Please someone tell me why i prayed to God asking Him to take control of all my appetites and today i bought/ate a box of chocolate mint cookies? Why isnt my prayer being answered? Is God trying to get me fat? I was doing so well until today when i got bored and wanted a change of gastric scenery...
Romans 7:9 For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.
The commandment came into your mind to stop eating junk food, sin was activated and you died.
Can I give you a word of advice? The word "Why" should cease immediately from our lips, we will never get the answers for "Whys" while we are complaining. Those answers always come when we are not crying for the reasons why.
The question you should be asking is, "What wisdom, knowledge and/or strength am I lacking that is causing me to fall sway to these destructive habits?"
Hosea 4:6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.
We are perishing in our minds due to lack of information. Once this data is received and acted upon salvation comes to our understanding and we'll find the strength to overcome these temptations.
I know what your going through brother. For two solid months a few years ago I bought boxes of chocolates and spent hours looking online for more delectables to consume and I blew up like good year blimp to 375lbs. God was telling me to stop, my body was telling me to stop, my heart was saying stop. Finally, armed with the knowledge and strength needed to overcome, I cut out all salt and hydrogenated fats from my diet. Since I love sweets, I turned my attention from chocolate which was making me fat to non chocolate items, protein bars, etc.. I'd make my own cookies without the use of egg and fats and use Carob powder in place of chocolate. It's been a few years now since I've entered a fast food joint. When I discovered how much salt and fat that went into each Whopper I nearly keeled over. I am now down to 280lb, still in the obese bracket, but it's coming off. Bread was another hurdle. Bread puts on the pounds, so I had to cut back on that as well and use alternative means like Rice crackers or Rye breads, breads that were low in gluten. The heavier bread the better because you won't eat a lot of it.
You have the power to overcome, the strength is there, it's just waiting on us to see if we are going to use it or not. It's kind of useless to obtain that strength KNOWING that your going to give into the temptation regardless of the consequences. Being a Christian, we know full well what we are doing. We are tempted and we know what we are about to commit is going to harm us so we do it anyway and afterward complain to God as to why He didn't intervene. God will not intervene on our strongwill to do something. He will wait until we fall flat on our faces, totally disgusted with ourselves.
Read the dietary label on each product, if you see hydrogenated fat or modified fat they are saying the same thing, avoid them, they were designed to keep the product on the shelf for a long time and meant to kill you. These companies do not have your health in mind, their mind is on your wallet. Salt and Sugar are two of the major issues surrounding obesity. Salt keeps you eating salt, sugar keeps you eating sugar and hydrogenated fats binds them together to make the perfect death. Once you realize that these are killing you, you will be more mindful of what you are putting into your body.
If you see high fructose corn syrup and/or the first and second ingredient is glucose fructose or sugar, that should tell you right there that the product that your considering to buy is mostly sugar.
Change your prayer from why to "Lord, I need knowledge and I need understanding about how to eat properly." He will help you if your willing to be helped. There will be moments where you'll give in to some whim but start again and each time you start again it gets better.
And whatever you do, don't go on a diet. Just cut back and read the label, make better choices, and if your able to walk, walk a brisk walk every day for 20 minutes. If you can't walk because your obese, you'll need to do some form of exercise to get your lower limbs working so you can walk.
A helpful book that got me started on this was, "Your Diet in Health and Disease" by Harry Benjamin. It was written in 1945 but it reads as if the writer was living in our day with our problems. There are many other books as well, but get your hands on books about herbs and spices, make your own cookies, cakes and low gluten breads. Explore the world of food without excess salt and sugars. Food is meant to be enjoyed.
My suppers usually are some sort of a green salad with basmati rice, veggies and a piece of fish, all steamed baked. I use white balsamic vinegar, with a splash of lemon juice and olive olive oil on my salad. I try to keep snacks on hand like hummus with no salt rice crackers, nuts, raisins, etc.. but you have to check the label on these too, they sometimes use hydrogenated fats to preserve the nut.
