anyone else has ever thought about it this way” post.
And it’s been sitting in my “draft” folder for a while now…
I had a conversation with a sweet new friend last night that prompted me to truly articulate this thought I’ve had for a while now:
Somedays, I truly feel as though motherhood may have given me a split personality {and I am not trying to belittle those with actual mental disabilities here!}.
I realize my children need ME.
But they need ME differently among them. They are each so individual and unique. Yes, I must be consistent in rules and discipline; but things they need, things they forget and need me to remind them of, things they have not yet learned, are ALL different for each one.
My poor oldest child, she is nearly a young woman, and yet I continue to remind her of things that, really, only her younger sisters need help with. I know that frustrates her. She’s so grown up and the others are still “babes”.
My middle daughter has some food and environmental allergies that sometimes means our whole family just misses out on stuff like… peanut-butter pie… because I just can’t chance it being around and her wanting a taste or being sad that she can’t have it. And she’s trying to grow up as quickly as her big sister, but she really isn’t there yet.
My third… a whirlwind of a girl. She plunges head-long into EVERYTHING she does. She has gusto! 🙂 And thinks very little, if ever, before acting. But her little heart is so tender and pliable, I must be restrained when calling a warning at her to not sit on her brother, or some other situation that could cause harm to one or multiple people. lol. She will just loose it, and the whole situation will disintegrate before our eyes.
My youngest is a boy. After 3 girls we have a boy. ‘Nuff said.
To those with more children, I am not trying to ‘prove’ my life is as hard or harder than yours… just stating some observations. 🙂
And then, my husband needs a WIFE, not a mother {he already has an awesome mother!}. And apart from “child of God”-which is my identity at its core- this is where I find my primary role in life – to be the best wife for him. If I’m an awesome mom and a lousy wife, I’ve not become what God created me to be!
And I do have a few friends… who like to speak to me as adult in my own right, not as a mother or a wife….
And so, maybe this is a little bit to be encouraging spiritually
… I need God! You need God! 🙂
If God does not help us in relating to all the most important people in our lives, we are a people most undone!
If I cannot be Christlike to my own family, how can I expect those outside my family to see Christ in me?
I’m not saying I loose it every day, but there is at least a portion of most days where I struggle really hard not to! And there have even been a few hours all strung together that I feel I {MIGHT} have it all together–HAHAHAHA. nope. not really!
And only bending my knee before His throne will help me be “ME”–a child of God–to those around me, whether I feel SPLIT or not. 🙂
by tascha |
I cannot help but PRAISE THE LORD for HIS goodness!
Recently my family endured some unexpected and abrupt changes. In searching out God’s direction for us, we have listened to several different preachers in the last few months.
It has been amazing to have God teach me a truth personally and then go to a church service [or listen online] and have it re-iterated to me from a different persepective.
God is just GOOD like that!
One such truth is that….
God’s delays are NOT the same as God’s denials;
the IMPOSSIBLE is done in a DIVINE timing!
God knew what would happen. He knew why and allowed it.
{{Sometimes He allowes things that no one understands just to try our faith.}}
God has become more real to me in the last 6 months than I have ever known… and, honestly, I felt close to Him before that. I talked to Him daily, hourly, as if He were actually right there with me–since He is. 🙂
But I still occassionally worried about little things, like money 🙂 desiring more space for my kids to grow in our house, eating healthier… just little things, that require money.
Then we had no income.
Bam.
And there had never been ‘enough’ before, so there was no savings to fall on… we lived paycheck-to-paycheck, with God filling in the gaps… somehow… every month a miracle.
But God’s timing IS divine.
All that previous stretching pennies proved to me that He could take care of us…
And He did.
There is absolutely no way around saying that.
He —GOD ALMIGHTY—literally paid our bills for 4 months.
And this has brought Glory to Himself in our family!
And honestly, I have never felt MORE peace than I did those months.
I still feel it now…
Because HIS divine time has provided my husband with a new job.
HIS divine time has brought us to a new family of fellowship.
His divine time has introduced us to new friendships to develop.
His divine time has taught me that:
Jesus SPECIALIZES in the impossible!
by tpiatt
When I was was young there were a few circumstances that occurred that turned my world on its head.
Now that yet another situation has turned my world upside down and been the cause of confusion, I realize that:
even as a child I was learning some lessons about God,
about life, about human nature… and myself.
I may speak about the other types of lessons sometime, but for today I want to share a few lessons I have learned about God… when my world seems turned completely bottom-side-up.
**The verses often quoted from Romans 8 are not idle platitudes:
26 Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered…. These past few weeks I have been so grateful to have this comfort. When my heart is overwhelmed, The Spirit of God intercedes FOR ME at the Throne of Grace!
