Addiction - I Can't He Can

By: Hanny Lynn Stearns 

Fish N Loaves Ministries, Inc.

“Multiplying God’s Word Around The Globe”

I Can’t – He Can

I wasn’t able to sleep last night. I tossed and turned. My husband did too. In the night the Lord tried to wake us up but we continued trying to sleep. He even used our puppy to roust us, but we didn’t respond.

This morning I returned to spending time worshiping the Lord in song – both on my knees and on my feet. I wondered why I had stopped doing that of late. While I spend time with Him daily, I had stopped the singing and praising part. But that is just as important as the rest in my relationship with the Lord. He deserves my songs of worship, praise and thanks. It used to be a daily habit – I need to get back to that.

This morning I was asking the Lord to eat things I don’t normally eat – and to go out to lunch. I was not real happy with my new way of making smoothies – it seemed bland. Without the stevia in the protein powder I used to use, it does not have the best flavor. But the Lord has told me not to use the stevia. So that is not an option for me. The thoughts came to me to go out to eat. I believe I was engaged in a battle with temptation this morning.

I looked at the page of scriptures I keep in my restroom to look at every day. Today it was the verse that reminds us that we must watch and pray lest we fall into temptation…

Matthew 26:41

Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

I asked the Lord for help. I knew I was being tempted. I knew there was a battle forming and I want to win the fight. I do not want to come to the end of my day today and have to look into my Savior’s eyes and say, “I blew it once again as I caved in to my flesh.” I want to be lifted up on wings as eagles today…

Isaiah 40:29-31

He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength.
Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, but those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.

The Lord can increase my strength. I already had to ask for His help while I was exercising at 5:30 this morning. I began to struggle and didn’t feel right, so I asked for His help. And He got me through it. I kept saying that His power is perfect in my weakness out loud…

2 Corinthians 12:9a

“My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.”

I know that He always causes me to triumph…

2 Corinthians 2:14a

Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, 

This happens when I really do put my trust in Him. Jesus said this…

Matthew 16:24

Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.

He lived His entire life denying the desires of His flesh. So must we. This life is very brief. We won’t be here long. The sufferings we experience now…

Romans 18:18

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

All of our hope is in Jesus. We must be…

Luke 2:49

And He said to them, “Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?”

And every student who is perfectly trained…

Luke 6:40

A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone who is perfectly trained will be like his teacher.

We can be like Jesus. We can think, pray and work and live just like He did. He said it, so it has to be true. We must be in our hearts…

Isaiah 1:19

If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land;

If I want the best that this life has to offer from God’s hand, then I better have a willing heart and be obedient. And He knows my heart. He knows if I am doing something willingly or grudgingly. I want all the best that the Lord wants to give me. Don’t you?

This morning I had to cast my cares over to the Lord. I don’t even know what was bugging me, but something was. After many tears, I handed it over. If there is any hidden sin, I asked Him to show me. Being in His presence and worshiping Him this morning renewed me and refreshed me.

He gives me joy unspeakable and full of His glory…

1 Peter 1:8

whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, He is my glory and the lifter of my head…

Psalm 3:3

But You, O Lord, are a shield for me, my glory and the One who lifts up my head.

Two nights ago I had a dream. And I have been waiting on the Lord for revelation about its meaning. It didn’t come – until today. In the dream, I was in a bathroom and trying to clean myself up. The supplies were not adequate to do the job. I wanted to get out of there. I had been in there a long time. I wanted to get out and reconnect with my daughters.

Now, two days later, after spending time with the Lord He revealed to me the meaning of the dream. May I share this with you?

He said, “You can’t clean yourself up. You don’t have what it takes. You admitted today that you can’t. Now I can do the work.” 

Anything that concerns my weaknesses or my issues with my daughters are beyond my ability to fix. When these things get to bugging me down in my heart I can be set up for a fall with my eating because I become vulnerable. When something is eating me, it makes me want to eat.

Instead, I chose to cry out to the Lord. Today I decree and thing and it will be established – “I will have a successful day with my eating and I will please the Lord with my choices as I follow His lead and ignore satan’s lies in Jesus name.

And let all of God’s children say – amen!

Philippians 3:14

I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in

Christ Jesus.

Friends, I am sharing this with you so that you can see the struggles that others face. We all have tests, trials and temptations. To be tempted is not a sin! It is when we give in to the temptation that we sin. The devil tries to make us think that because the thought is in our minds, we are sinning and hence, lousy Christians. But it’s a lie! Don’t believe it. He is the one that brings the wrong thoughts. And He might bring them a thousand times in a day. But if we resist him and replace those thoughts with a faith thought in the word of God (out loud), he will give up and leave. We can overcome this fight. One day at a time – one moment at a time. I hope this encourages you no matter what you have struggled with in the past – it can stay in the past. Today is a new day! Praise the Lord and make it a good one in Jesus name!