Go
the Extra Mile
Matthew 5:41
And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile,
go with him twain.
My Experience, Strength
& Hope
My husband and I went
out of town for a lovely weekend. We attended a friend’s church Saturday night,
and planned to return to the same church for their Sunday service. That weekend
was another learning experience for me. It is not like I have not experienced
this same situation before, but by the grace of God, I am believing that I will
not fall for the same scheme of the enemy again.
As a person who has
dealt with food/sugar addiction in the past, I have to be very careful when I
am away from home. I have come to know that eating at home is really the safest
place for me the majority of the time. By doing that I can count my calories,
and I will know what I am eating. In a restaurant, we never know for sure what
we are really getting or how something was prepared.
On Sunday, I had planned
to go pick up a smoothie and then go to church. I heard a voice in my head tell
me to just stay at the hotel and eat their free full-service breakfast buffet.
Then I heard, “Go get your smoothie later.” I should have stopped and
questioned those thoughts. What I needed to do was to ask the Lord, “Lord, is
this You?” He would have been happy to tell me that it was not His plan or will
and to stick with my original plan.
What happens is this;
the enemy knows when we are in a compromising situation. He is lurking to find
just the right moment to slip in a subtle temptation that sounds almost like it
is the Lord Himself talking. But the best way to know is to A.) Ask the Lord,
and B.) Take a minute to think about how the suggestion would work with our
plan. By doing this, we can avoid a slip. We can ask ourselves, “If I do this,
will it throw me off of what I know the Lord wants me to do?” If we can
honestly answer yes, then we know what we need to do. We need to resist the
devil with the word of God. We need to remind Him that man does not live on
bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.
I already know what
God’s will is for me when it comes to eating. I know what to do and what not to
do. But that particular day, I caved in to the suggestion and ate at the
breakfast bar. I didn’t stuff myself or anything like that, but that is not
what is important here. What I did was eat things I know I should not have
eaten, and as a result I was in disobedience to the will of God. In other
words, I was acting in rebellion. Rebellion is always of the devil.
When temptation comes,
we have a choice. To be watchful and pray, asking the Lord for help, or to give
in to the lusts of the flesh. But that’s not what Jesus did. He took up His
cross and He tells us to take up ours.
For any person caught
in the bondage of an addiction currently or even previously, we have to take up
our cross. My cross is to deny myself the privilege of eating whatever I want.
It is to follow the plan of eating that God has given me for life. The bottom
line: I have to stick with the plan to keep my body strong, healthy and in
balance. And it is a good plan. It is not a ‘fad diet’.
Rather, it is a healthy
diet that is more than enough to keep my body running as it should,
incorporating all the food groups in a proper balance. It’s all about balance.
For the one caught in
the bondage of alcohol, it is to make a commitment to never pick up alcohol
again. That is another thing that I committed to the Lord that I would never do
again. For me that is super easy. Drinking always made me sick and left me ill
for days afterward. I do not miss the drugs and alcohol one bit. When it comes
to eating however, that hits a little harder –
a little closer to home
you could say. Why? Obviously, we have to eat to live. Contrarywise, we do not
need alcohol and drugs to survive. Praise God!
But my life will be a
life of fasting from junk food, sweets and sodas among other things that are
just not healthy things to eat. It will always be a life of low carb eating and
exercising so I can stay in good shape - inside and out. The Lord wants us to
be His disciples. Jesus had to deny Himself plenty while He lived on the
earth. Former addict or not, we as Christians will have to live lives of
self-denial if we really want to be His disciples. Many want to know they are
born again and going to heaven, but when it comes to actually making a
sacrifice for Him, they are not willing. The Bible tells us in Isaiah that if
we are willing AND obedient, we will eat the good of the land.
What does
all this mean? If I am willing and obedient to what the Lord tells me to do,
and if I deny my flesh so I can live a holy and godly life, and if I go the extra mile and do more than what
is required of me, then I will become like my Master – Jesus. I will be worthy
to be called His disciple. I will have the best food, clothes, houses and a
host of other blessings; so much so that I will always have plenty to share as
the Lord intended for us in the first place.
But how do we
get there? By faith. By spending time with Him and meditating on His words;
reading it and speaking it out loud over our lives every day. That weekend I
could have made the word of God work for me when temptation came my way. I
could have submitted to God and resisted the devil and he would have left me
alone. I would have had a clear conscience before God and man. Instead, because
of my response, I lost my peace and my joy. It broke my fellowship with the
Lord – the worst part of all. I know it did not please Him. He does not want me
to try to serve Him and food, or anything else. He wants the number one spot in
our lives.
When I
discussed this with my husband after the fact, I asked him to be my faith
buddy. He had a nudging in his spirit that I was making a wrong
choice, yet he held back from saying anything. So I gave him the permission to
be my faith buddy. I told him the next time, if there is one, and if he gets
that nudging again, he can let me know in a loving way. This will help me to
stop and depend on the Lord so I can get through the situation victoriously. Going
the extra mile would have been to eat less than I was allowed rather trying to
have more.
Like we have discussed
before in this program, no tool is helpful if it is left lying in the tool
shed. We have to pick up the word of God (sharp sword) and speak it, stand on
it, and believe it. Then we will get the victory. When the Lord asks us to do
something, we would all do well to take heed (pay attention to) what He says
and go the extra mile for Him. We need to do more than He asks of us, and not look for ways
to do less. In that, we can prove our love for Him. Otherwise, our words are
meaningless.
Think about the times you may have done more than you were
asked to do by a boss or a friend or family member. Think about why you wanted
to do more for them than they had asked. Was it to please them? Was it because
you wanted to be a blessing to them in some extra special way?
Well, we can think of this same scenario when we are
considering how we respond to what the Lord is asking us to do. He will never
control us or make us do anything. However, when He asks, we would be very wise
to obey and even do more. It will only bless Him and bounce back and bless us
too! Be encouraged my friend as you go the extra mile for Jesus!
Scriptures from This Message…
Matthew
4:4
But he answered and said, It is
written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth
out of the mouth of God.
Matthew 26:41
Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is
willing, but the flesh is weak.
2 Peter
2:9
The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to
reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished.
Luke 6:38
Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and
shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the
same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.
Putting it All Together:
· Remember that the enemy
is a deceiver. He will always come around again and again with the same old
tricks up his sleeve. Whatever has been a stronghold in our lives will be the
area he will most likely tempt us. You have the greater One living inside of
you. When you hear a suggestion to do something, it is OK to ask the Lord if it
is Him that is talking to you.
· Will you take some time
to seriously ask the Lord if there has been any rebellion in your heart toward
Him? He is waiting to help you. He will not condemn you. He wants to bring you
up from where you are at.
· Will you make a plan to
go to the Lord in prayer every time a tempting thought comes to your mind? If
you do, He will deliver you out of that temptation.
· Think about your
willingness to be obedient, take up your cross and become like your Lord and
Savior – the Master – Jesus. In what ways can you change your behavior/habits
right now in order to work toward that goal? Make a note and keep them in a prominent
place.
· Finally, are you willing
to give Him your all and go the extra mile? The answer to this all-important
question is pivotal in achieving your goals in your walk with Jesus.
**If you would like to join our weekly call, please send an email to the following:
The3rdJohn2Program@yahoo.com
Be blessed!
Hanny
Hanny
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