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Manna Issue 24
#1
Manna Issue 24

Judges 10:15 Deliver us only, we pray Thee, this day.

Psalm 46:1 God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

Psalm 50:15 And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me.

Philippians 4:6 Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

Today we focus on our prayer lives as dieters as we discover that Christ Jesus desires to hear us out so that He can indeed answer us. In our personal prayer life and conversations with our Father God, there is nothing too irrelevant to bring before Him. Bringing every thing to Him in prayer is what He desires for each of us. As Christian dieters we become very aware that we are not doing this strictly by our willpower, but by the grace of God as we ask and He enables.

I did a Yahoo search using the words, prayers for dieters. It probably won't surprise you too much to learn that my web page came up as a reference quite a few times. But I know where I am at and I know how to find me. I was specifically looking for others that contributed to the Christian's life in offering prayers for us as a special class of dieters. Time after time the phrase dieter and prayers cropped up under the guise of selling or taunting a product or diet plan instead. Consistently it would read, "This is the answer to dieter prayers." If there was no selling of a product, it was pages that requested, not gave, prayers for dieters or eating disorders. Surprisingly enough, the twelve step programs or OA or 12 Step did not come up. There seemed to be a big area of lack when it came to sites that actually would offer up a prayer for the dieter.

Today we will not attempt to pray for a product, or look to a product to cure our woes. We will not go outside of our Christianity seeking help from something that is forbidden to us by God. We will learn that it is our prayer to the Lord that will deliver us from the dilemma of being overweight, because as far as we are concerned, He is the only one worthy of our prayers, and we seek Him then to bless our efforts. God only, through Christ Jesus, has the permanent solution to obesity, and we need to learn to call upon His name for deliverance from the bondage we have discovered ourselves in. Amen?

So that you are not concerned that Christians at Grace Today are the only ones in this whole wide world who do pray ourselves thin, I did find one lovely Christian site that offered a prayer for the dieter! I was encouraged and excited, but also discovered other sites that included Tarot links and other religions. That one site that offered one Christian dieter prayer was like an oasis in a parched desert. I now feel as if it has been a difficult task to spread the message that God does indeed answer our dieting prayers. This prayer comes from a Catholic site www.saintmarynb.org/prayerdiet.htm Put this one up on your refrigerator to see daily too. "Holy Spirit, I want to lose weight, but I keep on eating, and eating. Help me to understand myself. Why do I eat when I am not hungry? What is it that I am trying to satisfy or fill up? My need for affection? My desire to feel full and strong? Am I confusing a feeling of weakness and inadequacy with hunger? Do I binge eat in order to smother my anger? Please Holy Spirit, give me the peace of heart I need in order to understand me. And help me to say "no" to myself, to control my urge to put something in my mouth, to acquire some self discipline. Help me to understand that my "no" is really a "yes" to the person you are calling me to be. Strengthen me to say "no" to myself and "yes" to You. Amen."

Now you have actually prayed the prayer or at the least just read it. There you have done it, perhaps for the first time, or perhaps you have done it before. You are asking for some self discipline (help) and the ability to say no (help). You are asking the Holy Spirit to reveal to you what makes you tick. (help) How, when and why did you lose control over food, and how now will it be remedied. (help) Will God refuse this prayer you now might wonder? No, He will not, but you knew there was a but. This is what you must do to receive your deliverance.

Let me tell you with a short true story first and you will see for yourself. Sir Ernest Shackleton was an explorer of the Antarctic. One trip, he found it necessary to temporarily leave some of his men behind. He promised he'd return for them as soon as the weather lifted. But he didn't return the rest of that day... and the next...and the one after that... until several weeks had gone by. Finally the day came... all the men were on the shoreline ready for rescue. How is it that they were ready? One sailor said... "Every morning, Captain Wild, second in command, would tell us, 'Roll up your seabags, boys... the boss may come back today!'"

Didn't Jesus command us to pray AND to watch? Watch is full of action in this sense. It means to be ready, alert, available. And here is how we watch for Him to answer our prayer, or you might say, how we will participate in this deliverance from this remote area of weight gain that we have been inhabiting. You have to pack your bags. Any trip means you only take what is necessary for the journey, which in reality means any baggage that is not necessary gets left behind. Are you carrying baggage from the past? You have failed before, no one believes in your abilities, you will not be dictated by societies standards, you are always under too much stress or depression, it runs in the family or perhaps you just don't care what the baggage looks like, you have just always hauled it around with you. Be prepared for the Holy Spirit to reach those dark recesses and reveal to you what you must leave behind to become thin in your life! You can not be prepared by watching for your rescue if you do not pack what is only necessary for the journey while leaving go of the excess baggage. There is no room to carry it along this trip if you want to pass on to rescue and recovery.

I have an array of wonderful Internet friends who can always say something full of wisdom just at the right moment. One such friend commenting said this, "God will not remove the calories from your favorite foods." That is pretty amusing if it weren't for those that actually pray but have no self-discipline after they have prayed. We must do our part too as an expression of integrity and desire. The baggage of high calorie and fattening, non nourishing treats must be left behind. Often we might forget to pray for our daily bread as Jesus taught us to do.

Here is a lad who was not forgetful, but assured that his life didn't require it. The Sunday School Teacher asks, "Now, Johnny, tell me frankly do you say prayers before eating?" "No sir," little Johnny replies, "I don't have to, my Mom is a good cook." Cute, but whatever our reason's are for not praying, we must begin, or continue to do so if we are to work through not only our weight loss issues, but the equally important step of recovery preventing us from going down this road again once we have lost the weight. Prayer is more than uttering words. It is the person himself coming before the throne of God. Prayer is more than saying words. It is our heart becoming one with the heart of God. Prayer is calling God into action to exercise HIS POWER and HIS GRACE! Prayer is so intimately entwined with God, that He is not only sensitive to our communication, but we are sensitive to what He would speak to us and expect from us. Often the biggest prohibitor to a natural and frequent prayer life is this: "I prayed and God did not answer in the way I prayed for. He did something entirely different." We cannot control God's will and we cannot possibly phantom the reason's He replies as He does, or delays as He does. Yet we still must become more intimate with Him to gain some type of understanding and relief.