Approved said "The commandment came into your mind to stop eating junk food, sin was activated and you died."
Approved - your comment is living water for the soul and your practical wisdom is right on. Thank you for taking the time to post. -Jim
QUOTE: "Change your prayer from why to "Lord, I need knowledge and I need understanding about how to eat properly."==APPROVED
I think you misunderstand me dear brother. I already have the knowledge and understanding about how to eat properly. And as for saying that God will not overcome (my) strong will, well sure He will if one invites him to, which i did; i invited Him to take control of ALL my appetites.
I am normally a very health conscious person and i read labels carefully. I avoid (have to avoid) corn syrup, etc. and i can't remember the last time i had red meat or fast food (maybe 2 years ago?). I give into the cookie thing about once a month or two, but i would rather not give in at all. Now i got to start all over from scratch to get rid of the ten pounds i know i put back on.
One must not cut out ALL carbs, brother, as the body needs carbs to produce serotonin. I hope you are getting at least a little. I get kinda "unrelaxed" if i don't have any carbs for a long while. It's just that i did not want a whole entire box of cookies to kidnap me and slaughter me overnight. They tasted like manna from Heaven though.
QUOTE: "The commandment came into your mind to stop eating junk food, sin was activated and you died."==APPROVED
No, actually it never did enter my mind. I just stopped caring as much about my waistline as i did about my tastebuds/pleasure. Plus i saw a magazine picture of a delectable gourmet chocolate dessert the previous day at the gym while i was plodding away on the treadmmill. Those chocolate dessert recipes are like hardcore porn you know.
Trekker, I come from background of someone who has struggled with eating issues as well and body image issues so I know that eating healthy can be difficult. I will pray for you. As to your original post as I read it I thought of some of the things I have often struggled with myself.
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you wrote:Please someone tell me why i prayed to God asking Him to take control of all my appetites and today i bought/ate a box of chocolate mint cookies?
__________
Maybe because when temptation arose you turned to the cookies instead of to JESUS...I know in my own struggles I have at times given in to binge eating only to have to come back later and repent. I do think GOD allows these things in our life so that we will learn to depend on HIM, die to self, and trust that HE is what we need and not the cookies. You also mentioned that you got bored, i think this has a lot to do with it also. When are minds are not actively occupied there is room for the enemy to come in and cause havoc. Perhaps the next time you feel bored reach for the Bible and leave the box of cookies on the shelf. :)
God Bless
mj
"One must not cut out ALL carbs, brother, as the body needs carbs to produce serotonin."
Believe me brother, I get plenty of carbs believe you me. :-)
Please someone tell me why i prayed to God asking Him to take control of all my appetites and today i bought/ate a box of chocolate mint cookies? Why isnt my prayer being answered? Is God trying to get me fat?
Lady, tell me you're not serious with this statement.
Never in all my yrs in the Church have I heard people blaming GOD for their own lusts as I have within this last year or so.
I cannot believe that you'd say such a thing against Him.
He has given you a "freewill". What was He supposed to do while you went to go buy them? Have your money just disappear? Tackle you to the ground or have that box disappear?
You bought them and ate them because 'you wanted to' against common sense and against His Will for your life.
Whenever you accuse GOD in such a flippant manner - you have done one of the worst things that a person can do and that's to charge a Perfect GOD because of your own choices.
How can you help your friend with his drug addictions and other problems if you're going to place all the blame for your own freewill-decisions on GOD Himself. How dare you!
If a smoker goes to the store and buys cigarettes - is it GOD's Fault?
Stop blaming GOD for your own wastefulness of your own thoughts and actions and money.
"Self control" is through-out the entire New Testament. What version do you have - the Readers Digest Version?
What was He to do for you? Send an Angel to entertain you so that you wouldn't be bored?
Will you sell your birth-right should a famine come to this land?
Think about that one.
