My Journey- Machine Gun Nests and Weight Loss

Why wasn’t there a machine gun nest near the tree? Seriously! If there was, when Eve approached and a line of bullets cut into the ground in front of her, warning her to back off, she wouldn’t have eaten the forbidden fruit.

That’s how I feel on my diet. If only there was a machine gun nest. . . 

I pray, “Lord, stop me from overeating,” as if I want Him to create an electrified refrigerator door handle that would zap me whenever I touched it. “Lord, give me the strength to get up and exercise,” as if I’m a robot that God simply moves around; bending my arms and legs, kind of like Gumby. Remember those little toy Gumbies? You could move their arms and legs; that is, until the wire in the inside broke. Then they kind of flopped around. Sometimes I feel like my prayers are Gumby-ish.  “Lord, stop me from sinning. Stop me from overeating.”

Let’s look at the truth of the matter. Just like Joshua exhorted the nation of Israel – “Choose you this day who you will serve. . .”, God says the same thing to me. Only it’s “Choose you this day what you will eat. . .”

When I pray, “God, help me! Be with me. Lord give me strength,”  He answers with an already given (and constantly being fulfilled) promise, “Lo, I am with you always!”

Hey! I’m not saying God doesn’t answer prayers. He does. However, for any of us to act like a Gumby and expect God to stop us from sinning, to want a heavenly electric shock collar, it’s not the way it works.

God didn’t put a machine gun nest in the garden. He didn’t put a electric fence around the tree. Adam and Eve made choices. God is with me while I am on this weight loss journey, but He’s not Gumby-ing me. My choices got me into this mess. It’s gotta be my choices that get me out. Every day it’s, “Choose you this day. . .”

Another six pounds down. Hurray!