27 And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.…And God listens.
28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.… I have seen it before, and I know I will see it again: Even when it seems that God could not work a situation out, I turn around and His name is being glorified and the darkest hour IS “just before the dawn.” While I do not yet see the rays of a new day pouring over the horizon of my heart, I am just as confident in them as I am of my salvation!
29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.… and “bad things happen” because this world is a sinful place, but God uses circumstances to mold my life to be more like Christ.
**It is not about my supposed position of service or paid ministry that makes me useful to God. It is my heart being conformed to the image of His Son, so that I may be counted among the “firstborn” of God.
**It amazes me to watch how God uses us, sinful creatures, to accomplish His will, giving Himself supernatural Glory and causing His Name to be praised!
Verse 35 asks who could separate us, His own, from the love of Christ... and the answer in all of us should be the same as the apostle’s:
38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
There are others hurting and questioning over some current situations in the life of my family. I give them these verses from II Thessalonians 1:
11 Wherefore also we pray always for you, that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power: 12 That the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and ye in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.…
**Remember that God has called each of His children to proclaim His Gospel to the lost. That is our highest calling!
And I pray that those hurting and confused over issues would ask for Lord to **remove all secondary causes** -meaning the human instruments-
and believe that God IS in control.
He wants us each to learn something,
**and the ultimate Glory is for God’s name to be praised in your own heart and life, even through this.
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One of the hardest and yet most rewarding things we can learn in the Christian life is it TRUST GOD…
…we are not commanded to trust any man or the wisdom of men.
Only trust God.
He is the only one that loved us enough to take the punishment of our sin upon His own body to pay for it.
In Proverbs 3 we are told:
3 Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart: …bind mercy AND truth about they neck. Often truth seems to call for judgment,
**but God asks us to COMBINE truth WITH mercy.
4 So shalt thou find favour and good understanding in the sight of God and man… and this combining truth with mercy {goodness, faithfulness, kindness} will bring us favor with man-this is a good thing.
5 Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding…
**our own understanding will fail us.
Our own heart is full of wickedness. ALL men’s hearts are full of wickedness.
6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths… But God can and will direct the path our lives take when we acknowledge Him.
7 Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil…
We must not seek a wisdom from our own experiences
…or from a man.
This wisdom is faulty and flawed by sin.
Only fear the Lord. Only live your life as far from evil as you can…
8 It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones….
and your soul will be healthy and ready to stand before Him…
…even if your heart is breaking.
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by tascha |
Last month I spoke in a Ladies’ Meeting our church has for it’s ladies to get together for fellowship. I have no photos to make it “pretty.” And it is rather lengthy, but I pray these thoughts will be a blessing to someone!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Living Intentionally ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
One of the hardest elements of life in general, for me, has been finding purpose in the mundane. For myself, and many women, that looks like washing dishes and treating stained laundry–after it’s already been washed & dried–oh MY!
For others it may includes driving in rush hour or mindlessly typing memos.
This learning to live deliberately has been a struggle for me since before I even realized it was something I needed to learn. It is LIVING GRACE.
And I have found it is something that must be TAUGHT to my children also! If we have no purpose… well, we have no purpose. Life seems pointless and boredom [or worse] ensues.
As an intentional woman, living deliberately as a Christian lady, it is as important that I scrub the bathtub with a song in my heart as it is that I hand the cashier a tract and invite her to a service.
There are several references to being PURPOSED or DETERMINED in what we do in the Bible. I only wrote out a few. {at the end}
It is imperative that we make the decision each day to live this gift we have called life intentionally, deliberately, with purpose, allowing GRACE to perfect our patience.
We must make a plan-even if it must be changed to accommodate life. We must reason and be thoughtful about the activities of our days.
When we hurry and scurry through appointments and activities, especially with our family/children, we miss the opportunities for life-touching. I cannot touch your life if my mind is already finished with my task and my body is rushing to catch up. Yet that is how I often approach simple responsibilities.
I think we all know what that feels like.
And this life-touching, caused by intentional living, is where a full Christian life becomes accessible. To have your life impact another–for the better– is what being Christlike is about.
And it requires that we slow down.
We have no idea whose life we may touch. Having a smile on my face while scurrying through Walmart in record time, with 4 kids in tow, may be just the encouragement another young lady expecting her first needs to get through the day.
I know it would have given me encouragement!!
Saying a kind ‘hello’ to someone we pass as we scurry to an appointment for which we are late may be the difference between someone continuing a search for ‘meaning’ -God- or just giving up.
