Discipline or Indulgence?

So last Wednesday I blogged on eating healthy - and I'm finding as I endeavour to eat more healthy foods - I'm hungry! So now what? What do I do with this hungry feeling?

Dr. Oz says "In your brain, you'll find the hypothalamus, a key command center for your body...When you're really hungry or dieting, your stomach sends messages (to the brain) every twenty minutes or so that your body wants food. After long periods, your body can't ignore those messages. That's why sugar cookies usually trump willpower. It's impossible to fight the biology of your body."

So what I hear Dr. Oz saying is every 20 minutes I have to tell my flesh "no". Well, seriously - I can only tell myself "no" so many times before I find myself in the cupboard digging for something salty! Why does eating healthy have to be so difficult? Why does being organized have to be so difficult? Why does getting up early every morning to read my Bible and pray have to be so difficult? Why does posting this blog daily have to be so difficult? Why is it so difficult to drag my body to the treadmill every evening?


It's my flesh - that's the problem! "The Spirit is willing - but the flesh is weak!!!" (Matt. 26:41)

Jesus says in Luke 9:23 "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me."

Do you see the dailiness of the denial of self that is necessary to follow Christ. Habitually - Daily I need to deny myself. This requires an amount of discipline beyond my flesh's power. My flesh has a desire to indulge itself.

There were two men in the Bible who are polar opposites with indulgence and discipline. First there is Samson - a man whose indulgence with women led him to complete ruin. Then there is Daniel - a man whose discipline in both his eating habits and prayer habits allowed him to be used mightily by God.

Today ask yourself - am I indulgent - and led by my flesh? Or have I disciplined my flesh to deny itself and follow Christ?

I'm in the trenches with you - each day I must again humbly come before God and ask for strength to follow him and deny myself. Take it hour by hour - this hour deny yourself. Then next hour deny yourself and then the following hour deny yourself. Soon hours will turn into days and days into weeks, then months and years. Force your flesh to deny itself and lead a disciplined life.

Walk with the King!

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