Paul said that he buffeted his body to bring it under submission or subjection - but you are somehow exempt from these type Scriptures.
I can understand that what happened to you happened and for you asking for prayer to be able to use more self-control - but to blame GOD in such a accusatory blame-shifting way, borders on blasphemy and get that through your head first - lest you go too far with your blame-shifting and lose all sense of His Presence. Fear GOD, at least with your words and live and know that any stumbling in what you know is wrong is an act of your own decision making process. You allowed your thoughts to go that way. Food is not a drug and yet many drug addicts go to Teen Challenge, of their own free-will and decide to go through the withdrawl for the love of GOD.
I hope you don't talk like this to your desperate friend, that's fighting drug addiction.
"Is God trying to get me fat?"
Is GOD trying to kill your friend with drugs, etc?
Don't charge GOD foolishly, lest a root of bitterness rise up and many be defiled because of it/your words.
If you don't care for what the New Testament says about us being self-controlled and fleeing lusts and not charging GOD foolishly for our own decisions - at the very least - THINK about what your words and how they could cause others to charge GOD foolishly and cause them to stumble in some way as well - especially the babes in Christ.
Charging GOD with your own decisions makes your signature seem meaningless.
Yes, I'll pray that you don't sell your birth-right someday when food may be scarse and that you won't blame GOD again for your own decisions of what to do with your time and money and words against Him to others.
I could be wrong but I keep getting the feeling that Trekker is a troll.
QUOTE: ""One must not cut out ALL carbs, brother, as the body needs carbs to produce serotonin."
Believe me brother, I get plenty of carbs believe you me. :-)"==APPROVED
LOL!! So, anyone want to order pizza with me?
QUOTE: "I could be wrong but I keep getting the feeling that Trekker is a troll."==HULSEY
Ok, i'm trying not to feel insulted here. It's not easy to ALWAYS be misunderstood. All i can say Hulsey is that i am not like the religious people you go to church with, i for one have a sense of humor and i believe that anyone who doesn't have one takes themselves way too seriously. People who don't have a sense of humor and can't laugh at themselves are boring at the least and proud at the worst. I can also tell you I am a rather blunt person, am a Believer in Jesus Christ and read my Bible and pray. If that is not enough to stop all the insinuations that i am a troll on this forum i guess then i can't help you. Some of the things i post are tongue in cheek, others i post to make people think, and whathaveyou. Why is it any time someone posts something that others find irritating or dislike they must label someone a troll? A long time ago someone painted Bible4life a troll also.
Well, i guess i can understand some of your suspicion; one must be cautious today, afterall. I can at least be thankful i haven't been labeled a witch yet...lol
QUOTE: "If a smoker goes to the store and buys cigarettes - is it GOD's Fault?"==JESUSISGOD
No but if the smoker asked God earlier in the week to free him from that addiction or the power of that over his life, then what? Obviously he has not been freed--at least not yet--, God did not answer his prayer. And so far you have completely avoided the question as to why.
I am seeking information and understanding and if you don't have the knowledge or the answers to the questions at least please refrain from hurling false accusations and condemnations like you frequently tend to do (i have noticed this a lot in your comments in the past, you tend to spend a lot of time angrily condemning people, such as bible4life when he posted his spiritual struggles, and other ones i have posted long ago). Also, your false statement that i have a friend addicted to drugs; i made it quite clear that he is NOT addicted and the drugs he is prescribed are not even addictive, any more than apples are addictive. But one can eat even too many apples til he gets sick. Again, i gained nothing whatsoever out of your comments except the usual anger, accusation, and condemnation which closes my ears to anything you may have to say in the future on any topic.
Trekker,
I spent a lot of years waiting for God to meet me in my pit, take me out of my pit, remove my pit. He did none of those things. Instead, He patiently waited on me to step into the Light.
I would meditate on the word that says that he provides for us a way of escape from temptation and wonder why I couldn't escape my passions. Where was my "out?"
