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WEIGH DOWN: GETTING BACK ON TRACK
Recently, we saw the movie Hook starring Robin Williams and Dustin Hoffman. It is a movie about Peter Pan as an adult who has forgotten all about Never-Never Land, Captain Hook, and Tinker Bell. In this version of the story, Peter has even forgotten who he once was, and he has forgotten how to fly. As the children try to help jog his memory, Tinker Bell teaches him to fly again. She tells him to concentrate on happy thoughts. The next thing you know, this grown man is flying as he remembers how to focus on the positive. He can fly because he is concentrating on happy thoughts.
Think on God's way and His long-term rewards and practice, practice, practice. That is the key to flying. A mother eagle teaches her young to fly by pushing them out of the nest. They instinctively hold out their wings. You, too, will have one wing out this week and the next wing out next week.
Many times, the mother eagle will have to swoop down and grab her babies to keep them from falling too far. She puts them back and does it again. They eventually build up coordination to apply enough lift and thrust to overcome the load and the drag. We can help push you out of the nest by encouraging you to focus. It does not hurt. You will be in no pain.
You may need to regroup and restart when you find you are unfocused. One method you may wish to try is fasting. Try not eating for as long as God leads you to. Why empty your body of food? The reason is that emptying out may often help take your body's energy off of the digesting of food and it gives you a focused mind. This extra boost of energy helps you funnel your attention back to your goals: to stop grabbing for food and to wait on God to supply your needs.
Current diet counsel suggests that fasting will damage lean body mass and deprivation will cause you to binge uncontrollably. This is incorrect. Fasting leads to more control. Fasting is all over the Old and the New Testaments as an offering to God. God would not be asking us to damage the body. Fasting has been used for breaking strongholds. The one stronghold that fasting should not be used against is anorexia nervosa. The anorexic must not fast anymore, but be obedient to hunger or emptiness by eating every time they sense emptiness.
Remember, fasting is not a goal in the Weigh Down Workshop. It is a means to an end and not an end to itself. Fasting could be used in the beginning of Weigh Down Workshop or when you really have gotten off track.
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