Sweet Grace For Your Journey

Episode 050--It's Not All About Comfort

The Holy Spirit is our comforter, but He isn’t just all about comfort. He doesn’t have just one facet. He is multi-faceted. 

John 14:26 AMP says, “But the Helper, Comforter, Advocate, Intercessor—Counselor, Strengthener, Standby, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name in My place, to represent Me and act on My behalf, He will teach you all things. And He will help you remember everything that I have told you.”

He is what we need most in the moment we are in. This is why going to Him works so much better to help us than indulging in something that only harms us. When we go to food for comfort it works in the moment, but later it is very discomforting. It doesn’t bring us the peace we need. 

Comfort is an interesting word. When we dissect it, what we mean is really selfish. It’s all about what I want and nothing about what God wants for me.He is calling me and you to go much, much deeper with Him. He is calling us to a new level. He is calling us to transformation and He is using our issues with food to do it. He’s redefining what comfort looks like and feels like for us.It’s about the comfort and peace of mind that comes when we know we’re doing exactly what God’s heart’s desire is for us in order to take us to that next level in Him.

What I’m learning is that comfort may not be the right word. The Holy Spirit was much more of a counselor to me than a comforter on my journey. It wasn’t very comforting to give up the one thing my puny little mind had convinced itself was the thing I needed. I had to learn how to cope with myself without running to my drug of choice, which was food made with sugar and flour. 

His goal, His mission, His desire is to show me the way to the next level in God. Many of us see this Christian thing like joining a club. It’s much more than joining anything here on earth. It’s having your name written in the Lamb’s book of life. It’s knowing that every step you take and every decision you make is integral to your life’s mission. It’s about progressively changing and growing up in God.

Matthew 5:48 AMP says, “ You, therefore, will be perfect, growing into spiritual maturity both in mind and character, actively integrating godly values into your daily life, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

He’s telling that what He wants is for us to be growing, changing, transforming, not stuck in lies that grow into strongholds. He wants us to get to the place where going deeper with Him or rising to new levels in Him becomes our only goal.

When we are forced to face some of life’s most difficult questions, it will take us deep. Maybe the deepest question you are facing right now is how to stop yourself from what you know to be a slow death by comfort food. Maybe there are other difficult questions thrown in there along with it.Don’t be concerned. Most people are never invited to grapple with life’s difficult questions and so they never grow. It’s when we are forced to face these issues that we will grow and get to deeper meanings of who God is and who we are in Him.

Whatever issues you are going through, God wants to bring newness out of it. Having to lose 250 pounds was not a fun journey. It wasn’t the way I would choose to become new. But God has changed me in ways I never dreamed possible. Some of those ways involve just looking at my life differently

2 Cor 5:17 AMP says: “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, that is, grafted in, joined to Him by faith in Him as Savior, he is a new creature, reborn and renewed by the Holy Spirit; the old things, the previous moral and spiritual condition, have passed away. Behold, new things have come because spiritual awakening brings a new life.”

I’ve had this conversation with my husband about when I really became a Christian. Was it when I was 7 and stole candy from the grocery store and invited Jesus into my heart so I wouldn’t go to hell? There wasn’t much difference between me at 7 and at 8. Not much was made new. I had the assurance of going to heaven and I never again stole from the grocery store. That was about it.

But when I was 55 and surrendered sugar to God that was a totally different experience. That’s when I laid my life on God’s altar. That’s when I gave every part of myself to Him. That when I handed Him my previous moral and spiritual condition and said, I don’t want to do life like this anymore, stuck in bondage to food and sugar addiction. I need to understand Your way of doing things. I need to be awakened spiritually so I can allow You to take charge of my physical wellbeing and show me how to live reborn and renewed by Your Holy Spirit.

It’s about so much more than comfort. It’s about growing up in God. Even at 55, I was still a baby in Christ. I needed to trade my selfish desires for the comfort of certain foods and accept the comfort of the Holy Spirit first. Then I had to learn to crawl, stand, walk and run with Him towards the destiny He had planned for me from the beginning of time.

Overcomers Link: https://TeresaShieldsParker.com/Overcomers-Christian-Weight-Loss-Academy/

Episode 049--Jesus Versus Strongholds

We all know when it comes to a battle of Jesus versus our own personal strongholds, Jesus is going to win. Right? Well, it’s only right if we are putting our trust in Jesus instead of the stronghold we are hiding behind. 