It wasn't till I began to *see* that my way of escape was not the escape that I wanted or imagined, but it was literally to remove all focus from myself and my temptation and set my focus onto Jesus.
I will use an issue with anger that I dealt with as an example: I would ask the Lord to remove my anger but then when I found myself angry, I would resist a little, and then go with it because I thought to deny it would be to lie to myself. I mean, if God had delivered me from anger then why was I feeling angry? So I believed I was not delivered, and I would go with the flow of feeling angry. You see, even though I was thinking about God I was still focused on my want- to feel angry and act on it. As a result, I remained in bondage.
Eventually, I began to ask God to deliver me from anger, and when I would be tempted to act on it I would fall on my knees and tell God about all the scriptures I had read that convicted my heart that it was sin for me, asking deliverance from this thing in my heart that displeases Him and I would recount His goodness and character. Through persevering in this way, I began to notice that the episodes became less frequent and less severe. This was the way of escape He had given me.
If the Holy Spirit is convicting you of gluttony, then He is also wanting to free you from it. It is natural to wish the temptation would just be gone, but even Jesus "learned obedience by the things he suffered." God wants us to learn to be dependent on Him. Ask Him to teach you how He is your way of escape. This is the Fathers will for us. May God bring this to life for you.
Jesus was tempted just like we are, but yet he never gave into a temptation. How did he do it? The very same way- He wanted only to do the Fathers will, and He sought to please Him in all things. He spent all his life humbling himself before Him , that's what Jesus came to show us. That's the WAY. The Way to life.
"Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me."
Just finding these replies.
Trekker, there's only two types of posts that gets my anger going and "all anger is not sin", btw.
It's those posts or posters that lead others dangerously astray by accusations against GOD or those that put others in actual spiritual 'danger' by what they post.
Other than that, I enjoy 99.8% of all of the posters here and would rather read their posts than post myself.
Good counsel, Onemite - Thank you!
I could be wrong but I keep getting the feeling that Trekker is a troll.
Have thought the same thing myself. I think we just need to stop giving an audience to ridiculous questions like those of the OP.
In Christ,
Ron
Trekker...Please someone tell me why i prayed to God asking Him to take control of all my appetites and today i bought/ate a box of chocolate mint cookies? Why isnt my prayer being answered? Is God trying to get me fat?
How do you know he did not answer your prayer? ever thought there might be some ingredient in those cookies that was healing some part of your body? Or, he might have answered your prayer, and you just were not listening very good and your "free will" took charge. I would be scared to even mention God is not answering my prayer, how would I even know, if his ways and his thoughts are not as ours?
Lady, tell me you're not serious with this statement.
Wait, isn't Trekker a guy?
Trekker
Your answer is found in Deut 7:16-23. Before you enter the promised land, the Lord would have you slay some things in yourself. Vs 16 tells you the manner of going about to slay these things, "...thine eye shalt have no pity on them..." even though they are of the sweetest chocolate. If you truly want these things to be slain, have no pity on them.
Next, even if approached in this manner vs 22 shows that the Lord will only give you little bits of ground at a time. He does this for us because the wild beasts of pride and self-righteousness rise up if we even begin to think that conquering sin is easy. We must have some struggle with it for various reasons, some of which are based on our fall, some of which are based on our future, and some of which are based on the Glory of God. Now if you set about slaying the present inhabitants (in this case chocolate) with no pity, more battles will be won, so that little by little God does bring you into the land of your inheritance. But if you plan to dwell in the land at peace with the present inhabitants, God will give you no new ground.
ETA
Also note, that within each battle are gains and losses. Today you suffered loss in the battle, but this loss for a warrior should cause you to strengthen your resolve which can ebb and flow over time. Each of us can be caught in a time of weak resolve but God allows it only to expose our waning defense, such that we can regroup. Plus, like the quail, God sometimes gives you what you thought you wanted until you are sick of it, to work in you the will to overcome.
"Trolls r us"
OJ
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