Food Addiction The Lie of “My Size” – Sometimes the Clothes DO NOT Make the Man Purity 1213

To see today's photo, go to mt4christ.org or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter. Good morning! Today's photo of a hazy summer sunset view of the homeward-bound direction on Waite Road comes to us from yours truly as I captured the scene on my way back to my countryside home on August 12th at 7:21 PM. Well, it's Monday and I share today's photo because I like pathway photos and sunsets and because I wanted to suggest that a lot can change in a matter of a couple months. According to my electronic personal assistant who shall remain nameless, sunset will be at 4:24 PM today. That's a 3-hour difference from what I experienced back in August. That was less than 4 months ago, but the world kept turning and a-movin', and man played with the clocks, and now we are brought into darkness by 5 PM. I wish I could say that the amount of available daylight, uh, was the only thing that has faded to black since then, but as we have made the trek from summer to late autumn, I've seen many people's careers change, relationships break, and lives end. And as we draw into a new year 4 weeks from today, some things will never be the same. But that can be a good thing too. I shared this photo from August 12th because I personally was about to begin a journey into a whole new experience of freedom and victory that I had always hoped for but wasn't sure if I would ever see realized. I have always loved to overeat since childhood and have been obese most of my life. I have been— I've had periods in my life where I had great success in losing weight and getting better in shape,, but I would often lose the ground I had gained by returning to my overeating ways. I first got my— I first got the MyFitnessPal app because my weight was at an all-time high of 320 lbs in February of 2013, and since then I have fought the good fight and watched my weight go up and down through the years. I stopped using the MyFitnessPal app in 2014, which reported that I had gotten down to 275 lbs on my last entry on December 6th of that year. But I continued to try to get in shape and made more progress. But this summer I got frustrated by my food addiction, my tendency to self-sabotage by cheat days and binge eating that made my daily workouts a lot less effective. So because I was leading the Celebrate Freedom Recovery/Discipleship Growth Group at Starpoint Church, and I had overcome addictions to alcohol, drugs, and sex in the past, I decided to treat my food addiction for what it was— an addiction. So I downloaded the MyFitnessPal app again and logged in my weight as 238 lbs on August 18th. I have a goal to be healthy, lose weight, and to get off my sleep apnea machine. Others have successfully been able to discontinue use of their CPAP machines with weight loss. And that was my goal going into 2023. By August, I was floundering on making progress, so I decided to trust in the Lord and use the principles I had learned from my other struggles to fight my food addiction and beat it for good. I'm still fighting, but I am winning. Today I weigh in as 204.4 pounds this morning, and I am without a doubt in the best physical shape I've been in for all of my 51 years. And I have committed myself to treat my body as a good steward for the rest of my life. I ain't going back, as I like to say. There will be no going back to the quote-unquote normal because my normal was overeating and bad health. A big part of my success was in seeing the truth of the lies that surrounded food addiction. Some of the lies that are common in this struggle are: Moderation is the key. It might be, it might be for some, but for the food addict or any addict, that key don't work. Our experience has shown us that we have a fundamental weakness in regard to our addictive area, and we have to come to the conclusion that moderation in the area of our addiction will not work. Sorry, grieve the loss, say goodbye to the notion that you can be friends with the things that kept you in bondage, and move on. Elimination is the key to victory. Bye-bye, never again, that stuff is poison to me. Another lie is, "I love blank." Fill in the blanks, whatever your substance of choice is, be it beer, sex, or cookies. Because it causes you to self-sabotage and keeps you in bondage, You should hate it and will be better off if you learn to love the Lord and yourself more than the object of your addiction. You shouldn't love it. Another lie is it's okay to cheat once in a while. It's not. Your relationship with your body is like any other relationship, and going against what you know is good, healthy, and right is never okay. It's double-mindedness, uh, it's double-minded living at its finest. It's disobedience, it's rebellion, and those things describe the devil more than the Lord. And it's no coincidence that the objects of our addictions steal our joy, cause pain, and ultimately lead to our destruction. The enemy encourages our fleshly living because it kills us and prevents us from being the people who God created us to be. My size is blank and will always be blank. That's another lie. My pant size was 40 waist by 30 inseam, 40 by 30, for many, many years. I didn't have to check what fit because I knew, quote unquote, my size. My shirts were extra large, XL, period. My mindset was that that was what it was and that I had to be comfortable with that. Along the way, I changed my pants size a few years ago to 38x30. Earlier this summer, I boldly bought and fit into 36x30, thinking I shouldn't push my luck beyond that because as the weeks passed— but, you know, shouldn't push my luck beyond that. But as the weeks passed and I stayed true to my food plan, logging what I ate daily, and continued to exercise, it became clear that my new size of 36x30 was too big. So last week I decided to see what I could fit into. 32x30s fit but were a little tight in the legs, and— but 30x30s fit comfortably and are now quote-unquote my size. Likewise, extra-large shirts hang on me now, and large shirts are my new size, and are loose and comfortable. The lie of my size needed to be challenged, defeated, and my new size had to be accepted. I'm not who I used to be, and again, I ain't going back. I have, I have to believe that I