From the beginning of time, when God created Adam and Eve, we were meant to be co-creators with Him. We had a high calling. Then Adam and Eve listened to evil rather than to God and they fell taking all of us with them. They believed the evil one’s lie. This opened the door to the formation of strongholds which are actually just lies we believe that have taken root in us. 

Lies come from mindsets. Mindsets affect us emotionally. Dr. Caroline Leaf says there are two categories of emotions — Faith and Fear.

Faith is all the good emotions — love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, grace, mercy, hope.

Fear is all the negative emotions — anger, anxiety, worry, frustration, overwhelm, jealousy, bitterness, pride, manipulation. These hold us back from the good emotions which holds us back from fulfilling our destiny.

These negative emotions are like chains that bind us and tie us up, so we are ineffective. These turn into lies we believe such as even Jesus can’t help us. This then becomes a stronghold we hide behind. Then we use sugar and other substances or distractions to anesthetize our pain and try not to think about how Jesus can’t help us because we too far gone. 

This becomes a stronghold that keeps us captive unable to do what we were designed to do and put here on earth to do. 

To get rid of a stronghold, you must take a stand against it.

We are His hands and feet here on this earth, but we are allowing something as ridiculous as oatmeal cake, sugar cookies, brownies and whatever else strikes our fancy to overcome us.

We are not trusting in God. We are trusting in something else. That has become like a stronghold. It is a mindset that says I have to have this food or this substance to live. That means you are trusting in what you believe is a stronghold instead of trusting in God. 

So how do you put God back on the throne of your life?

1. Submit completely to Him. Become honest and transparent before Him. Let Him into the secret places you think you’ve hidden from everyone including Him. Hand that secret stash of food to Him.
2. Admit that you have made your stomach your god. 
3. Own your issue. I am a sugar addict. I am a binger. I am an overeater.
4. Act against your addiction. Throw out the sugar. Turn away from the treats at work. Take a stand and know you are living for more than sugar and flour. You have a king named Jesus and He is a jealous God.

We must take a stand against the stronghold we have set up in our lives. Satan would want nothing better to whisper in your ear that you are defeated.  But I’m telling you that you are only defeated if you want to be.

One destiny God has for all of us is Freedom. It is for freedom Christ has set us free, don’t be entangled again in the yoke of bondage as Galatians 5:1 tells us. Only Free people can move. Those who are bound must stay right where they are. Take a step towards freedom today. Allow God to work in your life to break the strongholds you have allowed to be set up in you.

Overcomers Link: https://TeresaShieldsParker.com/overcomers-christian-weight-loss-academy/

Episode 048--Change Culture

I hear the words cancel culture thrown around a lot, but I’d like to recommend instead of canceling culture, let’s do what Jesus said. Let’s change the culture around us. 

When used as a slang word to cancel someone or something means basically to turn your back on them, to disown them, to boycott them, to pretend they don’t exist. Even writing those words saddens me. And yet if truth be told, there are things, people, situations I’d just as soon not have to deal with.  

Does that mean I want to cancel them? Not really. Jesus taught us to not conform to culture, but he didn’t teach us to cancel culture. Instead He taught us to change or transform culture.  We are to be light in a dark world. We are to be salt that changes the taste of everything around us. We are to be a city set on a hill. We are sent to change the world around us.

Canceling culture is not the right way to go. Neither is going along with everything culture or society throws at us. So what is the right course for a person, who really wants to do the right thing? We must change culture, but more importantly, we first have to change ourselves. I can’t help anyone change until I have first begun to change myself.

When I was contemplating talking about this subject one scripture kept popping into my mind, Romans 12:1-2. In the Amplified Bible it explains why we should not conform. “I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies dedicating all of yourselves, set apart as a living sacrifice, holy and well-pleasing to God, which is your rational, logical, intelligent act of worship. 

 “And do not be conformed to this world any longer with its superficial values and customs, but be transformed and progressively changed as you mature spiritually by the renewing of your mind focusing on godly values and ethical attitudes, so that you may prove for yourselves what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect in His plan and purpose for you.”

Each phrase in this passage could be a message in and of itself, but first, let’s also read it in the Message paraphrase. It says it more directly and to the point. “So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. 

“Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.”

These verses have been pivotal on my weight loss, as well as my spiritual journey. They go hand-in-hand. I could have lost weight without God’s help. I done it many times before. But keeping the weight off, staying true to what God has shown me to do and not to do would never have been possible without submitting to His leading. It’s commitment to Him that keeps me going.

1 Corinthians 6:20 TPT tells us that we were God’s expensive purchase, paid for with tears of blood, so by all means, then, we are to use our bodies to bring glory to God!

There is a direct correlation between us being in a physical body and our walk with God. We are in a body for several reasons. One of those is that it is in this way that we are tested and tried. Our body has fleshly desires. If those are pursued in earnest to the exclusion of anyone or anything else, it will imprison us. So Jesus came to offer us a way out of the bondage of sin and selfish desires. 

We first have to be completely honest with God and choose to follow Him in everything. We must choose to turn over every rock where we’ve tried to hide things from Him. Then and only then can true transformation begin.

The truth is, God already knows what’s under those rocks. You aren’t hiding anything from Him, not even that stash of treats you have hidden in your closet. You are only trying to hide them from Him. Handing them to God is the first step to transformation.

Then as 2 Cor 3:18 TPT, says “We can all draw close to Him with the veil removed from our faces. And with no veil we all become like mirrors who brightly reflect the glory of the Lord Jesus. We are being transfigured (or transformed) into His very image as we move from one brighter level of glory to another. And this glorious transformation comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”

We start the process by submitting to Him, but He continues the process as we move with Him from one brighter level of glory to another. In the Amplified version it says, “we are progressively being transformed into His image from one degree of glory to even more glory.”

Overcomers Academy Link: https://TeresaShieldsParker.com/overcomers-christian-weight-loss-academy/

Episode 047--Plot Twist

The last several days I’ve been working on developing my new Breaking Strongholds course. It’s interesting going back through my journey and seeing the crazy things I believed and did. It’s sort of like my life is a movie and I’m watching it play out and rooting for myself to make the right choices knowing time and time again I didn’t. 

Then, I watch how God throws in a plot twist which takes my story in an entirely different direction. I’m grateful for His plot twists. Without them I know I’d be dead today. I made so many bad decisions in my life I’m surprised God ever got through to me.

Romans 8:28 TPT says, “We are convinced that every detail of our lives is continually woven together to fit into God’s perfect plan of bringing good into our lives, for we are his lovers who have been called to fulfill his designed purpose.” 

My lifeline verse is 2 Cor. 12:9-10 AMP. It’s God talking to Paul. God said, “My grace is sufficient for you, My lovingkindness and My mercy are more than enough—always available—regardless of the situation; for My power is being perfected and is completed and shows itself most effectively in your weakness.”

Then this is Paul’s response back to God. “Therefore, I will all the more gladly boast in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may completely enfold me and may dwell in me.  So I am well pleased with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, and with difficulties, for the sake of Christ; for when I am weak in human strength, then I am strong truly able, truly powerful, truly drawing from God’s strength.”

God clearly showed me that admitting my weakness and allowing Him to take over is when I can get things done. It’s when I rely totally on His strength. The more I do that, the more my own strength and trust builds in Him.

God has been weaving together my story for a long time now. I felt there were way too many dark times when I made such idiotically dumb decisions that I didn’t even see how He could turn it around. But if there’s one thing I learned on my journey, it’s that He and He alone is God. He knows how to take my failures and redeem them to help me continue to go forward towards the destiny He has always had planned for me.

He knows how to throw in a good plot twist.

The first lesson in my Breaking Strongholds course releases in Overcomers Academy Sept. 24. If you feel like your story needs a plot twist to get you to where God wants you to go, this course is exactly what you need.

Overcomers Academy Link: https://TeresaShieldsParker.com/Overcomers-Christian-Weight-Loss-Academy/.

Episode 046--What is Comfort?

“Where did you learn your relationship with food?” The question invaded my mind. Not for a second did I wonder whether or not I had a relationship with food. I knew I did, and I knew I learned it from my loving Grandma, who fed us with every kind of food we wanted including every type of dessert. We could eat as much as we wanted whenever we wanted it.

We all need comfort, but true comfort should not come from the foods we eat. When that happens, comfort foods can become a stronghold that keeps us from true comfort which can only be found in the Holy Spirit.

