Sunday Devotional - What is Slavery Today?

When the Israelites first arrived in Egypt, it was for freedom sake. They were friends of Pharaoh (through Joseph), and they settled in the land of Goshen because the rest of the world was in the midst of a drought and they would die if they didn’t. They weren’t told what they couldn’t do. (Genesis 47)

But after a while, Pharaoh died, Joseph died, and everyone who knew any of them died, and soon the Israelites became slaves. They were stripped of the right to leave or to decline work. They lived in back breaking labor day in and day out, and were given no rest—after all, who gives rest to slaves?

So when they were finally given freedom, God instituted a day of rest, and they were given the right again to say “no” to work and enter into the stillness and peace that can only be found by allowing God to be ruler in their hearts again.

Deuteronomy 5:15 - Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out of there with a strong hand and an outstretched arm. That is why the Lord your God has commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.

Today slavery doesn’t look much different. It promises freedom because it will take care of us and fulfill our need without telling us what we can’t do or shouldn’t do. Smoking promises to keep us relaxed and help us stay thinner. Alcohol promises to help us forget our worries and become a more fun person. Caffeine promises to help us stay alert and awake so we can work or play longer and need sleep less. Food promises to comfort us and keep us from ever feeling hungry. 

But once we continue to live with our newfound friend and addiction, we’ll find it’s not easy to leave or even decline it when we have an urge to continue. And what’s worse is that we have to pay or work harder in order to keep up with the demands of the addiction. We have to smoke or drink or eat more in order to get the same promise out of them, and that costs more money. And not to mention the toll that these things take on our health. Cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and other organ disfunction awaits the person who remains enslaved to these addictions. We soon find that the freedom promised by these things were actually just another form of bondage. It didn’t tell us what we couldn’t do at first, but eventually we found that we couldn’t stop.

Galatians 5:1 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

Christ has set us free from every bondage, every enslavement, so there is no need to live in slavery today to anything. No addiction can hold us if we abide in Christ and live in obedience. We have a promised land, a land of freedom promised to us in God’s word. But, just like the Israelites after they were freed from Egypt, they still had to fight to take the land that was promised to them.

Deuteronomy 1:8 - Behold, I have set the land before you: go in and possess the land which the LORD swore unto your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give unto them and to their seed after them.

Joshua 1:3 Every place where the sole of your foot treads, I have given you, as I promised Moses.

Even though God made these promises to Joshua and Moses, they Bible shows through most of the book of Joshua that they had to fight to gain ground and to take possession of the land and freedom God said was theirs. Likewise, freedom is ours, it’s already promised to us, but it’s up to us to fight and take it.

But isn’t it difficult to now battle against our addiction? It’s easy to remember the “good times” when the enslavement didn’t seem so bad. Wasn’t it nice to us before? Didn’t it kind of keep some of its promises? But unless we want to go back to Egypt, back to being told we can’t leave and we can’t stop while it slowly kills us and works us to death, we must fight.

Numbers 14:40-45 - Early the next morning they set out for the highest point in the hill country, saying, “Now we are ready to go up to the land the Lord promised. Surely we have sinned!” But Moses said, “Why are you disobeying the Lord’s command? This will not succeed! Do not go up, because the Lord is not with you. You will be defeated by your enemies, for the Amalekites and the Canaanites will face you there. Because you have turned away from the Lord, he will not be with you and you will fall by the sword.” Nevertheless, in their presumption they went up toward the highest point in the hill country, though neither Moses nor the ark of the Lord’s covenant moved from the camp. Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in that hill country came down and attacked them and beat them down all the way to Hormah.

However, if we try to fight in our own strength, we will be beaten time and again, just like the Israelites were each time they tried to fight without God’s provision. The truth is that if we were strong enough to free ourselves and battle on our own, we would have done so. And just because we are children of the omnipotent King doesn’t mean that we can do things without Him with us. 

Gaining ground is a struggle, but if we rely upon the Lord’s strength, ground will be gained. We must pray before every battle, realizing that this is not our war, it’s His. Rely upon His strength each and every time we need to resist the urge to give in to our slavery. God alone can defeat our enemy, we need to leave it in His hands, and worry about only about abiding in Him.

My personal paraphrase of the promises from Isaiah 30:18-21(TPT) - Entwine your heart with His. Wait for Him to help and He will answer you when you cry out. Through hardship and difficulty, He will be with you—He will not hide from you. And you will hear his once behind you saying, “This is the way, walk in it.”

John 15:7-8 - If you remain in me and my words in you, that is if we are vitally united and my message lives in your heart, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified and honored by this, when you bear much fruit and prove to be my disciples. (AMP)

So my prayer today is that we take hold of the freedom to say “no” to whatever we are enslaved to today. That we will believe the promises of strength and boldness that we are granted in God’s word and march forward with Him in front of us and behind us and telling us where to go and how to get there. That our hearts will be entwined with His and that He will help us with the battles that we are facing to take hold of the freedom that is ours. In Jesus name.

