My weightloss journey so far -Phillipians 2:13 style

About two months ago, the woman that was praying for Tim's weight-loss started seriously praying for mine. Since then I have lost around 31 pounds. My eating habits and cravings have dramatically changed and the Lord is bringing me into full health and restoration. I am so thankful as yall who know me know that I have never been able to continue in a healthy lifestyle. Either I was depriving myself to lose weight or I was overeating and feeling helpless and did not care, but finally, I have ideas of what foods to combine to eat and maintain healthy glucose levels and thyroid balance. So thankful for precious saints like Brenda that will pray! I sure needed it! Here are my pictures thus far of what my Daddy is doing in me! 

Started at 326

14lbs down

23lbs down

27lbs down

Today at 31lbs down

5/3/16 EVER BEEN BROUGHT OUT OF LO DEBAR?

Reading in the life journal this morning and came across these scriptures that stood out to me. 

Mephibosheth was Saul's only remaining relative. Typically, the new king would typically kill off all of the old predecessors heirs to the throne to keep from uprising or revolt, but  David as a man after God's own heart and chose to show kindness and mercy instead. 

2 Samuel 9:3-4 NLT

http://bible.com/116/2sa.9.3-4.nlt

“The king then asked him, “Is anyone still alive from Saul’s family? If so, I want to show God’s kindness to them.” Ziba replied, “Yes, one of Jonathan’s sons is still alive. He is crippled in both feet.” “Where is he?” the king asked. “In Lo-debar,” Ziba told him, “at the home of Makir son of Ammiel.””

2 Samuel 9:13 NLT

http://bible.com/116/2sa.9.13.nlt

“And Mephibosheth, who was crippled in both feet, lived in Jerusalem and ate regularly at the king’s table.”

So King David's Mercy rescued Mephibosheth from a place called Lo Debar. The name means place of no hearing or no pasture. Have you ever been in a place where you couldn't hear God speak? Where you didn't even know if you were walking with Him or not? A place of silence, when you really needed to hear from the Lord? A place where you felt like you couldn't walk forward? 

Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds forth out of the mouth of God. We all need fresh, living, active Word in our lives daily. We all need to be able to sit at the Kings table and eat His food. Jesus Christ made a way for us to be able to sit at the King's table even we couldn't walk on our own he carries us to His table. We are brought from a place called "Lo Debar" where there is no pasture or no word into a place of fellowship with the Lord through his Holy Spirit. Jerusalem (where the King resided) means to send forth Shalom (Peace- wholeness, completeness or "unbrokenness"). So we are indeed brought from a place of no Word, no pasture, no relationship to a place where He sends forth His Shalom and makes us whole.

Lord, we thank you for carrying us to your table. We thank you when we deserved judgment, you gave us mercy instead. We thank you for the Almighty Grace that you've given us and we ask you to bring us to that place of true shalom. Help us to bring others to the table that they may walk in that same peace that passes all understanding.! 

4/6/16 Not Cured but Healed

As me and Mikayla were looking in my old Bible this morning. We looked at the front of this Bible where I had some notes written. These were written around 2005 or so and I came across the word that I was given that morning. It simply says 

"not every disease will be cured, but you will be healed."

Obviously, that morning it didn't fascinate me as much as it does today. I believe I am healed and it is amazing to see what God is doing in my body. I have never been able to eat the right foods AND do all the exercising at the same time with the amount of pain my body has always been in emotionally and physically without falling back on to some old addiction of some sort whether it be sex, sugar, people pleasing, seeking the "experience"of the Holy Spirit instead of relationship with Him (that's a big God vs good question to ask ourselves), or any other variety of addictive tendency. However, as most of you know my husband has been able to lose about 165 or more pounds. This has been tough for me as I have tried and tried on many occasions to do so and failed and failed on many occasions to do so. Everywhere I turned, it was ALWAYS The first thing people said to me that knew him. "Wow! Tim has lost a lot of weight ". All the while, I just didn't have the fight in me. My body was doing crazy things in my mind, my emotions, and my whole physiological make up. No matter how I tried to overcome, I seemed to be going downhill over the last few years. Prayer, reading my Bible, doing all the things I knew to do, but to no avail. My body seemed to be going down in the wrong direction. My husband's body, however, was reacting to everything he was doing. I so struggled with jealousy. I questioned God a lot. Because I know without a doubt that the only reason we are able to lose any weight or to hold off or maintain a lack of an addictive lifestyle is because the strength of the power of Christ in us. There is no other way to be healed and made whole apart from Jesus. For some reason, I still didn't seem to be walking it out. And then, a few weeks ago, the same woman that has been praying for Tim every day of his weight-loss journey, started praying for me intensely. Now I'm not just talking about popcorn prayers that we all pray here in there about different things. I am talking about the effectual fervent prayer of the righteous. Travailing prayer. Warring prayer. Definitely overcoming prayer. And those kind of prayers always work to accomplish the will of God in people's lives. That being said, the will of God for my life is to be healed and walk it out. Not cured of all disease, but healed and restored and redeemed. The symptoms I see in my body are not driving my body anymore. I still struggle often, and sometimes I still fail. BUT GOD has healed me. I am not cured but he has healed me! You ask what's the difference between healing and curing? Ahh I asked the same thing this morning when I saw that wrote in my Bible. So I thought I would Google it. I found this and it sparked my interest. Oh I know, Google is not the authority (although many of us seem to act that way whether we admit it or not because of its convenience), but this jumped at me so I will share with you as I seek further to see what he means by healing in curing. 

Excerpt from "mindbodygreen.com

The words “healing” and “curing” are used interchangeably, but their definitions could not be more different. Curing is a restoration of health, an absence of symptoms, and a remedy of disease. Healing, on the other hand, is a restoration of wholeness — not the level of wholeness before the diagnosis, but a restoration of wholeness that is new, different, and comparatively better than before the onset of disease. Healing is not the removal or cessation of symptoms, but rather an integrative process that transcends the physical and includes mental, emotional, and spiritual vitality and wellness.

WOW!!!!! This wasn't even a Christian website that I know of. BUT GOD stirred my spirit up when I read it. Because I know that In Him,  I am a "new creation". I am not the same person I was yesterday and tomorrow I will not be the same person I am today. He is making me new and alive from death flowing continual resurrection power working in me and through me. As I surrender to the process, I am healed. The disease might not be cured, and I might still see symptoms, but God has healed me. I am made better than I was before the disease touched my body. I'm so thankful for this journey! Ask any cancer survivor whether they would take $1 million for their cancer journey victory and I would almost be willing to say that most of them believe their lives are better having went through the battle and had victory. They may not have been "cured", but they have been "healed". Now I'm not saying, that if they had the choice to have never went through cancer they would have chosen cancer for thenselves or anyone else for that matter. That would be crazy and not lining up to the will of God, but having had to go through cancer, they see their lives as better now! It truly amazes me how the struggles and difficulties of our lives bring us greater victory. I am thankful that my mindset is changing. And I see the difficulties now, my mind is starting to believe that that is just a greater victory that Jesus says for me. Thank you Lord that we are being healed and not just cured! 

Today I pray for everyone that might be reading this that we would see our Healer and walk our healing and not just pray for a cure. That no matter the symptoms, we believe that we are healed. I am thankful for the healing and thankful for being a new creation and I pray that each and every reader would continually become new. That they daily down to themselves and are resurrected in Christ. 

May the Lord bless you and keep you and may his face always shine upon you!

One month into my healing (before and after photo- 20 lbs down 

MY BEFORE PHOTO 2/29/16

AFTER PHOTO 3/24/16