The Psalmist declared, “When I screamed out, ‘Lord, I’m doomed’ Your fiery love was stirred, and You raced to my rescue. Whenever my busy thoughts were out of control, the soothing comfort of Your presence calmed me down and overwhelmed me with delight. (Psalm 94:18-19 TPT).  

There is nothing like God’s presence to comfort us. It is better than the finest dessert Grandma ever made. 

Real comfort is knowing God is on our side. He will never leave us. He is planning our future. He has everything all worked out. We don’t have to stress or worry. We can leave it in His hands, and it will be alright. There is nothing more comforting to me than knowing this truth. 

There were many other strongholds I had to confront as I went forward on my journey. Some of them threatened to ruin all the efforts I had put in so far. We must allow God to help us identify and break the strongholds that wreak havoc in our bodies even though we have allowed them to be set up in our lives.

If you feel stuck on your journey and can’t figure out what’s going on, it’s like you have a stronghold you need to identify and break with God’s help. I’d love to have you join us in Overcomers Academy for my brand new breaking strongholds course. This 17-week course starts, Sept. 24, 2020.

Overcomers Academy Link: https://teresashieldsparker.com/overcomers-christian-weight-loss-academy/

Episode 045--Transformation Island

All I ever wanted was to lose weight and do it simply and easily. What I learned over and over again, though, is that gaining weight is so much easier than losing it. I have a Ph.D. in how to gain weight. So, here are 21 Ways to Gain Weight. Of course there are a whole lot more than this and I’m sure you could add your own specifics to the list.

1. Eat anything you want.
2. Do not think about what you are eating.
3. Go with what your gut is telling you to eat.
4. If everyone else is eating it, you should too.
5. Don’t be concerned about getting nutrition or good fuel for your body.
6. Believe it’s more important to eat what makes you feel better in the moment.
7. See food as protection and comfort.
8. Never move. Sit all day.
9. Make sure to park as close to the door as you can so you don’t have to walk.
10. Rebel against anything a doctor tells you about how you’re going to die if you don’t lose weight.
11. When someone makes a suggestion about how to lose weight, don’t listen.
12. Be angry because everyone else seems to be able to eat and not gain weight except you.
13. Just tell yourself, one day a magic pill will be invented to fix your crazy cravings.
14. Tell yourself to go ahead and eat it. You can always lose weight tomorrow.
15. Make eating your only source of fun and recreation.
16. Believe that God doesn’t care if you gain weight and die early.
17. Think that your weight is not really affecting you that much.
18. Buy every diet book and try them all. Or better yet, just set them on a shelf in a prominent place so at least people will think you are trying to do something about your weight.
19. Call yourself a failure and believe you can never lose weight. Accept your fate.
20. Tell yourself. “It’s impossible to lose weight during the holidays, birthdays, anniversaries or special occasions.”
21. Don’t ask God how you can become healthy and if you do, don’t listen to what He says

On this episode I talk about false mindsets, false protections and strongholds, so be sure to listen to it. On the podcast I give an action step which seems simple but may be really difficult for those caught in the cycle of eat-gain-eat. Rewrite the 21 ways to gain weight into 21 ways to lose weight. Listen to the podcast for a few of my answers to the first 10. 

My Breaking Strongholds Course debuts in Overcomers Academy on September 24. Doors may close after that. Get in now. Here’s the link: https://TeresaShieldsParker.com/Overcomers-Christian-Weight-Loss-Academy/

Episode 044--Transformation Island

Take a trip to Transformation Island. It’s totally different from Renovation Island. Renovation is a one-time thing. You buy an old house, renovate it and sell it for a profit. It’s out of your hands. The renovation is complete. 

Transformation is an ongoing process. It takes commitment from the beginning through progressive changes we know won’t be quick but will be lasting. 

On Transformation Island, the first thing we must do is work on the inside. We have to begin to identify the core issues we have which are holding us back from wanting to change. Transformation will not happen without some major changes in our lives. 

Those changes are not just in what we eat and how we move. They are in why we eat what we eat, especially if it is unhealthy for us or is in a quantity we know is not healthy for us. The changes are also in why we refuse to move when we know it will help our health to do that.

Paul tells us how to transform in Romans 12:2 MSG. “Fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what He wants from you, and quickly respond to it.”

