Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.

Today’s blog calls me to be brutally honest; it is for lack of a better term (and no pun intended) a gut check.  For the better part of my adult life I have struggled with my weight.  I have fought for many years to lose the weight on a diet and for many of them, I would lose weight but couldn’t maintain the necessary discipline to keep the weight off.  The readings the past few weeks have truly hit home for me and I have spent many an hour contemplating the words God has spoken directly to me through His prophets and through His Son.

Freedom is a great thing and what I consider one of the top gifts that God has blessed me with (it’s hard to top the gift of His Son and the gift of Life itself) but when I chose to abuse that freedom by not properly disciplining myself when it comes to my diet – that lack of discipline comes with consequences.  Too many big macs, too many chips, not enough exercise – the list goes on from there.  It is like I have become a slave to food and I cry out to the Lord everyday to free me from those bonds.  My cries to God aren’t much different than the Israelite’s who cried for their freedom from slavery.  And when God broke them from their bonds and led them through the desert to their freedom, how did they respond?

The whole Israelite community grumbled against Moses and Aaron.
The Israelites said to them,
“Would that we had died at the LORD’s hand in the land of Egypt,
as we sat by our fleshpots and ate our fill of bread!
But you had to lead us into this desert
to make the whole community die of famine!   

Much like the Israelites crying to be put back in slavery where they could once again have their fleshpots and fill of bread rather than face the hard journey to freedom through the desert, so too do I cry for the comforts of all that is bad for me rather than face the necessary journey through that desert to get a healthier version of me back.  In choosing to find comfort in food (being a proverbial slave to that comfort) am I not breaking the very first commandment that I have sworn against doing – have I chosen food as my god and placed that ahead of my one true God.

The readings over the past week have called us to share in the true bread of life – Jesus Christ.  God gave our ancestors manna in the desert but Jesus Christ is the true bread sent from the Father.

So now I question just how strong my faith is…if my faith were strong enough – I could move mountains.  If my faith were strong enough, if my faith were the size of a mustard seed, I would be strong enough to journey into the desert and gain back my true freedom given to me by God.  I must push myself to let God have control of my life.  I must have faith; I must feed my faith and not my cravings.  I must trust in God completely.  Pray for me as I try to journey through the desert.  Pray that my faith takes root like a mustard seed.  Pray that as my faith increases – as my gut decreases.

Do something great for our Lord today – taste and see the goodness of the Lord.

Glorify the LORD with me,
Let us together extol his name.
I sought the LORD, and he answered me
And delivered me from all my fears.

God’s will, not mine, be done.

Be not afraid; just have faith.

Jesus, I trust in You.