8.19.23
Hey, Calvary Fremont –
I recently stepped on the scale and it read: 194.9. I haven’t weighed under 200 pounds in decades! I usually hang out in the 220-230 weight range. (I was much happier then!) My wife and I are doing this Keto Intermittent Fasting Neo-Fascist diet. Actually, I am very happy about the results. I don’t have to squeeze into my pants and worry about ripping the seat out, or my belt snapping and having my button pop off while I’m preaching and embedding itself in the forehead of a first-time visitor. I no longer am anxious about the buttons on my shirt straining and gapping so widely that what little chest hair I do have pokes out in such a way that makes the most faithful of church-goers wonder if they should change religions.
Resisting the urge to eat enormous amounts of forbidden food has taught me something about temptation and resisting sin. I’ve discovered that my hunger comes in waves. My hunger is not like the tide that inexorably, relentlessly, unalterably rises and cannot be stopped. My cravings come in waves. They pound against the shore of my desire, they beat against the seawall of my will, threatening to pull me under, and then they subside and leave me alone. I’ve come to realize that my cravings are like the intermittent waves and not the unstoppable tide. If I just wait… the craving subsides. When this strong desire for ice cream or chocolate chip cookie dough rises within me, I tell myself that I can’t spend the next few hours before I go to bed fighting this craving. And I don’t have to – for the craving lasts only for a few minutes – it is not ceaselessly rising like the tide.
I grew up in Southern California and my parents took us to Huntington Beach or Newport Beach quite often. We always saw postings about the dangers of riptides that would carry you away from the safety of the shore. The strategy for escaping a riptide isn’t to try and overcome it with your strength and swim against it. Don’t swim against it – swim out of it. Don’t try and power your way forward, swim a few feet or a few yards to the left or right and you’ll find yourself out of its current.
Like food cravings, temptation comes in waves – it’s not like the tide. You can wait it out; you can outlast it. As you say NO to it, it diminishes in strength. Temptation can also be like a riptide – you can move out of it. James 4:7 says, “Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” As you move toward God you escape the devil’s riptide. In my pastoral experience, temptation does become an unstoppable tide and an unescapable riptide when sin is so repetitive that it has warped a person’s character and the sin has become habitual and addictive. But the overwhelming majority of believers experience temptation as intermittent waves and occasional riptides and not the unrelenting tide that rises and none can stop it.
So, here’s the advice of a 195 pound pastor. With the strength of Christ you can outlast the crash of the waves of temptation as they seek to pull you into sin. With the power of the Holy Spirit you can move away from the devil’s schemes as you move toward God. You can endure; you can overcome; you can triumph! Pursue after holiness of life.
Be blessed and stay healthy and follow Jesus – Pastor Tim
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