5/19/2021 – Pastor Brian’s Blog –
In my lifetime I believe I have tried every diet known to mankind. I am pretty confident that over the last 20 years, I have lost close to 1 ton on these diets. The problem is that over that span of time trying those different diets, I have probably gained about 1½ tons!!
Ok I might have exaggerated a bit on the “tonnage,” but the rest of my blog is true! This past January a missionary friend told us about this diet that he was on, and how he was able to lose 50+ pounds in a matter of weeks. So Judy and I decided to commit to this diet for 3 months and see what it would do for us.
We knew that we wanted to lose weight, yet we did not spend a lot of time thinking about the weight we wanted to lose. Instead, we focused on what it would take to lose the weight. Every day we would eat from the list of items the diet plan gave us. We would eat as many times as we were told too. We didn’t weigh ourselves every day, but we did weigh ourselves once a week to check on our progress. We didn’t worry about tomorrow, we focused on today. We didn’t get discouraged about the work that was ahead of us, we chose to be faithful just one day at a time.
At the end of our 3 month commitment, Judy and I had lost a total of 57 lbs. We have since continued on this practice of commitment, focus, and stick-to-itiveness and as of today’s blog, we have lost just under 100 lbs. since January!!
As I was thinking about that this week, I thought this is exactly the secret, (although it is not really a secret) to living a life of commitment and surrender to Jesus. Like we did with the diet, you commit to it, you do what you are told to do and you surrender your will to the goal. We made the conscious decision to be faithful for the desired results no matter what.
Living a committed life for Jesus is more than just coming forward at a service and telling Jesus that you are willing to go where He wants you to go, to be what He wants you to be, to say what He wants you to say. Living a life for Christ means that I am faithful to Him every moment, in every decision, with every temptation and in every difficult trial. I chose to be faithful to Jesus at work, when my spouse is with me and when they are not. I am faithful with my money, I am faithful with my time, I am faithful to the ministry opportunities that God places before me.
As it is with losing weight, being faithful doesn’t just happen. You understand that although you promised to be faithful to Jesus next week, next month, 10 years from now, it will only happen if you are faithful to Him today.
Everyday Judy and I would eat from the recommended list of foods. To remain faithful to God, every day we must eat from God’s recommended food, the Bible. Judy and I would check our weight every week to see our progress. To remain faithful, we need to look back to see if our life is different this week than last week. Am I walking closer to God or have I drifted away? Judy and I also did the diet together which made us accountable to each other. To remain faithful we all need someone to hold us accountable to God and His instruction manual. Not someone that is going to be easy on you, but someone that loves you enough to hold you accountable to do whatever God has for you!
Paul says that he prayed for people to live a life that was worthy… And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God. Colossians 1:10
Judy and I are committed to continue to lose weight, even if it is only one pound at a time until we get to our desired goal. And then we have a plan to keep it off. To live a life worthy of Jesus, requires a lifelong commitment laid down one day at a time.
I can tell you that it is exciting for Judy and me to step on those scales and see the weight drop off. We feel so much better now that we have dropped all that weight. It is the same in our spiritual life. To look back and see the weight of sin not holding me back like it used too. To see a spiritually lighter and better person because I made the right choices.
To live a life worthy of Jesus, will not only make your life lighter of sin, it will encourage you to keep on going. It will cause your Spirit to give a shout out to God for His wonderful Grace and the life He has planned out for you. Planned out, not only for today, but for all eternity!!
Hey, you can do this! Not because we are always faithful, but because God is always faithful. And besides… Jesus has promised never to leave you, so He is there to help you along the way!
