First Things First

Matthew 6:33 says to seek FIRST His (God's) kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.  Putting God first in everything I do.....sounds easy enough but how many times a day do I stop or slow down long enough to ask God if He is with me, what He desires or if I am doing what is pleasing to me?  Sadly, not nearly enough.

Today was an opportunity for kingdom work.  Thousand Hills Ministry, Church Under The Bridge was today.  We went as a group to be the hands and feet of Christ.  What an indescrible joy to see so many servants hearts and to see so many homeless fed.  A group of teens sang before worship; my daughter Celeste was one of them.  It is a blessing to see these young people who will be tomorrow's leaders following Christ.

I didn't get a walk in today but did cover ground for Christ--completely energized and exhausted at the same time.

Serving a risen Savior

Fasting forward

Any goal that you set will have obstacles to overcome. I'm finding my biggest obstacle is me.  I've struggled with my weight for the last 10 years and have tried to fix it on my own.  I've also tried "fixing" my relationship with God (in my own strength).  The interesting thing is that neither of these can be fixed by my efforts alone.

I have undertaken a 21 day Daniel fast recently.  I'm eleven days into it.  When this began I was not aware of how much I was being controlled by food and how weak-willed I had been in the past to my own fleshly cravings.  Christ tells us to deny ourselves...something that isn't easy when we choose to live in the flesh.

This week I found that my desire to draw closer to Christ superceded my desire for delicacies and Pappasitos!!  I love Mexican food-especially Pappasitos and was taken there for lunch and chose to honor my commitment.  It was a strange and wonderful feeling choosing Christ.  It is a process...come near to God and he will come near to you...James 4:8

Thanks to my friend Jessica I managed to get in about 2.5 miles of walking today.  I'll be on my feet most of the day tomorrow but doubt I'll have time to get my exercise in.  My goal is to start walking every day.

Day 1 - Making the shift

I've know Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior since I was 11 but did not have a personal relationship with him.  I didn't grow up in a Christian home but in God's sovereignty He placed my Aunt & Uncle (who are like parents to me) in my life.  Every Sunday they came and picked me up for church, they took me to church camp, they had a significant impact on my life.  Although God called me at a young age I did not grow up having a relationship with him.  You see, it is one thing to confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and being saved - your eternity is sealed.  It is another thing to go day after day without being changed (transformed) into His image.

As I began to grow up I could see that something was missing.  I found that just as our relationships with family and friends require time and investment, so does our relationship with God through Christ Jesus.  My salvation and eternity can never be taken away and oh what a glorious day it will be when I can be face to face with Jesus but why would I want to wait?  He gave me the Holy Spirit as a seal of what is to come.  The Holy Spirit is to help guide me through this life.

So, in 2003 I rededicated my life to Christ.  Since that time God has done an amazing work in me.  This blog is intended to document this new season of my life in that journey.  As I've grown spiritually I began to understand that while I was physically appealing (looks, size, etc.) my inner beauty was decaying.  I began to pray that God would make my inner and outer beauty match--thus the name spiritually fat and physically fit.

My commitment in 2011 is grow so spiritually fat that it will be obvious to all that interact with me that my life mirrors Jesus Christ and that physically I run a half marathon and lose thirty pounds.  So here it goes.....