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Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Wendy Speake
Read between
September 23 - December 30, 2020
Privately seek His will for your private fast.
Ask God to speak to you about anything in your kitchen that you’re running to in a frenzied or habitual attempt to satisfy your soul’s deep hunger and then give it to Him as an offering.
Dear Lord, nothing has worked to set me free from the compulsive way I turn to sugar when I could be turning to You.
Lara or RX bars
Hummus
Find a few of my favorite recipes at 40daysugarfast.com.
If Jesus truly came to set me free, why am I still running to food? If I really have been bought with a price . . . If Jesus fasted and prayed and literally fed His disciples . . . If Jesus alone can satisfy my deepest longings
Psalm 34:8–10 is a passage I pray over and over when I am fasting. Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him. Fear the LORD, you his holy people, for those who fear him lack nothing. The lions may grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing. (NIV)
His invitation calls us out of all our habits and immature addictions, whether we’re abusing sugar or bingeing on Netflix shows and YouTube videos.
“Even now,” declares the LORD, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.” Joel 2:12 NIV
Psalm 16:11 expectantly: “In your presence there is fullness of joy.”
Perhaps, instead of opening up your Bible, you’ve been opening up your smartphone and scrolling through social media.
just as the fortified city of Jericho was blocking the Israelites from entering the promised land, the stronghold of sugar may be holding you back from the abundant life God has planned for you.
Devouring God’s Word is the secret to our fasting days, the key to stopping us from consuming anything and everything else.
each time you go to God rather than to sugar to fill your longings, the Spirit of God floods into the empty places in your heart and life.
The same God who saved you eternally has the power to save you internally. Believing that truth is where the spiritual fight begins.
You harp on your loved ones, count the minutes until you can go to bed, retreat into social media, and hide in the pantry. When you’re with people, you spend your time complaining rather than rejoicing, spreading darkness rather than shining light.
your inner dialogue is one long monologue of self-loathing.
His love and overcoming goodness radiates off our faces as we abide in Him.
If you have been complaining this past week, be quiet today.
Let the Holy Spirit shine in your home.
shine without complaining. You are the light of the world—so shine.
the National Institute for Mental Health has confirmed that binge eating is the most common eating disorder in America today.1 Even if we don’t consider ourselves clinical cases, I bet we can each put a finger on a trigger or two that sets us off and causes us to eat compulsively or emotionally.
Have you asked Jesus to reveal to you why it is that you overindulge on sugar?
reveal to me why it is I run to food instead of You.
OVER THE YEARS when I have asked people if they struggle with food addiction, I always receive a resounding yes. I get a similar response when I ask if they are addicted to social media or to shopping or to streaming shows and movies.
the quickest way to recognize an idol in your life is to notice your response when it is taken away.
Alcohol throws off your blood sugar, interfering with your body’s natural ability to regulate glucose. Nightly drinks disrupt other regulating hormones like insulin and glucagon.
If the mere thought of giving up your wine causes you to whine, you might have found an idol in your life.
WE GRAZE ON FOOD ALL DAY, misreading boredom for hunger. And while hunger is a physical emptiness, boredom feels empty as well and we tend to get the two confused. Perhaps, we think, if I fill my belly, then I will feel better. Except overeating makes us sleepy and sleepiness makes us idle and idleness makes us more bored and boredom makes us even more hungry. It’s a sad, lethargic cycle, and we can’t break out of it because we don’t have the energy.
The New American Standard Bible translation of Proverbs 19:15 says that an idle person will “suffer hunger.” Suffering. I know that feeling. When I’m idle, I suffer from a false sense of hunger—a painful urgency to fill the empty space within me, which leads me to scour the pantry to pass the time. My favorite translation of Proverbs 19:15 comes from the New International Version: “Laziness brings on deep sleep, and the shiftless go hungry.” Shiftless means lacking direction or bored and aimless. Floating here and there, without purpose, willpower, or energy—like a boat without a rudder. Can
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It’s ironic. We’re tired so we drink caffeine to wake us up, which triggers our bodies to release a chemical to calm us back down.
Unfortunately, our adrenal glands counter each pick-me-up with another calming dose of cortisol. We’re on a chemical teeter-totter and more exhausted than before!
spiritual poverty is possible too—and it looks shiftless, idle, and bored.
Sugar and other false fillers dim our vision, but clarity is available to us when we exercise our spirits and our wills: fasting and praying, spending time in God’s Word, and practicing self-control when it comes to what we eat and drink and the amount of sleep we get.
foods that are good for your brain and that help your mind work well: fish and poultry, eggs, nuts, coconuts, avocadoes, blueberries, tomatoes, broccoli, spinach, kale, and water—plenty of water.
Make yourself a batch of fresh pesto or hummus to dip your veggies in this afternoon. Both are rich in Omega-3 Fatty Acids that help the brain and the body function with clarity and endurance.
You are missing the point entirely if you have found a way to fast without experiencing hunger.
Bill Gaultiere said it here: “In other words, let your hunger pangs become like church bells calling you to prayer.
increase your physical hunger as a means of unleashing your spiritual hunger.
When we fast and pray, the Lord clearly and graciously shows us our soul-sadness and sin-struggles. He speaks to our hearts, tenderly and clearly, about where we’ve been hurt in the past and how it has caused us to behave in the present.
food can be like noise, keeping us from hearing.
Sugar because I’m ashamed— of how far I’ve let it go already.
Sugar because I’m addicted— caught in a drunken cycle of lows and highs.
Sugar because tomorrow— tomorrow— tomorrow I’ll start.
Sugar because I never can see— that every single today is the first day of the rest of a better
Self-medicating your pain with food keeps you from the Great Physician.
“The hand of our God is favorably disposed to all those who seek Him,
“I believe; help my unbelief!”
you transfer your fasting focus from self-seeking to others-serving.