have defeated my food addiction and now live according to my victory for the rest of my life. I not only have to remain aware of the caloric, carbohydrate, and fat quote-unquote costs of the food I consume and maintain my regular exercise routines, I have to also mentally accept my new— the new my size and not go back into the darkness of the lies that kept me in chains. Another of those lies is blank is good food. Again, fill in the blanks. For me, it would be chocolate, candy, cake, cookies, or ice cream, just to name some of the sugar-laden carbohydrate foods that would destroy my progress. Those things taste good, true enough, but man, those are not good foods. Don't get me wrong, you can eat anything, really anything. You just have to know the cost and plan accordingly. But if you do the research, carbide foods are not worth the cost if you are serious about being healthy. And as unorthodox or unconventional this idea may be to you, it is a better decision to decide not to eat these foods at all rather than by— rather than to be drawn into eating them and having them destroy your progress or keep you in bondage for— for you— for— because you yeah, for— because you quote-unquote "need them." You don't need them. You are better off without them. And if you can admit that you are addicted to them, the best course is to eliminate them from your life. I don't want to sound overly strict, but if your food addiction is anything like mine, it wreaks havoc on your physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health. And it needs to be fought seriously. And a huge part of the battle will be changing your mind and your relationship with the objects of your addiction. Yesterday I went shopping and bought a new black suit to replace my 50 regular jacket and 40 by 30 slacks. The Hagar slacks I got were only available in 32 or 34-inch waist, and although the 32s fit they were snug in the legs, so I went with the 34s with a longer inseam of 32 inches. As for the jacket, a 42 long was comfortable and is now my size. I also bought some new shoes and will be ridiculously overdressed when I go to Christmas Eve service and my family Christmas Eve celebration in 3 weeks. Yeah, and a new suit. As for the old suit, my wife has, has been giving away my big clothes to a Christian woman she knows who has been able to take them and give them to people in need. Yesterday she asked her if anyone could use a suit in my old size. As it turns out, this woman was alerted that there was a woman in need for a suit for her husband who unexpectedly died and who needs a suit to put him in for his casket. So my old suit will be a blessing to this woman in her hour of grief. Frankly, I couldn't think of anything more appropriate. Where better to take a suit from my, my dead man than to give it to another dead man where it can serve a purpose and where it can be laid to rest for good. I always thought my size was extra large and 40x30 pants. But sometimes the clothes do not make the man, and the Lord comes into your life and changes everything and shows you that the things you thought were set in stone and impossible to change only required agreeing with the truth and walking with God to overcome and defeat. 2 Corinthians 5:17 tells us we are new creations in Christ. And that's the truth. But we have to believe it and live according to it to experience it. So a lot can change in a few months, but a whole new life can be experienced when you decide to surrender to the Lord and ask for His help, truth, guidance, and strength to lead you out of the darkness of a dead man's life to walk into the abundant life of freedom, victory, peace, and joy that the Lord has for you. So try that on for size and keep walking and talking with God. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Cruis. This morning's meditation verse comes from the section on the church and the— or kava, the communion of the saints. And today's verse is Hebrews 13:17. And the word of God says, obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you. Today's verse, uh, is the second of two passages, uh, of scripture that fall under the 15th point of our Counseling Reference Guides resource section on the church. In Communion of the Saints. And that 15th point is: Members of the church must honor and obey the elders whom God has appointed to exercise authority in the church. Today's verses encourage us to follow the leader of our local church. Uh, this of course presupposes that they are teaching you from the Bible and encouraging you to put its teachings into practice in your life. Pastors give good messages, but the point behind their preaching is not to merely entertain us. They are exhorting us to live for God's kingdom and to do the good works that he has prepared for us to do. So we should listen to their instructions and apply them to our lives where we can, and we should do so not begrudgingly, like a painful, uh, chore or religious duty, We should embrace their encouragements for Christian living as the blessing they are, for they will lead us closer to God and closer to being the people he created us to be. So listen to your spiritual leaders and apply the wisdom of God's word to your life, and do it with joy. As always, I invite all to go to mtforchrist.org where we always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist our brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk. Today we continue sharing from Dietrich Bonhoeffer's God Is in the Manger: Reflections on Advent and Christmas. And as I stated before, we started Advent early, although it did start yesterday. So Advent is with a you know, has begun, um, for 3 weeks. Our resource though had, you know, 4 weeks of messages, and so we are continuing in that, um, uh, where we are basically in Bonhoeffer's book is week Advent, week 2 mystery with day 2. And I just have to let the cat out of the room. Let the cat out of the bag? No, I had to let the cat out of the room. Anyway, yeah, this is live. Uh, we do not post-production, uh, edit anything. Anyway, as we continue our Advent journey through Bonhoeffer's devotional, we are on Advent Week 2, Mystery Day 2, and today's message is called The Mystery of Love. And Bonhoeffer writes, the mystery remains a mystery. It withdraws from our grasp. Mystery, however, does