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How’s Lent Going for You? 6 Encouraging Insights from Lysa TerKeurst

Mar 20

Did you give up something for Lent? How is that going for you?

I chose to give up something I crave every day, and you know what? I'm not doing so hot. I feel like I've stumbled right off the wagon.

If you can relate, or you feel like other cravings are breathing down your neck, check out these words from Lysa TerKeurst's Made to Crave Devotional: 60 Days to Craving God, Not Food.

- Adam Forrest, Zondervan

1. I've realized [my struggle with food] isn't as much about losing the weight as it is gaining truth – the truth of who I am in Christ and how I am made for more than this constant, self-defeating struggle.

2. It's the truth that reminds me a scale can measure my physical body but never my worth [as a person]. And it's the truth that God loves me the way I am, but He loves me too much to leave me stuck in a place of defeat.

3. [We have to] park our minds on the truth that our triumph in this trial matters. Triumph will produce a blessing… The blessing we have to consider is this: 'that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything' (James 1:4).

4. I can recognize the beauty of discipline and crave the intimacy with God it unleashes.

5. I can rest assured though the journey will be hard, I will be held.

6. I had to choose to operate in the reassurance of God's love, the remembrance of God's grace, and the reality of God's power. And, according to Isaiah 41:10, God is the one holding me up, not the other way around. To that I say, 'Amen!'

Made to Crave Action Plan

Learn more about Made to Crave Devotional: 60 Days to Craving God, Not Food

Learn more about the Made to Crave Action Plan, a video-based group study.

Find Lysa TerKeurst on Twitter (@lysaterkeurst)

(This post does not represent the views of Zondervan or any of its representatives. The writer's personal opinions are shared for information purposes only. To receive new Zondervan Blog posts in your reader or email inbox, subscribe to Zondervan Blog.)

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Victory over Our Cravings, One Mini-goal at a Time [Excerpt by Lysa TerKeurst]

Jan 18

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Do we have cravings, or do cravings have us? Here Lysa TerKeurst offers encouragement and tips for when beating our cravings feels like a pipe dream.

If you don’t have issues with food, I think you’ll be surprised at how relevant Made to Crave is for you, too. Lysa’s writing plumbs the heights and depths of our craving hearts. (Excerpt from Made to Crave Devotional: 60 Days to Craving God, Not Food.)

- Adam Forrest, Zondervan

**From Made to Crave Devotional by Lysa TerKeurst**

There are days I don’t feel victorious. Like the day when the upstairs toilet clogged and flooded my kitchen ceiling. Or the day I got stuck in traffic, yelled at my kids, and missed an important meeting. Those are the days when my long-term goals to get healthy don’t feel as important as my need for immediate comfort. I just want to blow my healthy eating plan out of frustration with something gooey, sweet, and cream laden.

I bet you’ve had something occur this week that doesn’t make you feel very victorious either. A sick child, a missed deadline, tension in a friendship, or a number on the scale that almost made you cry. I understand. But may I encourage you? Even in the midst of trying circumstances and bad days, you can be victorious.

You can be victorious even when the distance between your present reality and your desired goal seems so far apart.

How?

Set mini-goals. Losing twenty, fifty, one hundred pounds, or more can seem so far away. And faraway goals are hard to hang onto when life drains us and it feels like those French fries sure could fill us.

Set mini-goals physically by getting a strategy for making healthy choices. How can you prepare now to drink eight glasses of water today? What is a healthy snack option you’ll turn to when those afternoon salty and sugary cravings start calling? Are you going out to eat at a restaurant? Use the Internet to look up the nutritional information for their menu so you can make informed healthy choices. If hit with an unexpected temptation today, what healthy go-to script or Bible verse can you arm yourself with in advance to combat justifications and compromises?

Each mini-goal you accomplish today is a moment of victory.

[Spiritual Mini-Goals]

We can also set mini-goals spiritually. We will always be most victorious when we are in the center of God’s will. When we are in God’s will, we are able to see our trials from God’s perspective — through the lens of His grace and truth. But what is God’s will?

The apostle Paul wrote, “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks … for this is God’s will” (1 Thessalonians 5:16–18). This is an explicit description of what God’s will is. To be in the center of God’s will is to be [someone] who is joyful, prayerful, and thankful.

Chocolate: My Comfort & Deliverer by Lysa TerKeurst

Feb 15

This post is adapted from Day 1 of Lysa TerKeurst's new email series, the "Made to Crave" 21-Day Challenge. To receive the rest of Lysa's inspirational emails, subscribe to the Challenge.

21-Day Challenge

God made you wonderful. Psalm 139 says you are wonderfully and fearfully made. You are beautiful and loved, no matter if you’re a size zero or a size thirty. You are beautiful just the way you are. But God loves you so much that He doesn’t want you to stay in a place of defeat.

There was a time when I felt utterly defeated in the area of food and health. I knew that I needed to make changes not because of the number on the scale or what clothing size I was. I knew it because of the battle that raged in my heart. I craved, I desired, I thought about, and arranged my life around food.

Yet I was a Bible teacher. I was a woman who loved Jesus. Why couldn’t I figure this out? I had found victory in so many areas of my life, but this area alluded me. I constantly asked, “Why shouldn’t I indulge?”

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One day I looked up the definition of the word indulge, which means “unrestrained action.” And for me, it was unrestrained eating. You see, eating in its proper context is not the problem. God gave us food for nourishment, strength, and even celebration. But when pleasure becomes unrestrained, there’s a problem.

I had to get honest enough to admit it that I relied on food more than I relied on God. I craved food more than I craved God. Chocolate was my comfort and deliverer. Cookies were my reward. Salty chips were my joy. Food was what I turned to in times of stress, sadness, and even in times of happiness.

I knew it was something God was challenging me to surrender to His control. Really surrender. Surrender to the point where I’d make radical changes for the sake of my spiritual health perhaps even more than my physical health.

Part of my surrender was asking myself a different question, a really raw question. May I ask you this same question? Is it possible we love and rely on food more that we love and rely on God?

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