Back to the Basics!

A couple weeks ago, I missed placed my Bible and had to grab a back up Bible I’ve had since high school. On the front cover it said “God’s Game Plan: Back to the Basics” After going through it and reading some old notes I had written down, I found a page that said Prayer, Worship and Reading. It hit me square between the eyes. Too many times over the last couple years, I have tried to do something elaborate or create something really complex to have an amazing God experience. Who am I fooling? I don’t create those moments, God does!! I finally surrendered, stopped complicating things and just got BACK TO THE BASICS.

Here are 3 fundamentals we should all revisit when it comes to our relationship with God and our relationship with our health.

Prayer & Exercise- We all know it, but don’t do it as often as we should. We tend to short change God and our bodies in these areas. Saying things like “I got a quick prayer in before bed” or “Well, I was on my feet all day”.... Yes, those count, but they are very very very minimal and definitely not intentional or engaged enough to really serve the purpose of prayer or exercise. If we are honest with ourselves we are never going to grow closer to God or get healthy this way. If anything we grow further away because we become disgruntled and upset with our lack of progress. Try blocking out some intentional time for both prayer and exercise over the next 2-3 weeks (maybe 30minutes for each)

Worship & Nutrition- If we are truly in love with God, worship will be a natural outflow of our lives throughout each day, not just Sundays. The same is true if we are committed to living a healthy life. Eating healthy, nutritious foods will happen every meal, not just adding broccoli or some veggie to dinner a couple nights a week. Both, worship and nutrition should be all the time things, it does not have to be an elaborate worship set on Sunday mornings or some fancy prepared meal. It can be as simple as worshipping in your car or grabbing a healthy snack in stead of that candy bar.

Reading the Word & Accountability- These 2 areas are probably the hardest for most people (my self included). I use to balk at the idea of being held accountable to someone because I thought my failures would not only be seen by my accountability partner, but be out on the street for everyone to see as well. It’s not until we lay our insecurities out that we can truly be free from them and in reality, having someone to help you stay focused is the difference between remaining on course or drifting far away. Reading the Word is very similar. I tend to want to take the easy road and memorize single verses that are popular, rather than go deep, read the entire chapter and really dissect the context of scripture. Both seem painful at first, but the progress, growth and wisdom gained is so enriching its hard to go a day without either one.

Illuminate!!!

Over the weekend I had a few moments where I felt like God was talking to me. I didn’t understand at first, cause what I heard/felt Him saying doesn’t really apply to my life at this moment. I initially thought, Ok, cool, I will just stash this message and bit of wisdom away for when it does (I will still do this). But then I felt like God was telling me to just share this simple, yet powerful Truth because someone out there needs to hear this…. So here it goes.

“The Darker the Dark the Brighter the Bright” this simple term has been repeating in my head for several days now. It didn’t really dawn on me until I was walking around my house in the middle of the day with all the lights turned on (Something my stingy butt NEVER does). I started to turn the lights off one by one and as I did, I realized how each light didn’t really have any affect on the actual lighting in my house… It was already lit up by all the other lights and the obvious bright piercing Florida sun coming through the windows. I finally had all the lights off except the one in the closet, the closet is in the back corner of the room were very little, if any, outside light can get to.

As I hit the switch for that light, it went pitch black and with every other light already off I could hardly see anything. Then something caught my eye, a tiny little green light coming from my digital camera that was plugged into a power outlet by the floor. It took my eyes a moment to adjust to the instant darkness but once they did, this tiny little light was bright enough to illuminate the whole room.

If you haven’t figured it out yet, what I think God is trying to tell us is that we should not fear trials, tribulations or hardships. It is in these dark moments of our lives that we have the ability to shine the brightest. Even if we think we are just one tiny little light that no one can see, if we are plugged into our power source (God) we will be able to illuminate the world around us, even in the darkest of times.

When No One Is Looking!!

I am always amazed by how God shows up in my life. Even in the small things, He is always there. This happens frequently when God uses things in one aspect of my life and correlates it with something He wants me to do in my relationship with Him. Normally this isn’t some life altering decision, but more of a moment when I go “oh now I get it” or “that’s what you’ve been trying to say.”

Recently one these moments happened while I was in line at the grocery store. I was starving and dying for a snack (or so I told myself) and for some reason Snicker’s peanut butter squares were calling my name. I had that moment in my head where I literally thought “no one will know, plus it’s only one bad meal… it’s only one bad snack.” This was during a string of poor food decisions I had made over the last few weeks and I had those thoughts a lot, especially with Chic-Fil-A and Sweet Tea (enough said). That’s when it hit me, the “Oh now I get it” moment.

I was convicted. In fact, I was being convicted in two ways. First because it dawned on me that I would never reach my fitness goals or be as healthy as I should be by sneaking around on my diet. In fact it was taking me further and further away from my goals, who I want to be, and what is important to me.

Then, in that same moment I was convicted in another way. God was using this moment to correlate something He had been trying to get through to me for a while. Even if “no one is around” or “its just one tiny little mistake” it is still taking me further and further away from who Christ wants me to be. For example I have a problem with patience, especially when it comes to driving. Even if I am driving by myself and no one is there to see or hear, I need to maintain my composure. If my patience runs thin and I let my road rage burst, I am doing nothing to become a more patient Fiance, Husband, and eventually Father.

So the next time you say to yourself “it’s just one time” “it’s no big deal” or “no one will find out” remember it still counts no matter how you slice it. It is still adding something to your diet that is subtracting from all the hard work you did doing P90X or it is adding some behavior to your life that is subtracting from the person God has made you to be.

Stay Strong and Be Blessed

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