Read the following true story for some insight. Does God Dance On Your Potato Chips? "Not too long ago I had "one of those days". I was feeling pressure from a writing deadline. I had company arriving in a couple days and the toilet was clogged. I went to the bank, and the trainee teller processing my deposit had to start over three times. I swung by the supermarket to pick up a few things and the lines were serpentine. By the time I got home, I was frazzled and sweaty and in a hurry to get something on the table for dinner. Deciding on Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup, I grabbed a can opener, cranked open the can, then remembered I had forgotten to buy milk at the store. Nix the soup idea. Setting the can aside, I went to plan B, which was leftover baked beans.I grabbed a Tupperware from the fridge, popped the seal, took a look and groaned. My husband isn't a picky eater, but even HE won't eat baked beans that look like caterpillars. Really frustrated, now, I decided on a menu that promised to be as foolproof as it is nutrition-free: hot dogs and potato chips. Retrieving a brand new bag of chips from the cupboard, I grabbed the cellophane and gave a hearty pull. The bag didn't open. I tried again. Nothing happened. I took a breath, doubled my muscle, and gave the bag a hearty wrestle. With a loud pop, the cellophane suddenly gave way, ripping wide from top to bottom. Chips flew sky high. I was left holding the bag, and it was empty. It was the final straw. I let out a blood curdling scream. "I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!!!" My husband heard my unorthodox cry for help. Within minutes he was standing at the doorway to the kitchen, where he surveyed the damage: An opened can of soup, melting groceries, moldy baked beans, and one quivering wife standing ankle deep in potato chips. My husband did the most helpful thing he could think of at the moment. He took a flying leap, landing flat-footed in the pile of chips. And then he began to stomp and dance and twirl, grinding those chips into my linoleum in the process! I stared. I fumed. Pretty soon I was working to stifle a smile. Eventually I had to laugh. And finally I decided to join him. I, too, took a leap onto the chips. And then I danced. Now I'll be the first to admit that my husband's response wasn't the one I was looking for. But the truth is, it was exactly what I needed. I didn't need a cleanup crew as much as I needed an attitude adjustment, and the laughter from that rather funky moment provided just that. So now I have a question for you, and it's simply this: Has God ever stomped on your chips? I know that, in my life, there have been plenty of times when I've gotten myself into frustrating situations and I've cried out for help, all the while hoping God would show up with a celestial broom and clean up the mess I've made of things. What often happens instead is that God dances on my chips, answering my prayer in a completely different manner than I had expected, but in the manner that is best for me after all. Sometimes I can see right away that God's response was the best one after all. Sometimes I have to wait weeks or months before I begin to understand how and why God answered a particular prayer the way he did. There are even some situations that, years later, I'm still trying to understand. I figure God will fill me in sooner or later, either this side of Heaven or beyond. Do I trust Him? Even when He's answering my prayers in a way that is completely different from my expectations? Even when He's dancing and stomping instead of sweeping and mopping? Can I embrace what He's offering? Can I let His joy adjust my attitude? Am I going to stand on the sidelines and sulk, or am I willing to learn the steps of the dance He's dancin' with my needs in mind? I'll be honest with you: Sometimes I sulk. Sometimes I dance. I'm working on doing more of the latter than the former. I guess the older I get the more I realize that He really does know what He's doing. He loves me and I can trust Him. Even when the chips are down."~~Author Unknown

What a word of encouragement for us to remain steadfast in prayer, bringing all things to God, and to dig a little deeper in seeing what He has answered and what He is trying to say to us. We often discover in this process that we are not only dieting, but seeking to have our spirit grow as our body shrinks. There is not a one of us that hasn't longed to be understood at one time or another by someone else. We are very frustrated when someone we care for does not take the time to discover where we are coming from. God, in the same manner, desires this same respect from us. So if we have said, "I have prayed for weight loss and nothing has happened", or "I prayed that I would not overeat this potluck gathering and I did", who must we fault? God? Ourselves? Those that surround and tempt us? Who? Is that reason enough to abandon our daily prayers for deliverance from what might appear to be a hopeless situation for us? I would urge you today to remain steadfast in your prayers and in your efforts.

James said, "You have not because you ask not." We need not beg over and over as if God has not heard us, but we are called to pray and watch, each one of us. This week if you do falter or struggle, don't compensate by quitting. Say a prayer for yourself, renew yourself in the Lord, and be refreshed in His Presence and love once more. Remember to pray for what you want, but to work for what you need. An old Indian Proverb says this, "When we take one step toward to God, He takes seven steps toward us." Take your step of faith this week until we meet again and tuck this Scripture away for a day you really need it on: Psalm 18:29: "With your help I can advance against a troop, with my God I can scale a wall." Prayer: Lord God, often I rob You of the blessing of coming to You to converse, to pray, to praise, to ask and to receive. I ask You this day, Almighty Creator, to help me gain control of this weight problem in my life. Deliver me from bondage of food and set my feet on the path to health. Help me to show restraint in this area, and be with me each day as I diet. Strengthen me, Lord, for the long haul, grant me patience in seeing my vision fulfilled, and gently remind me to turn to You often as recognition of where my help truly comes from. In Jesus' name. Amen ©2001-2007 www.gracetoday.com
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