A Bread & Water Diet

For my devotional time I try to read a little sections of a couple of books.  One at the moment is a history of my church and the other is Joanna's second book "Having a Mary Spirit."  This is a section that I read recently; so recent that it was this mornings.  I just had to share it with you.

Before I was afflicted I went astray

but now I obey your word.

You are good, and what you do is good;

teach me your decrees. 

Ps. 119:67, 68

Though you won't find it on the magazine stand, the most effective Flesh Women Diet I've ever tried is the regimen outline in Isaiah 30:20.  Though it limits your intake to only two kinds of food - bread and water - it is amazingly efficient in trimming lower-nature fat and building spiritual muscles.  Don't worry about shopping for the ingredients.  Life - and even God Himself- tends to drop  them at your door.

First on the Menu :- The Bread of Adversity
Adversity means "misfortune; calamity; an adverse event or circumstance." (The Hebrew word in the OT for adversity denotes anything from a tight place to a pebble in the shoe)  While adversity is not widely requested dish, God seems to use it often in the lives of His choicest people.  Adversity not only reveals what we are made of but makes us more than we were. "Because," as James 1:3-4 says, "you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance... so that you may be mature and complete."

Second Menu item:- The Water of Affliction
Affliction refers to "a distressed or painful state; misery." Hard to swallow, this is not our beverage of choice.  From the Hebrew word meaning "to force or hold fast," affliction refers to those times when life squeezes us uncomfortably even painfully.  But when we embrace affliction as an opportunity to share in the sufferings of Christ, we will also "share in His glory," Romans 8:17 tells us.  The sweetness of Christ will come out of our lives instead of bitterness.  And God will be glorified.

"Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction,: Isaiah 30:20 tells us, "your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them."  Far from punishment, adversity and affliction are designed to bring wisdom - because this food once intended for prisoners (1Kings 22:27) can help set your free from Flesh Woman's rule.

But how you receive those two gifts makes all the difference!  Adversity and affliction can either make you bitter, or they can make you better.

It's up to you.


PS.  If you want to know about Flesh Woman you will have to read the following book to find out.


Weaver, J., (2011). Having a Mary Spirit.  Allowing God to Change Us From the Inside Out. 
                                  WaterBook Press. Colorado Springs. Colorado.  p.194 -94.