When we are going on another diet, we are focusing on the wrong thing. We are focusing on changing the outside of us thinking we are just fine on the inside. I want to tell you from experience that is not true. 

We have to know what God thinks in order to be transformed to His image. The only way to do that is to focus on Him and not on us. We must allow Him to renew our minds. 

Romans 12:1-2 AMP tells us how to do that. It’s not easy, but it is a necessary part of transformation. “Present your bodies, dedicating all of yourselves, set apart as a living sacrifice, holy and well-pleasing to God, which is your rational, logical, intelligent act of worship. 

“And do not be conformed to this world any longer with its superficial values and customs, but be transformed and progressively changed as you mature spiritually by the renewing of your mind, focusing on godly values and ethical attitudes, so that you may prove for yourselves what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect in His plan and purpose for you.”

I see five points about transformation in these scriptures.

1. Submit your body, mind and soul to God. If there is any part you are holding back just for yourself transformation won’t happen until you give that to Him.
2. Understand that submitting to God is a different kind of worship. It’s rational, intelligent and logical. You don’t tell Him what to do. He speaks, you listen and follow.
3. When you submit to God, you stop following what the world and people around you tell you to do. You start following God.
4. You make it a priority to allow God to bring you into spiritual maturity by renewing your mind. Spend time with God to help you understand what He wants. Then you can be progressively changed which results in transformation.  
5. The end result of transformation is that you know beyond a shadow of a doubt what God’s will, plan and purpose is for you. 

The journey on transformation Island will be difficult, but oh so rewarding. It’s messy. In the chrysalis everything caterpillar melts and provides the energy for the butterfly to be developed. The caterpillar held the original design for the butterfly in its cells all this time. But in order for the butterfly to emerge, the caterpillar had to surrender to the process of extreme transformation.

That’s exactly what it was like for me to lose 250 pounds. It was extreme transformation. I had a lot of lies I believed. Those were formed when I was young and impressionable. As I submitted to the transformation process, God began revealing those to me one by one. I had allowed them to build into strongholds that were keeping me from going forward on my journey. 

On some level I felt these lies helped me because they gave me excuses as to why I couldn’t go forward. Lies like I can’t lose weight, I have no value, even God can’t help me and so many more. God wanted to break these strongholds so I could move forward into the destiny He had for me, but I had to want them broken. I had to allow Him to do the deep work in me to utterly destroy the lies I believed and replace them with His truth.

My new course Breaking Strongholds will address this and more. It will debut in Overcomers Academy starting Sept. 24, 2020. The course will be based out of my new book, Sweet Surrender, which won’t be ready until later in 2020. In the group, I will be able to personally answer your questions as I walk you through identifying and breaking the strongholds holding you back. 

Overcomers Academy: https://TeresaShieldsParker.com/Overcomers-christian-weight-loss-academy/

Episode 043--Do Overs

Out of our biggest mess comes our greatest message. I know this is true for me. For years I felt like a mess. I tried to fix it myself but every time I tried to diet, it would just result in me losing weight and gaining it back again plus more. Dieting made me fatter. I made a big mess but I worked with God to help me clean it up. When I finally got through that God started revealing the message He had for me to share. It came out of my experiences. 

God will use our experiences as trophies of His grace. Ephesians 2:7 TPT says, “Throughout the coming ages we will be the visible display of the infinite, limitless riches of His grace and kindness which was showered upon us in Jesus Christ."

That’s where we are headed. He wants to show people that if we can do it with God’s help, anyone can. When I came to the lowest part of my journey, I prayed for a restart button. Can I just have a do-over God? Can we just start over? I promise this time I’ll listen. This time I’ll let you lead because I’ve made a big mess trying this on my own.

I was actually encouraged by a message I heard several years ago where a preacher said 15 books of Bible written by murderers. I found there were possibly 20 books that were written by the three men he was referring to. Moses, David and Paul.

Moses’ biggest mess was killing the Egyptian. Exodus 2:11-15 tells the story.

Acts 7:30-36 Paul recounts the story of Moses’ do-over when God spoke to Him in the burning bush and called Him to deliver the Children of Israel from the Egyptians.

David’s biggest mess was his affair with Bathsheba and then masterminding the death of her husband, Uriah. 2 Sam. 11:14-18 recounts that.

