Overcoming Weakness with New Wine

Discussions are intimidating and uncomfortable when they're uncovering issues such as weight-gain or fatigue or pain ... don't you think?   I'm 40 plus pounds over weight, I'm on a role with the daily exercise of fatigue, and pain has recently become my closest buddy-'ol-pal.  So there ya have it ... it's out ... my dark weak side! 

or how about...

Discoveries are pretty awesome when it pertains to anything that brings more wealth, happiness, or adorable-fluffy-little puppies ... right?  Sure!  Money lends to pleasure and pleasure is defined by that can't-say-no-to little creature that doesn't stay little and chews on fingers and barks at nothing and chases after innocent green-belt-walkers and wakes up in the middle of the night to pee delightful new family member ... not-so-much!


I'll let you in on a little unearthing happin' on this side of the woods...

It all began with a desire to lose a little weight.  Simple diet, with simple rules, that simple!  And it was when it was all said and done, and the scale experienced a lesser load one morning, that a pursuit of something sweet (because I deserved it, don't ya know!) turned the steering wheel towards the grocer's haven.  

We attempt to teach our children the ways of encouraging our neighbors and loving our enemies, you see;  and we dance with joy when we witness this teaching taking root.  However, there are times when these disciplines come back to bite us in the rear...like this time.

It was my eldest daughter that practiced the art of encouraging her mother with these words: 

"Oh Mom!  It's OK to treat yourself once in a while"  as she winks and smiles at me.

And so *that* little sweetness justified my next action.

It's called "treating myself splurging" on that which I had previously put aside with much discipline, mind you, for the purpose of losing weight:    sugar, pasta, and bread.  I was completely ruined.

OK...and Double-Stuffed Oreos and Pop!
My weakness :(

 I agree with my daughter ... to some extent ... when one is disciplined! But that doesn't account for all the "once's" that prevailed ... with me.

Thus, discipline fail!

  


One morning, swaying to and fro in the porch swing, I was thinking about all the scripture-studying I had settled into in the recent months and how lacking it had been within the past few days.  Don't you know, one of the first thoughts of discovery was an intriguing parallel to the laziness in my recent eating habits?  Go figure!

*Unhealthy food lends to bad habits. 

*Laziness lends to worldly thoughts ("I'm so deserving!").

*Worldly thoughts lend to unwise choices (oreos, pop, you fill in the blank).  

*Unwise choices lend to a stagnant, numb conscience which leads to   indifference, which leads to destruction (fatigue and pain are looking pretty suspicious right about now...).

I'm thinkin' about doin' the plunge in the pool called Bethesda in which the angel of the Lord stirs up the waters during certain seasons.  Check this out:

"Fence" #8

"Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew Bethesda, having five porticoes. 3 In these lay a multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, and withered, [waiting for the moving of the waters; 4 for an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool and stirred up the water; whoever then first, after the stirring up of the water, stepped in was made well from whatever disease with which he was afflicted.]"

John 5:2-4

Now this is the kind of discovery I like to make indeed!  If anything is deserving it's Yahweh's Word - to be unearthed to life and dusted off and studied with a fine-tooth comb of Wisdom and delight!  

I'm pretty sure I'll be digging this stone-of-treasure a little further in my future studies.  Though physical healing might well be a bonus at the end, I'm certain that my spiritual weakness will ascertain a new identification and encounter an inner revival of the deepest spiritual kind.  

So, what about y'all?  What is your weakness that is so entangling to the point of suffocation?  What is sucking the life out of you? Are you in desperate need of a healing pool?  I know of a healing Water of Life; the One who turns water into wine - Who is the New Wine; the One who fed Israel in the wilderness and sustained their life with a bread-like substance called Manna - Who is the Bread of Life!

Would you like to make a discovery - a life-changing-rock-your-world kind of earth-moving discovery?    

"The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom.

  Though it cost all you have, get understanding.

⁸ 

Cherish her, and she will exalt you;

    embrace her, and she will honor you.

⁹ 

She will give you a garland to grace your head

    and present you with a glorious crown."

Proverbs 4:7-9

The choice is:

Our weaknesses?

   Those things that entangle us and cause us to live unhealthy, unfruitful, disastrous lives.  Anything that holds us back from living in the ways of our Yeshua Messiah (Jesus).  

or

HIS Strength?

10 

"Hear the word of the Lord, O nations,

And declare in the coast lands afar off,

And say, “He who scattered Israel will gather him

And keep him as a shepherd keeps his flock.”

11 

For the Lord has ransomed Jacob

And redeemed him from the hand of him who was stronger than he.

12 

“They will come and shout for joy on the height of Zion,

And they will be radiant over the bounty of the Lord—

Over the grain and the new wine and the oil,

And over the young of the flock and the herd;

And their life will be like a watered garden,

And they will never languish again."

Jeremiah 31:10-12

Remembering who I am (Israel!),

                                                  Cindy