It's not what I am. It's WHO IS, I AM? Not for a second do I want anyone to misunderstand that God WANTS people to remain fat because truthfully, MY habits have gotten me here. Be that as it may, many years ago, I somehow stopped caring what others thought of me and welcomed accountability.
I have focused on learning what God says about me: I am loved (John 3:16), I am never alone even when I am overwhelmed with my most common worries (Hebrews 13:5), I am royalty (1 Peter 2:9), I am His child (1 John 3), among many others. I have tried in my own strength to lose weight without lasting success--I'm still fat. Please don't think I am in need of pity or encouraging words about "self-love" (it can be a beautiful message). But, here's my point. What I can't change in my own strength, is what I have been able to use. Y'all, God wastes nothing (John 6:12). Use it all! So here I am to say, every time I approach a stranger and they MAY think, "oh, it's just a fat girl, she means no harm." You're absolutely right ma'am or sir, this fat girl means you no harm, but the exterior I have just allowed me your attention and probably your instant pity so I can then captivate you with the goodness of God. See how that works? “…wise as serpents and innocent as doves (Matthew 10:16).”
Many hateful people will say, "lose weight to be healthy." There are many truths to balanced weight and health. However, often times, those people actually hate you, fat person. They hate what they see because they do not yet have eyes that allow them to see pass your exterior. That's a job for the Holy Spirit. But your presence planted a seed for that person. A seed of realization that they are repulsed by you because here you are, "fat girl" interrupting my entire hateful interior with a truth: "yes, I am fat, but you're in transition as well...just on the inside, hateful person." Suddenly, I love you more as opposed to a witty "black girl magic/sassy, comeback." Instead, all I experience is a moment with this broken person who has no idea that the Holy Spirit allows me to see their brokenMESS.
So, my brothers and sisters in transition, I pray you meet others like myself. Whether they may be fat, unattractive in your eyes, living with a disability (physical or mental), people we may think of as jerks, those thought of as too young to have a valid opinion, too old to be innovative, or too poor to “sit with us,” remember this, Jesus surrounded Himself with those deemed undesirable at the time: tax collectors (Mark 2:15), a prostitute (John 8:1-11), an adulterer (John 4:1-42), a blind man (John 9:11), and a leper (Matthew 8:2-4) to name a few. He also allowed similar people to sit with Him and partake in the breaking of His body and drinking of His blood at The Last Supper (Luke 22). Jesus did not surround Himself with the religious sect who were well educated on a form of a messiah they were anticipating, but instead surrounded Himself with the normal person, the disregarded, those most hungry for the truth (John 14:6).
Please excuse my hopeful language. It is not to undermine the experiences of anyone who has had an unpleasant time so far in this life. I am so very sorry. What I am trying to get at here is this, we are all people who are so much more than titles or unfortunate circumstances. We are _____for God's glory.
So, I challenge you with these questions:
1.) Who are you for God's glory?
2.) How can you use it?
Encouragement to get you by
8/26/19
Hello Friends! I encourage you this week to walk in this God given truth, ESPECIALLY if you're struggling to hold on. God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of POWER, LOVE, and A SOUND MIND (2 Timothy 1:7). So dear one, God's truth says fear is a spirit. In Acts 16: 16-18 Paul was so annoyed with a spirit of divination that had possessed a woman that he rebuked it. Y'all, may we all walk boldly in the POWER that God has given to us as His children. Tell that spirit to get going because you are not the one, nor is this, or any other day, THE day, for this child of God!
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