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Jesus Wants To Make You Whole
Devotional Example
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God giveth it a body as it has pleased him...1 Corinthians 15:38
Are you happy with the God made you?
Many people are not and inevitably spend many years of their
life tormented. Some spend their days, endlessly thumbing through
fashion or sports magazines... wishing they had the bodies of the models
in the books. Eating disorders come from a person having low self-esteem
and not realizing that God made us each special and unique... in his own
image.
He loves us so much that he sent his son to die for our sins. When we starve
ourselves or over eat to excess... we can do physical harm to the very body
God created. We each even have our own fingerprints...for God wants
us to all be different... so he can show his glory through us.
The Bible says...Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being
inperfect; and in thy
book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as
yet there was none of them. How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God!
how great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they are more in number than
the sands: when I awake, I am still with thee. Psalm 139:16-18
Perhaps you may be suffering from addictions, eating disorders, or thoughts
of
suicide... because you feel unworthy or unaccepted the way you are. If you
feel empty or unloved, you need to know today that God loves you, unconditionally.
You don't have to get all A's on a report card or checklist of achievements, to
receive his love or talk to him.
You don't have to look like a model in a fashion magazine
or starve yourself to find love and acceptance.
God created you and you are precious in his sight. His thoughts about
you are more than the sand in all the beaches of the world.
God is always ready and waiting to listen to whatever is troubling us,
and it is through our speaking to God, we pray.
We have an open hotline to someone who can help us with any
trouble or trial we're facing.
So why don't we feel loved?
Perhaps all your friends have boyfriends or girlfriends and you don't.
Maybe you wish to be in a special club and are not accepted...
or maybe you wanted to play a specific sport...but are not
athletically gifted.
The wonderful thing about God is He is not prejudice and does not
favour one person over another. In fact, he often chooses the down
cast and rejected of society to work for him...
Many are called during times of loneliness. In the quiet moments
God sees our tears and can comfort us like no earthly friends or family can.
For many years I suffered with an eating disorder because I felt ugly
and unloved.
In college I choose to go on a crash diet and lost 80 pounds. I became
obsessed with being thin...but no matter how much I dieted or exercised...
God never allowed me to looked like one of those models in the books.
Years later, God began to reveal to me that I was making my weight
and looks, an idol over him. I spent all my time trying to be beautiful...
When I did get thin...I still wasn't happy.
Boys who rejected me...now asked me for dates...
but most only tried to used me and cast me away.
I don't blame them...because I allowed them
to treat me that way.
My eyes were blinded, by my obsession to be loved...
but God picked me up and showed me... I was beautiful to him.
He explained to me the reason my thighs still had lumps and my
stomach didn't look like those in the books...was because I was his
priceless treasure...and those parts of my body were to be covered.
In Genesis 1:27 the Bible says that God created us in his own image.
When I saw that, it was life changing for me... for I realized
I looked like God wanted me to. God lives inside me and it
is important to maintain a healthy body for him to live in and represent
him.
I was starving myself to be accepted by others, but I was already
loved by my Father who created me. Before I was even conceived in
mother's womb, God knew what I'd look like and what I'd go through in life.
When we focus so much on our weight or looks, we make ourselves an idol.
It becomes more important than having a relationship with God and
with others. When I began to ask God to help me eat right and treat my
body with the respect it deserved, he began to heal me from within.
God showed me that it was wrong to continually focus on my appearance,
instead of being thankful I could see, and walk, and think. If God
has blessed us with the gift of food, then we should be thankful we are
not starving, for real... in a foreign country like Afghanistan or Africa.
If you feel unloved, I pray that God will touch you and let you feel
his presence and his peace right now.
Godly women and men chosen by God...must "die" to the
idolatry of needing acceptance from man. We are to
dress, like a son or daughter of the Almighty...and our
choices of apparel, may not always reflect the fashion
statements of society.
We don't have to dress seductively to catch a man or woman...
for if we pray...God will bring to us the right person who will
love us and respect us for being a godly man or woman.
Our worth and value comes from knowing God loves us. We submit
our body to the LORD as a living sacrifice...holy to him.
The world will see we are different...and may even mock
or judge us...but God is a just...and has promised to
never leave us or forsake us.
No one can or will ever love us the way God does. The Bible was written
by God, through the hand of various men, to leave us with a written
letter of love to share with us his warnings and promises.
We begin to understand how He feels when we reject him or
disobey him...when people reject of mistreat us.
The battles in this life, are sometimes overwhelming and confusing.
School, divorce, unwed parents, blended families, or single parent
households are causing people to not realize the importance of God in
their lives.
Precious one...
Whatever your need is today, I encourage you take it to
Jesus.
Let him love you, comfort you, and provide all your needs...
Thy hands have made me and fashioned me: give me understanding, that I may
learn thy commandments. They that fear thee will be glad when they see me;
because I have hoped in thy word. Psalm 119:73-74
Our Father in Heaven,
We love and praise you for blessing us so abundantly and bountifully.
We thank you for sending Jesus to die for our sins and granting
us salvation and eternal life.
We thank you that we can come to you at any time
night or day and speak to you. You are never to busy, or not at home
to listen to our cries or dry our tears.
Please forgive our sins of worry and fear. Please forgive us for abusing our
bodies with things that are harmful or starving ourselves to try to be perfect
and feel loved. Today I give you my problems, trials, and struggles.
I ask that you help me, for I do know how to solve these
problems myself. Help me to make right choices, and feed my
body with the right foods to maintain a healthy weight.
I am fearful and doubt sometimes has caused me to worry.
Cast out doubt, fear and unbelief in me and help me,
by the power of the Holy Spirit to keep my
eyes and heart focused on You and Your power alone.
Help us to be loving and forgiving of all who hurt us. Give us the strength
and peace to not take offence, but to realize that if we forgive,
we will be forgiven. Help us to remember that Jesus died for all our sins
and it is not right for us want payment, for a debt that is already paid in full.
Let our prayers not be hindered by bitterness, doubt, or unbelief.
Help us to remember that hurting people always hurt others.
May we not hurt or harm our bodies or anyone else by our behaviour. I look to
You to heal our hurts and wounded spirits.
Lead us not into temptation, deliver us from evil...
For You and You alone have the power to overcome anything
or anyone that would try to come against us.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen
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