not mean simply not knowing something. The greatest mystery is not the most distant star. On the contrary, the closer something comes to us, the better we know it. Then the more mysterious it becomes for us. The greatest mystery to us is not the most distant person, but the one next to us. The mystery of other people is not reduced by getting to know more and more about them. Rather, in their closeness, they become more and more mysterious. And the final depth of all mystery is when two people come so close to each other that they love each other. Nowhere in the world does one feel the might of the mysterious in its wonder as strongly as here, when two people know everything about each other The mystery of the love between them becomes infinitely great. And only in this love do they understand each other, know each other, know everything about each other, know each other completely. And yet, the more they love each other and know about each other in love, the more deeply they know the mystery of their love. Thus, knowledge about each other does not remove the mystery. But rather makes it more profound. The very fact that the other person is so near to me is the greatest mystery. And then our resource shares a quote here from Maria von Wedemeyer to Dietrich Bonhoeffer from December 19th, 1943, from Patsig. And she wrote to him, all that, all that is Christmas originates in heaven and comes from, from there to us all, to you and me alike, and forms a stronger bond between us than we could ever forge by ourselves. And all that is in— all that is Christmas originates in heaven and comes from there to us all. To you and me alike and forms a stronger bond between us than we could ever forge by ourselves. Yeah, so God comes in, you know, Christmas originates in heaven and comes to us all. That's a lovely sentiment from Maria van Weenightmeyer to Dietrich Bonhoeffer. It's a little different. Anyway, our resource also shares Philippians 1:3-14, and we'll read that passage. I thank my God every time I remember you, constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you because of your sharing in the gospel from the first day until now. I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to think this way about all of you because you hold me in your heart, for all of you share in God's grace with me, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my witness how I long for all of you with my— with the compassion of Christ Jesus. And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you to determine what is best, so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God. I want you to know, beloved, that what has happened to me has actually helped to spread the gospel, so that it has become known throughout the whole Imperial Guard and to everyone else that my imprisonment is for Christ. And most of the brothers and sisters, having been made confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, dare to speak the word with greater boldness and without fear. That was 1 Corinthians 3:14. That concludes our sharing from Dietrich Bonhoeffer's God is in the Manger, or Advent Week 2 Mystery Day 2. Well, that's, that's all we have to share today. I was very confident, I was very happy with yesterday's shopping excursion to discover my new size. You know, it's, it's been a struggle, you know, throughout my life because I never I never really committed myself to change the way I would eat, and that's the biggest part of this battle, is recognizing what's actually good food, good healthy food, realizing its cost, being aware of what you put in your mouth and how it affects your body. We give ourselves way too much grace in terms of food in this country, as obesity is a real problem. Especially in the church. So if you want to fight the good fight of faith, you got to treat your food addiction like an addiction, you know. Joyce Meyer wrote a book, you know, Eat the Cookie. You know, maybe you should just throw the cookie out if it's going to cost you your peace and your health. So just saying, shots fired. Anyway, I believe in freedom. I believe in victory in Christ because I live it and because the Lord God bless me with it. And that's why we do the podcast and the, and the blog, just to encourage people that freedom and victory is possible, uh, you know, over, over all your hurts, habits, and hang-ups, your mental, your negative mental mind states and all of it. Um, you can overcome when you believe and seek the Lord continuously on the path of Christian discipleship. That's why we lay this down. If you don't know what freedom in Christ means? One good way to find out is to check out our discipleship teachings on our podcast for Victory Over the Darkness, The Bondage Breaker, and Freedom in Christ. They're all based on the Word of God and the teachings of Dr. Neil Anderson of Freedom in Christ Ministries. They call it Freedom in Christ because that's what you experience. So if you want to learn about who you are in Christ, about the spiritual forces of darkness and how they can be overcome, through the Steps to Freedom in Christ and, you know, Christian Living. You can check out those teachings. As always, we encourage people to live by faith in the power of the Holy Spirit, and a big part of that is renewing the mind with the Word of God. So we recommend a daily spiritual practice of reading the Bible and praying and following where the Lord will lead you. The Lord's leading me to work today. It is Monday the 4th And we got a— we got like 3 weeks here, and then we're right into Christmas. So, um, let's pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we thank you so much for the victory you've given us in our lives, and we just pray for you to be with us today. We pray for you to be with the people who might be listening or reading this message today. We pray for you to come alongside them, their prayer requests, their struggles, and help them. And Lord, we As always, we ask for you to go before us today, open our eyes to the things you want us to see, and lead us in the way we should go. Because all we want to do is represent you in your kingdom and experience the life that you have for us, Lord. Um, Lord, we thank you, we praise you, and we love you. We pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.