His do-over came when he repented of what he had done in Psalm 51:10-12. He had to realize his sin was against God. 

Paul’s biggest mess was persecuting, arresting and killing Christians. Acts 7:57-8:1 tells the story of the stoning of Stephen. Paul was the mastermind behind his death. One translation even says Paul took “pleasure at Stephen’s death.”

His do-over came on his phenomenal Damascus Road experience recounted in Acts. 22:6-11. 

Moses do-over came after a long time. He was 40 years when he killed the Egyptian. Then he spent 40 years in the wilderness learning what God had to teach him.

David’s do-over came during a time of abject poverty of soul, crying out to God for mercy and compassion. It was a time of total repentance.

Paul’s do-over was an instant moment of change. He couldn’t fight it. There was no denying that Jesus had appeared to him in order to change his life completely.

My biggest mess was gaining up to 430 pounds. My do-over took many years of working through my issues until I had an aha moment like Paul did, understood I was a sugar addict and began to turn around. After that I really felt like David. I was mourning what I had done and repenting.  

Moses didn’t want to go back to Egypt. He was scared. David was on his face in repentance. Paul needed help from the very ones he had been persecuting to make sure the Romans didn’t kill him once they found out he had switched sides.

I felt a little like all of them on my journey. I needed help from mentors. I definitely spent a lot of time I my face in repentance for rebelling against God and not listening to what He wanted for my life. Mostly though, when God called me to do more than just lose weight and write a book, I was like Moses. I was scared.

Writing a book was OK, but then came having to speak and I didn’t want to do that. Tv and radio, workshops, video courses. I didn’t want to speak. So I’d prepare and have everything written out for a speech but I found I rarely look at my notes because in his graciousness, God has broken the stronghold I had that said I can write but I don’t have a voice for speaking. 

God led me through this whole thing of speaking to the point that October 2019 I answered his call to begin this podcast. That was never on the list of things I wanted to do, but God in His wisdom knew.

Then after writing Sweet Grace, I led a Sweet Grace book study at my church. Towards the end three of the women stayed afterwards and told me they had been following what I had been teaching, but were concerned because the class would be ending soon. God used that session with them to call me into coaching. I was reluctant at first because I know all the excuses for not losing weight. I wallowed in them for way too many years. I wasn’t sure I wanted to go back through what I’d just come out of. But God assured me He would give me all I needed to coach. I opened my first coaching group on July 1, 2014.

Since then my coaching group, courses, books, podcasts and social media posts have reached thousands of people. It’s beyond amazing to me what God did when He gave me a do-over. I thought I was just losing weight to feel better, but God had so much more in store for me.

Even when I wrote my first book, I never imagined what He had in store. God can take our biggest mess and create our greatest message. Only He can do that. We can’t orchestrate it. I had no idea what God was up to when I finally surrendered my sugar addiction to Him and allowed Him to remove the strongholds which were keeping me stuck in super morbid obesity. I really began this journey out of selfish reasons. I wanted to feel better and look better. However, God wanted me to live a better, more fulfilling life. I didn’t have a clue what that looked like, but He did.

I don’t know what God has waiting in your future, but I do know what He wants for you right now. He wants you to be healthy—body, soul and spirit. If you need help with that, I’d love to have you join Overcomers Academy. Doors are open now. Get in now and take advantage of all the resources we have before our new Breaking Strongholds course premiers in September.

Are you ready for a do-over? 

Overcomers Academy: https://www.teresashieldsparker.com/overcomers-christian-weight-loss-academy/

Episode 042--God's Good Plans

God does have good plans for us. What He says in Jeremiah 29:11 is not just a cliché, it’s a solid truth. “For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”

God said this and we say we believe it but do we really. Do we really think God has good plans for us? Because right now everywhere we look there seems to be disaster. Let’s unpack this verse a little and try to understand the context and what God was saying.When God told them this the children of Israel were in captivity in Babylon, which is present day Iraq. In the verse before this one, God tells those who had been exiled to Babylon to build homes and plan to stay. Plant gardens and eat the food they produce. Marry and have children. Find spouses for the children so that they would have many grandchildren. He said, “Multiply. Do not dwindle away. And work for the peace and prosperity of the city where I sent you into exile. Pray to the Lord for the city, for its welfare will determine your welfare. “Then, God promised them that after 70 years He would come for them, bring them home again and do all that He had promised for them. That’s when He tells them He knows the plans He has for them. God knew exactly what the exiled children of Israel were thinking. Why has God done this to us? Why isn’t He taking care of us? It surely doesn’t feel like we are God’s chosen people. This is not fun. I want to go back home. I want to go back to what’s familiar. I want to go back to what I know.