We cannot expect those around us to know or understand the hurry of our schedule. We must speak words of edifying so as to minister GRACE to the hearers. Ephesians 4:29
And I can tell you from experience that those ideas are not just a figment of my imagination. Because *I* have been on the –other– side of similar scenarios. [I tend to think some of you have been also-needing encouragement, but simply not finding it anywhere.]
I am easily influenced to the negative. I must PURPOSE to find the positive and look for God’s hand… or I do not see it.
I must look for His Grace, on purpose.
And this is one way the Lord grabbed a hold of my own heart –this being deliberate. For me it has recently been specifically in the area of Motherhood. When I do not purpose to stop a task and spend a moment connecting with my child, that moment is lost, and I did not redeem it. It was a coupon that expired before I had a chance to use it.
Only, it is one of the most valuable coupons ever given.
For myself, using these coupons and redeeming my time has meant that I realize the relative insignificance of ALL the dishes being clean in the next 5 minutes compared to leaning down to hug my 4 yo, and look her in the eye as she tells me a story or asks me to “taste this, mommy.” Maybe not EVERY time, but at least 4-5 times–she cooks all day long! 🙂
It also means dropping to the floor, on purpose, several times during the day–thinking, “when was the last time I sat on the floor and talked to my baby-man?”–and sit on the floor and look into his sweet little face and let him gibber TO me instead of AT me, for just a minute.
Literally, he will be over it in 60-90 seconds.
It means paying attention when the older 2 trip over each other to tell me of their day when they get home.
It means stopping supper prep and turning to fully embrace my husband when he walks in the door.
But the Lord has also dealt specifically with womanhood and Christianity in my heart… and their relationship to each other– but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Romans 8:6
As ladies, we ARE the “softer” soul in people’s lives. We often create peace… or chaos… just by being present. We were created to help, teach and comfort {whether you ever marry does not change what is woven into the very fiber of our being as females; and no matter your “temperament,” you were created to help and teach and comfort}.
I think sometimes this desire gets squashed early in this world in which we live. And that creates chaos. We were made to be the voice of encouragement, while men are more often the voice of reason… since encouraging means emotions… and we are also emotional creatures.
Intentionally being a Christian and a woman… is a tall order. We have to look for, deliberately seek out on purpose, people that need help and encouragement. We have to premeditate on how we can use an opportunity for teaching truth kindly, to our children if we are mothers; to other children in our care if we are an authority for them; even to other adults, when the Spirit prompts a gentle word. Speaking the truth in love… which shows a maturity in Christ, and aids in the maturity of another.
Sometimes, I have to throw away produce. I buy it with the intention of eating well that week… and the next week I find it sitting on the bottom shelf completely uneaten… and inedible. Because I did not deliberately prepare and then eat the food, it was wasted.
And when we do not deliberately use our moments for SOMETHING {and even sleep is meaningful! periods of rest can and should be planned or even just grabbed spontaneously when needed!} BUT when we do not deliberately use our moments for SOMETHING, our day becomes as those fruits and vegetables that I throw out in a soggy mess.
And I have more than plenty soggy messes accumulated in my short days as wife and mother and woman.
But God—-He does not condemn my whole being to the refuse because of it.
It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. Lamentations 3:22-23
He gently makes each day new. Each day is whole with the opportunity to live it on purpose, taking —taking, grabbing hold of--the moments He sends our way.
Embracing them and touching the lives around us. Not just a casual brush, but a deliberate, intentional impact on a person… specific and on purpose.
This purpose, this determination, this deliberate life lived FOR GOD, lived for LIFE TOUCHING… will change so much about how our days play out. It changes attitude. It changes dress. It changes words spoken. It changes music listened to.
It simply changes who we are and how we live each day.
It is exhausting, but My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. II Corinthians 12:9
And when we really just do not know what to ask for or how to pray, the Lord will help us…. Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God. Romans 8:26,27
PURPOSED:
Psalms 17:3
Thou hast proved mine heart; thou hast visited me in the night; thou hast tried me, and shalt find nothing; I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress.
Daniel 1:8
But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s meat, nor with the wine which he drank: therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself.
Acts 19:21
After these things were ended, Paul purposed in the spirit, when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, to go to Jerusalem, saying, After I have been there, I must also see Rome.
Acts 20:3
And there abode three months. And when the Jews laid wait for him, as he was about to sail into Syria, he purposed to return through Macedonia.
Romans 1:13
Now I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that oftentimes I purposed to come unto you, (but was let hitherto,) that I might have some fruit among you also, even as among other Gentiles.
Ephesians 1:9
Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:
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Let’s be a BLESSING on PURPOSE!
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