Sunday Devotional - Dealing with Discontentment

One of the hardest things to deal with as a child of God is when we're disappointed with the One who provides all things. Sometimes we think that we deserve more than we have, better than we have, or something faster than we're getting. It's easy to see other people gaining what we want and then feeling like it's unfair that God's holding back His blessing from us. Especially when we've been good.

Like a child throwing a tantrum, we want to rail at God for being unjust.

Satan moves in like a lion waiting to devour right about now, too - he's there to provide all the coaxing that we need to feed our feeling of dissatisfaction.

• Everyone else has more, even though they aren't even believers.
• You've worked so hard this week, you deserve that reward - but God didn't care to give it to you.
• Why should you bother fighting temptation when it makes no difference?
• Why should you have to keep waiting for what you want?
• God obviously doesn't care.
• He doesn't really love you.

The eyes of all look to you,

    and you give them their food at the proper time.

You open your hand

    and satisfy the desires of every living thing.

(Psalm 145:15-16)

God has not changed who He is. He does love us and He does care. He is the provider of all good things - but in the proper time. His time. Our every desire will be satisfied by His hand. Just because He provides differently from what we expect, or at a different time than we hope, doesn't mean He won't provide. 

When feeling discontented, the first thing we need to do is tell God how we feel. If we're mad, tell Him. If we're sad, tell Him that, too. The Psalms are full of discontented voices asking God to hurry up. Once we've emptied out our feelings, we then need to denounce the lies and remember the truth of God's word. His promises are real and meant for us. We need to remember everything He has provided for us already, then thank Him and praise Him. Lastly, we need to wait upon Him. Wait for the contentment, or the blessing. If we know we are going to receive His promise, but haven't yet, we need to wait for it in great expectation. It's coming, even if it's not on our timetable. 

I've had a great bout with discontentment this week. I felt as though I'd been battling hard, fighting to gain ground, but when I checked to see how much ground I'd gained, I'd actually lost some. I was heartbroken, cried, and spent a few hours having a temper-tantrum of sorts. Then God reminded me of His provision. He reminded me that it's about the relationship I'm developing with Him, not about the outside sources or rewards. 

Jesus is the only source of true joy and satisfaction. He is my reward. 

Yes. I had a child-like tantrum and afterward, I felt a great deal of guilt. But God gave me a good hug and reminded me that I'm already acceptable to Him. If you're feeling discontented like I was, I pray that this short message and testimony will find you where you are and help you remember where you're reward is, too. May God bless you on your continuing journey with Him.

Weigh-in Wednesday 4/15

It's now been a little over a month since I started wearing a Fitbit, and here's what I've accomplished:

1. My resting heart rate is now a full 20 bpm lower than it was when I first started - this is huge. I was on the verge of needing to go to the hospital before, and now my body is working more efficiently because of my weight loss and fitness level.

2. I have walked 2 half-marathons. Over 13.2 miles in one day TWICE over the past month. I have logged in over 10 miles/day on average. And every step adds up to calories burned.

3. I can now run a full mile (and a half) without stopping to walk.

4. And I've lost a total of 14 lbs so far.

When I exercise, I keep my focus on the source of my strength, Jesus, by listening to praise music. It helps keep me motivated to just push a little further and go a little longer. And I thank Him for helping me stay on this journey and for picking me up when I fall down.

Weigh in Wednesday - Week 1 with #FitBit

~It has officially been one week since I got a new Fitbit ~

So what's happened?

#1 - I'm more of an overachiever than I thought I was. If my Fitbit sets goals that are too easily reached for me, I raise them higher - and then I proceed to work harder to crush my new goals. 10,000 steps/day was too easy for me, so I raised it to 15,000 which I actually had to work a little to make sure I accomplished. My average daily step count? 19,000.

#2 - I lost 6 pounds. In one week.

#3 - My resting heart rate went down by 8 bpm. My Fitbit Charge HR has a heart rate monitor. I don't use it much, but the Fitbit app has this neat feature where it keeps track of my HR during workouts and my resting heart rate. I thought it was interesting that my resting heart rate went steadily down. So I researched it and found that sedentary people have a much higher heart rate than athletes, and it's one of the signs that your heart is working harder than it should. I had no idea. And now that I can measure that resting heart rate, I can really truly see the results of my workout in terms of overall heart health.

I'm sticking with this Fitbit so far, and really having fun meeting new people who use Fitbit on Instagram. I think the social atmosphere and competitive aspect of this device is going to keep me focused on making small changes and seeing the results over time. I'm excited about it and the fact that God has led me to this new way to overcome my addiction to food and the sedentary lifestyle. 

So what is working for you? How is your fitness journey going?