Monday, May 13, 2013

Made To Crave, Week 1 - Empowered


Bible Verse for the Week – Psalm 139:14 – I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.  (Hint: all bible scriptures in this post you can click on and it will take you to the scripture in biblegateway.com)

Welcome!  I’m going to start off by saying thank you for joining us.  We have a wonderful group of ladies that are all here for the same reason, to learn how to satisfy our deepest desire with God, not food. 

Comment Winner - Last week’s winner, drawn from a hat with all the names of people that made a comment is: Soraya!  Congratulations Soraya, you won a 60 day Made To Crave Devotional!  I will leave it for you in the admin office of the church. 
Not all prizes are going to be Made To Crave specific, I bought a bunch of the prizes already and some are cute, some are fancy and some are just plain fun.  Hint – comment!

The first thing we are going to do is watch a session with our author, Lysa TerKeurst.  This is 20 minutes and 42 seconds long.  Make sure you have enough time to watch it before you start.  Follow along with your participant’s guide, it gives great notes along the way.  Please click below to watch.




If it doesn’t work you can go directly to You Tube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcE-Xc3rRfY  
If that still doesn’t work, let me know, I have the DVD I can let you borrow.  

Wasn’t that awesome?  I feel like I know Lysa, she’s so open and honest.  Comment on what you thought about it. 

Assignment for Week 1 – Read the Introduction and Chapters 1 -3.  Before you log off right now and stop reading this, trust me, the chapters are short!  I was able to read all three chapters in the waiting area of my daughter’s ballet class.  Easy, peezy, lemon squeezy.  You have all week to complete this assignment, do it at your own pace. 

Additional assignment, if you choose to accept this mission - Go through all the Personal Reflections Questions at the end of each chapter.  Also, complete the Participant Guide for Session #1.  Again, not a requirement but the more you put in, the more you get out (yes, I’ll stop saying that soon, I promise). 

Here is some further insight and questions from the video/participants guide & book that I wanted to talk about.


Video/Participant’s Guide

Indulge – To take unrestrained pleasure in something.  This should raise a red flag, we need to have self-control.

This series will help us find our want-to – the spiritual and mental motivation to make lasting changes.  Willpower is not enough, we can’t do it alone, we need to use our faith.

Have you ever felt deprived of something when you starting a healthy eating journey like Lysa?  If we can look at healthy options and make the healthy choices, and not feel deprived but instead feel empowered, everything will change. 

Do me a favor, if you have the participant’s guide, do the Individual Activity, Assessing My Soul.  A little bit of an eye opener for me, I won’t tell you I checked 15 boxes.  Oops, I guess I just told you.  

1 Peter 2:11 – how do you respond to the idea that issues with food or weight can wage war on your soul?

Matthew 19:16-26 –  The Story of the Rich Young Man.  Funny, our Pastor just spoke about this a few weeks ago.  If you missed his sermon about this, take some time to listen to it.  I’m attaching the audio version here:  Pastor Eric Identity Theft 42813

Jesus asks us to give up being controlled by anything in life that we crave more than we crave Him.  Remember, “With God, all things are possible.”



Book


Introduction –
I love what she said about asking God to give her the desire to be healthy.  “I knew a vanity-seeking “want-to” would never last.  Shallow desires produce only shallow efforts.  I had to seek a spiritual “want to” empowered by God himself.”  I always remind myself of this when I get thinking that “I just want to fit into my skinny clothes”, “I just want people to complement me on the fact that I lost weight”, “I just want to look good.”  Nope, that is shallow and that will be short-lived.  We need to be on this journey to take care of our temple (physically & spiritually), not so we can be told we look good!


We were made for more than a vicious cycle of eating, gaining, stressing, eating, gaining, stressing.  We were made for God’s promises in every area of our lives.

Chapter 1 –

God made us to crave.  Craving is defined as something you long for, want greatly, desire eagerly, and beg for.  Read Psalm 84:1-2.   We were made to crave God!  But Satan wants to do everything possible to replace our craving for God with something else (1 John 2:15-16).