In Jeremiah 29:12-14 God tells them what He wants them to be doing:  “In those days (the days they are in captivity not knowing what else to do) when you pray, I will listen.  If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me. I will be found by you,” says the Lord. “I will end your captivity and restore your fortunes. I will gather you out of the nations where I sent you and will bring you home again to your own land.”

Then in Jeremiah 30:10-11 God tells His people: “Israel will return to a life of peace and quiet, and no one will terrorize them. For I am with you and will save you,” says the Lord.

There’s a lot going on here in the history of Israel, but the important thing is God has a plan for His people. Christians are included in this plan because when we accepted Christ as Savior we were grafted into the kingdom. (See Romans 11:17-24). 

There have been so many times in my life when I have thought I was headed towards disaster. One of the biggest times was when I gained up to 430 pounds. At that point in my life, it wasn’t that I was headed for disaster, I was a disaster. 

I totally own the fact that I enabled myself to gain such an enormous amount of weight that I was beyond the highest category on the Body Mass Index (BMI) scale. Overweight is those whose BMI is 25-29.9, obese 30-39.9, morbidly obese, over 40, super morbidly obese over 50. My BMI was 71.5! 

It so felt like I had woken up in a very bad, no good, horribly disastrous nightmare of my own making. To top it off, I had no future and I had no hope. I was in captivity to my own appetite. It felt like I was in a prison, but I knew it was a prison I had created. 

It’s a stronghold, like is mentioned in 2 Corinthians 10:3-5. Strongholds are mental mindsets, lies that we buy into. The word stronghold can actually be translated as a prison, a strong place where someone is held captive and they cannot get out.What happens though when you have exiled yourself into captivity? How does this whole thing work then? Where is the good in this? Well, first of all, strongholds are not what God wants for us. He came to give us freedom, freedom to follow Him.

God gave the children of Israel the way through their captivity in Jeremiah 29:11-14. Did you catch it? I see three steps to getting out captivity and three things God will do when we complete those three steps. 

The three steps to getting out of captivity are:

1. Pray
2. Seek God wholeheartedly
3. Find God

Then He promise to do these three things.

1. End your imprisonment
2. Restore you
3. Bring you home

Jeremiah 29:11 is what God wants for us: good and not disaster, a future and a hope. That’s His plan. However, if we don’t do our part, it’s going to be really hard for God to do His part. 

First step is prayer. This is not just a short prayer in the morning and a quick thanks for the food God. This is continual prayer, prayer without ceasing where we talk to God like He is our BFF. We tell Him everything and we listen when He talks to us. We seek Him wholeheartedly. This looks different for everyone. For some it’s on your face in His presence. For others its joyous praise dancing. For others its fervent prayer for extended times. For others its intercessory prayer on your own in your prayer place and for still others it’s staying in constant touch with God throughout their day. However, we pray it must be with sincerity and commitment.

We pray and seek God wholeheartedly in order to find God. What does God mean here when he says,” If you look for me wholeheartedly you will find me. I will be found by you?”

The Message says it so we can understand it a little better. “When you call on me, when you come and pray to me, I’ll listen. When you come looking for me, you’ll find me. Yes, when you get serious about finding Me and want it more than anything else, I’ll make sure you won’t be disappointed.” 

If we want to get out of captivity, especially if we are in a prison of our own making, we need to be diligently looking for God. He’s the One who can help us. Many times, though, God may be the last one we want to find us. If we have put ourselves in a prison of our own making that means we think we have to set ourselves free. But stop and think for a minute. If you put yourselves in prison, it’s going to be difficult for you to get free without help. God is the first one we should be looking for. Instead we try to figure it out on our own.

The prison I put myself in was eating foods made with sugar in order to placate my negative emotions. I had allowed the thought that I couldn’t survive without these kinds of foods to become a stronghold in my life. It was a lie felt exactly like a solid truth. The only One who could show me the way out was the very One I was avoiding.

