A Foothold In My Life

This week we are talking about controlling our actions in order to live a more balanced life in harmony with God's plan.

Do you ever feel like Satan has a foothold in an area of your life? Something that you know is not good for you, yet you succumb every time to that temptation?
The verse I would like to focus on today is from 1 Corinthians 10:13.

No test or temptation that comes your way is beyond the course of what others have had to face. All you need to remember is that God will never let you down; he'll never let you be pushed past your limit; he'll always be there to help you come through it.

Even when we are armed with spiritual truths, situations develop that push us to our limits. At times, sin's attraction and temptation enticement feel too powerful to resist and when we give into temptations, our lives spin out of control.

When I reflected on this principal, a temptation that I face daily would be my battle with diet and exercise. Amazing to me as I look back on the last 25 years of my life, (and no, I am not 25) I have always had body image issues. I can never remember a time when I didn't think I was heavy. I was a track athlete in high school and college and struggled with this issue constantly. As I look back at pictures during that time and even after I had my two babies, I marvel at the fact of what distortion I saw in the mirror. Now I would give anything to have that body back! What was I thinking? I was thinking in terms of the world and what it was telling me. I have been to the both extremes with diet and exercise.

As I my relationship with God grows closer, I also know that Satan works even harder on my heart and the one area where he has a foothold in my life would be in taking care of my 'temple'. Satan knows my weaknesses, my distortion with food and exercise, how I react to stress or boredom, and he is right there encouraging me daily to succumb to out of control eating and laziness. He knows I have developed bad habits over the years and bad habits are not easy to break on my own.

So I was convicted today with this passage, AGAIN! I know that God will help me overcome this sin in my life. He has given me the Holy Spirit to dwell within my 'temple' and I am not doing a very good job of taking care of it!

Proverbs 21:20 says that 'In the house of the wise are stores of choice food and oil, but a foolish man devours all that he has.' I am often times the foolish man!

Matthew 6:25 says, Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food and the body more important than clothes? Why do I constantly think about food?

Ephesians 4:27. Do not give the devil a foothold! I will not any more!

Hebrews 5:14. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. I choose to train myself for only solid food and to distinguish from good from evil!

Ephesians 6:10. Be strong in the Lord (not in myself) and draw from His might power!

So in the days and weeks to come at the end of every day, I plan to hold myself accountable and share in my success in this area of my life and how God is helping me to take better care of my temple!

Because I know that 'No test or temptation that comes MY way is beyond the course of what others have had to face. All I need to remember is that God will never let ME down; He'll never let ME be pushed past MY limit; he'll always be there to help ME come through it.'

I choose TODAY to no longer let Satan have a foothold in this area of my life!

I choose FREEDOM in Christ!

Blessings,

Jill