1 Corinthians 10:23 – “Everything is permissible but not everything is beneficial (good one!!!)


Jesus quotes the truth of Scripture to defeat temptation.  Have you ever used Scripture in this way?  What was the result?  How do you feel about the idea of using this approach to address your unhealthy eating patterns?  Please comment and share with us all!

Chapter 2 –
“Since I decide after 2 ½ cinnamon rolls that tomorrow will be a much better day to start eating healthy, this is the last day to eat what I want so I better live it up!” (that is so me . . . ugh) God is challenging us to surrender to His control.  Really surrender.

Is it possible we love and rely on food more than we love and rely on God?  Ouch.  Is food our comfort, our reward, our joy, what we turn to in times of stress, sadness, and even times of happiness?

“Each time I craved something I knew wasn’t part of my plan, I used that craving as a prompt to pray.  I craved a lot.  So, I found myself praying a lot.” Psalm 5:3 – laying down our requests and waiting in expectation.  How do you respond to the idea of using your cravings as a prompt to pray?


What reasons motivate your desire to eat healthier?  Do these reasons give your struggles with food a purpose strong enough to help you resist unhealthy eating?  Please comment and share your thoughts. 

Chapter 3 –
Like a garden, do you want the flowers but not the work?  Isn’t that he way it is with many things in life, we want the results but have no desire to put in the work required?

“Having friends to walk through he same healthy eating plan has been such a help.  Getting a plan is the first step; getting a friend or two to join you is the next.”  Ladies, let’s do this together.  Let’s be accountable to each other.  Let’s pray for each other.  We are all in this together!

Are there areas of your life in which having a plan works well for you?  For example, in your finances, for vacation trips, accomplishing daily tasks, reaching professional goals, reading through the Bible in a year.  Does having a plan make you feel empowered or restrictive?  Do your feelings change when the plan is about food, what you will eat and not eat?  Please comment and let us know.

Group Get Together – this week I’ll actually be in New Orleans so unfortunately I won’t be able to hold a meeting for us.  I promise I’ll make it up to you!  I already have something REALLY good in the works to happen in a few weeks (more details to come).

I hope you aren’t overwhelmed by all of this.  I hope you enjoyed it and aren’t going to throw in the towel.  Please give me some feedback, what you liked, didn’t like, how we could do things differently.  I’ve been blessed by this study and just want all of you to get as much out of it as I have.

Closing Prayer – Thank you Lord for these beautiful ladies that have made this sacrifice to participate in the bible study.  Bless them.  Fulfill them.  Empower them.  Make the words permeate deep down.  I pray each and every lady will leave this study with a stronger desire for you Lord.  In Jesus Name.  Amen
 
If you missed other posts find them here:


Be Empowered Beautiful Ladies,

Shila

6 comments:

  1. I love this book! First I was hit right off with "where is your satisfaction"? Wow.. that was "food" for thought. Then.. who is in control of your willpower? Recognizing the answers I realized I'm not putting God where he should be and it's time to put Him there. And already my mind is wrapping around the idea that certain cravings (that are chocolate & hidden in the cabinet away from the eyes of the rest of the people in the house)is not only sneaky because you don't hide things that are good, it's not of God. Yes, life changes are a comin'.. I'm looking forward to seeing how prayer and good changes make a difference in my mind, body & life.

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    1. I'm so glad you are loving the book, I think I needed this small group so I could read it again for these same reasons. Excellent comments, thank you for sharing!

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    2. honestly, thank you for doing this study Shila. I've read the first 4 chapters, have done most of the questions in the participation guide and enjoyed the video; Lysa is a down-to-earth Lady, very refreshing, funny and not skinny! Because we Mom's were brought up to "feed" people this book is different thinking on the subject of food (or anything we crave). We all need to be re-directed now and then. Thanks again!

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    3. A wake up call for me. I see the parallel to the rich man and it is shocking, but I know God can help me, even through this, as He does with everything else He does daily. Thanks

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  2. Finally I found the time to do it!!!! The video was great and I have the time to go through the participant's guide! I thought I wasn't going to make it before Monday...lol. It's good to have the online schedule flexibility. Thank for doing all this :) Cinthia

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  3. When your website or blog goes live for the first time, it is exciting. That is until you realize no one but you and your. www.cravehealthiness.ca

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