I didn’t want to find God because I knew He had already told me my freedom would be found in giving up those foods. I wasn’t praying about this. I wasn’t seeking God wholeheartedly. I knew if I sought Him, I find Him. And when I found Him, He’d tell me the same thing.

The Message says, “I’ll turn things around for you. I’ll bring you back from all the countries into which I drove you. I’ll bring you home to the place from which I sent you off into exile. You can count on it.”

Where is home? It’s the place you were at before you went into captivity. Before you stepped into the prison of your own making. For me it was in the security of following God with all my heart. I longed to return there, but I felt I couldn’t because I had strayed so far away.

What God was asking me to do was to follow Him wholeheartedly. But I was doing it in a halfhearted flippant kind of way where I’m following Him one day and off somewhere else the next. That won’t work. He wants all of me. The part of me that was eating myself into oblivion because I thought that was making me feel better had to stop, turn around and get back on board with what God wanted for me. 

When I finally put all my eggs in God’s basket, He will bring me home. Until I’m off on my own doing my own thing following after my own desires, He can’t bring me home. When I finally saw what I’d done to myself and how far I’d strayed from what He wanted for me, I prayed. I sought Him with tears of repentance and I found Him. Why? Because He wanted to be found by me.

It can feel like God’s hiding from us when we aren’t following Him, but the opposite is true. We’ve walked away from Him. He’s there waiting for us to surrender whatever we’ve put between us and Him. For me it was foods made with processed sugar and flour. 

For others it can be fried foods, fast foods, processed foods, chips and snack foods. For others it’s binging or overeating. For some it might be anger, shame, rejection, people pleasing, over achieving, over working, overspending, gambling, alcohol, cigarettes, drugs, pornography or any number of things.Whatever it is, it is keeping you from your future and has dashed your hopes. You feel like you are living in disaster and you long to taste of the good plans God has for you. God hasn’t torn up His plans for you. God is the author and finisher of your story. He’s got a plot twist just waiting for you. 

He had one waiting for me and I’m so glad He did. My life changed dramatically when I got on board with His good plans for me. I lost the equivalent of two people or 250 pounds, but that’s not the biggest change. I got rid of tons of emotional baggage and came running home to God. I found Him again. You can too.

Overcomers Academy link: https://www.teresashieldsparker.com/overcomers-christian-weight-loss-academy/

Episode 041--Dealing With the Root of Anger (Dan & Susan Young)

If you or someone you love have issues you haven’t seemed to be able to get a handle on, even with traditional counseling, this podcast will help.  If you have unresolved anger issues, this is a must listen. Dealing with the root of any issue will get us there faster than anything else. God loves to reveal the source of our anger and help us deal with it. The root has likely blocked the truth of who God is and how much He loves us and is available to guide us.

Dan Young was a client who did a remarkable job of following my lead as a coach. When Susan, Dan’s wife, first told me that he wanted to do a freedom coaching session, I wasn’t sure. I had never coached a man before and had been taught that women coaching men wasn’t a good idea. However I had coached Susan and she would sit in on the coaching sessions with him, so I agreed. I knew Dan had some issues with anger he was trying to work through and I wanted to help him. So I told Susan we’d see how it worked out.

I was amazed by several things about Dan. 1. His eagerness to get rid of his issues. 2. His ability to not try to figure out everything God was showing him, but just to speak out what he heard God say or what he saw or felt. From that point we could go forward asking God to help us understand more of what the words or images Dan saw or heard meant.

Dan and Susan Young have been married for15 years. They are retired and live in Jacksonville, Fl. Family Life Weekends to Remember are a passion for both of them. They have been volunteer prayer warriors for that organization’s local events for 14 years.

At this time I have limited Freedom Coaching spots but I also use the process we discuss on this podcast to coach members of my Overcomers Christian Weight Loss Academy during our live monthly calls. The process is also outlined in my book Sweet Freedom and Sweet Freedom Study Guides. I have a couple of courses on this available in Overcomers Christian Weight Loss Academy. 

For Family Life to Remember events, go here: https://www.familylife.com/weekend-to-remember/

For Freedom Coaching, go here: https://www.teresashieldsparker.com/vip-freedom-coaching/

For Overcomers Christian Weight Loss Academy, go here: https://www.teresashieldsparker.com/overcomers-christian-weight-loss-academy/