“Walk in obedience to all that the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live and prosper and prolong your days in the land that you will possess.” Deuteronomy 5:33 (NIV)
Last time we were together I spoke about how God used the My Fitness Pal program to open my eyes to the road to better health. However, God used My Fitness Pal for much more than that.
One morning while I was walking on the treadmill, God showed me that while He used My Fitness Pal to open my eyes to healthy eating and regular exercise, practices that will give me the energy I need for my family and to fulfill His purposes in my life, He used Fitness Pal for something even more important.
I realized that God is the One who told me to use Fitness Pal. He knows my personality and He knows me best. He knows that this program is one that would work for me based on how He made me. And because of that, and because I trusted Him to know me and trusted Him by obeying His suggestion to me, it is working. I am getting healthier and I am starting to incorporate exercise regularly into my life and seeing positive changes.
Taking that truth one step further, I can trust God that when I obey His promptings in my life, in any area, they will succeed because they are what God wanted me to do. I don’t have to be afraid if God calls me to quit my job and start a different ministry. I don’t have to be afraid if God calls me to adopt a child even though we are raising three already. I don’t have to be afraid if God invites me to serve in a different area in church, switch churches or homeschool my children when they have been in public school their whole lives. I don’t have to be afraid because if God invites me to it, then I know whatever the adventure is it will succeed.
That doesn’t mean there won’t be bumps along the way, but those bumps usually help me learn even more things. They help me adjust if I’m going off course, they help me appreciate the blessings that come and they help me sympathize and empathize with others who might need encouragement along their own journey.
My main job is to make sure I’m asking for His will in my life instead of taking control and trying to do it all my way. But if I’m asking (like I did with how to gain freedom from emotional eating) and then listening (sometimes it will take months or years to hear the answer), when I finally hear His answer and then choose to obey, success will happen because He made me and He ultimately knows what’s best for my life. And that, my friends, is very comforting.
There is still hard work involved when walking in God’s will for our lives. I still have to make the choice to climb onto the treadmill every day and log into Fitness Pal and write down my food choices as well as make the right food choices, but with that work comes true freedom which tastes much sweeter than even the best donut or the biggest ice cream sundae.
© Cheri Swalwell 2016