It’s 3 am. I’m up so let’s talk. One thing I’ve learned, when I wake up and there is a message just for you running through my head, I better get up and write it down or I’ll never get back to sleep. More important than that, I know God doesn’t wake me up this early unless it’s a message you need to hear.
Your Story Is Amazing
Someone said to me recently as I was coming out of a business gathering of entrepreneurs, “It’s an honor to have you here.”
I always say the first thing that comes into my head. So I said, “I’m not sure why.” And then laughed.
She said, “Because your story is so amazing.”
“I don’t feel amazing most days,” I said and that is the God-honest truth. I do feel blessed beyond belief to be alive. I was slowly eating myself to death one cookie at a time, one bagful of candy at a time, one hot roll at a time, one bag of cheddar cheese potato chips at a time 12 years ago.
All of that added up to a mountain of weight, which attached itself to my body. I was stuck in there somewhere trying desperately to get out and felt I never would be able to.
I didn’t need to go through a prayer line and have weight magically fall off of me. I needed to stop eating all the time. Thank God I finally did that and today I’ve lost more than 260 pounds
Curse of Overeating
I get emails, Facebook comments, people coming up to me and honestly asking for me to pray for them to be delivered from the curse of overeating.
What I’m going to say next may seem harsh, but it is what God said. “Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live!”1
Did you get that? God just said that you can choose death. You can choose to live under a curse.
I know it’s true because that’s where I lived for years. I wanted that mountain of flesh that had somehow entombed me to move. I prayed for it to move. I cried out to God for it to move, but I didn’t do what God showed me to do for it to move for a long time.
[Tweet “I kept crying and praying to my bag of caramels to save me.”]
I get it. I really do. You feel like you are cursed because you think you can’t stop eating all the wrong things and even too much of the good things.
I Have No Choice
When I weighed 430 pounds, I had a choice, the same choice I have today. Let’s be honest here a minute. I didn’t want to give up the foods I felt I couldn’t live without because they were propping me up, helping me face the next day dealing with the overwhelming pain and desperation I felt just existing in a body that had become my tomb.
So I said to God, “I can’t stop eating all these comfort foods. I’d die without them. I don’t have a choice. My cravings take over and no matter how much I don’t want to eat those fattening desserts, my body gives me no choice.”
You know what? God didn’t yell at me. He didn’t chastise me. He just quietly and matter-of-factly said, “You always have a choice.”
[Tweet ““You always have a choice.””]
I got what He was saying. It was my choice to begin using food as a pacifier. It was my choice to make my stomach my god, 2 my go-to source to take care of any emotion. As a result my belly was my god. Belches were my praise and all I could think about what my appetite.3
My Stomach Was Not the Problem
My physical stomach wasn’t the problem, though. I was allowing my soul—my mind, will and emotions, especially my emotions—to control what I ate.
Scripture tells us things can change for us when we surrender to Jesus. “There’s far more to life for us. We’re citizens of high heaven! We’re waiting the arrival of the Savior, the Master, Jesus Christ, who will transform our earthy bodies into glorious bodies like his own. He’ll make us beautiful and whole with the same powerful skill by which he is putting everything as it should be, under and around him.”4
Power to Overcome
We think that must mean that until then we have to endure our cravings and temptations because we are human.
Not so. He has given us the power to overcome, a way of escape from temptation. We can say no to selfish desires because we have the power that raised Christ from the dead living in us.5
“If anyone wishes to follow Me, as My disciple, he must deny himself, set aside selfish interests, and take up his cross daily, expressing a willingness to endure whatever may come, and follow Me, believing in Me, conforming to My example in living and, if need be, suffering or perhaps dying because of faith in Me.”6
Mess Saved By Grace
I am no super hero. I’m just a mess continually being saved by God’s grace.7
[Tweet ” I’m just a mess continually being saved with grace.”]
I am just honored and privileged that when I finally listened to God and followed what He had been telling me all along, He made a message out of my mess.
Let’s Go For Breakthrough
I’m learning that after what I’ve been through, I have a strong breaker anointing. With that I can help you get to your breakthrough. Work with me for six months, really “work” with me, follow how I teach, do the action steps and let’s see what happens to that weight.
It may just be your answer to prayer. There’s really no time to wait. My six-month weight loss coaching class, #KickWeight is open now. The introduction video will be posted today. Doors close on Wednesday, Oct. 5. Run, don’t walk, and get in now.
I didn’t wake up at 3 am for nothing. It’s now 4 am and I’m sending this to you because God says you do have a choice. Go HERE and make your choice to LIVE.
1 Duet 30:19-20 NLT
2 Philippians 3:19 NIV
3 Philippians 3;19 MSG
4 Philippians 3:20-21 MSG
5 Romans 8:11 NIV
6 Luke 9:23 AMP
7 2 Cor. 4:16 AMP
Teresa Shields Parker is a Christian weight loss author, coach, podcaster, and speaker, who has lost 250 pounds and kept it off since 2013. Her books include: “Sweet Grace: How I Lost 250 Pounds and Stopped Trying to Earn God’s Favor,” “Sweet Grace Study Guide,” “Sweet Victory: Winning the Battle,” “Sweet Surrender: Breaking Strongholds,” “Sweet Journey to Transformation: Practical Steps to Lose Weight and Live Healthy”, “Sweet Freedom: Losing Weight and Keeping It Off With God’s Help,” “Sweet Freedom Study Guide,” “Sweet Change: True Stories of Transformation,” “Sweet Hunger: Developing an Appetite for God,” and “Sweet Excuses: Stop Lying to Yourself & Start Losing Weight.” She also offers Overcomers Christian Weight Loss Academy and VIP intensive coaching. Don’t miss her weekly podcast, Sweet Grace for Your Journey, where she shares tips from her personal journey of losing weight and discovering healthy living. Contact her at [email protected].
Hello Teresa,
Thanks for allowing God to wake you up and for not turning over and going back to sleep! The encouragement helps so much. The one thing among many that the encouragement does for me is plants the thoughts in my mind to plan ahead what I will eat and make the healthy choices. I even seem to supernaturally not desire as much food. Thank you! I can do All things through Christ Who strengthens me. Thete was a time when I was truly on board to keep the weight off. I ran my hand down into a bag of chips and something stopped me..I dropped the chips right back into the bag. I desire to get totally back to this place of leaving the junk foods alone. Blessings, Elaine
It will happen. Of course, as a food addict, it is a day-by-day, moment-by-moment choice for me. I cannot get lackadaisical and feel I’ve got this licked. I just have to follow the Leader every day of my life. And after all, isn’t that what we are all supposed to do?