Dying to LIve

Sounds  like a contradiction, doesn't it?  An oxymoron?   Something that shouldn't make any sense at all, but when you stop to think about it, it really does?

This is from Galatians 2:20.  "I have been crucified with Christ and I  no longer live, but Christ lives in me.  The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.






 
Here we go:

















When we die to ourselves, we cease having relationship with anything.  So dying to self means that we cease having relationship with what we want if it doesn't agree with what God wants.

 This passage is a good one, if I can get past the idea of dying!  But I can totally understand needing to stop something that we find essential because it isn't essential for us through God's eyes.

For me, sometimes, that is food.  We need food.  We must have nourishment to survive, to maintain good health, and to  navigate through the world with strength.

But....we don't need to eat to excess. 

Example:  a few minutes ago I went to the kitchen to take my nightly medicine.  I popped open the pill container, dropped the four tablets into my hand and then into my mouth, drank the rest of the iced tea from dinner, then grabbed a cookie and stood at the back door and ate it.

Ok...wait a minute.  It was fun until the cookie, right? Why the cookie?  I tell myself every night that it says on the Xerlto bottle that it should be taken with food.  That is how I justify eating a cookie, a brownie bite, a piece of cake, a cheese stick, or whatever I can find.  Does that make it ok?  No.  It doesn't.

I could take the meds with dinner.  I usually don't though. 

I could just not eat something when I take the meds at 10:00.  But I do.

Is God chastising me because I use the medicine as an excuse to pop a cookie into my mouth?  I am not sure.

What I do know is that every cookie I eat in the evening adds more calories to my daily intake, most of the time pushing the total over the daily requirements.  What happens them?  More weight on this body in the form of fat. 

That is NOT what God wants.  He wants me to be healthy, not fat.  Not bursting out of my clothes.  Not tipping the scale at 200+ pounds (and I am guessing at that because I haven't stepped on the scales since the middle of March).

We feel things in our flesh, and even when we give up something that is hurting us, it may still be painful for us to give it up.

 Very true. My 'flesh' tells me that I need to eat that brownie at night with my medicine, but in my heart I know that I should take the meds with dinner, thus eliminating the need for extra food.  I also know that less food will result eventually in pounds dropping off.  That is always a good thing!

In the Personal Reflection for this section is this:

How will you say no to self and yes to God?

I won't join WW again, but I can really watch what I eat and be more consistent in going to the Fireside Fitness Center.

It will work!  It will!