Inspirations By Neva

Isaiah 41:13 “For I the Lord your God keep hold of your right hand; I am the Lord, Who says to you, ‘Do not fear, I will help you.’ “

It was just one year ago that I had colon cancer surgery. I spent 11 days in the hospital where I met so many amazing people who helped and encouraged me. The usual hospital stay is 4-5 days, but for whatever reason, my colon was enjoying its time of rest and relaxation. It did not want to wake up! It has been doing its work for 75 years and now it was enjoying time off! But praise God, it did eventually decide it was time to begin its work again!

Several years ago, before my first colonoscopy, I was told that by following the recommended schedule, I would never have colon cancer! So what happened? I don’t know, and it really doesn’t matter. What I do know is that one year later, I have made many changes in my diet as well as exercise and believe that one day my body will no longer produce polyps.

The picture that I chose for my blog is a picture of Mt. Rainier taken as my son, David, was looking down from the mountain when he had just fulfilled his dream of climbing Mt. Rainier on August 28, 2019. I had received my cancer diagnosis the day before while he was on the mountain. As we were going through the many pictures that were taken during his climb, my favorite was the one I chose for my blog. A different view of Mt. Rainer that I had never seen before! The picture was taken by his guide, as their team descends the mountain, step by step, fulfilling their journey home together. As the sun sets at their backs behind the mountain it casts an engulfing shadow of the impending darkness.

Just a few days after my surgery, David framed this picture and brought it to the hospital and said that he had climbed his mountain, and now it was time for me to climb my mountain.

And still today, I look at this picture and am reminded that we daily determine how we climb our mountains and whether we reach the top! And why do I want to reach the summit of my personal mountain?

Reaching the summit of any mountain God has me climb means that I can now view the many opportunities He has for me so that I can continue to grow in and learn about Him. It is at the summit where I can view all the mountains around me that God has for me to climb! Victory in overcoming! Victory is living the abundant life that He promised in John 10:10, ” I [Jesus]  came that we may have life, and have it more abundantly.”

I remember the day David looked up at Mt. Rainier and said, “I am going to climb that mountain.” My heart leaped with joy. That was once my dream so many years ago.  When we lived in Tacoma, just a couple of blocks from our home, we had a clear and powerful view of Mt. Rainier. And now that we live in Yelm, we regularly enjoy the beauty of God’s creation!

But back to my story! David signed up for a guided tour and began training – one year of training! Regularly following the prescribed exercise, jogging, climbing stairs with a heavy backpack, choosing more carefully the foods that he ate. If he hadn’t followed the prescribed physical preparation, he would not have achieved his dream. He would have watched others leave him behind as they reached the summit. One of the main reasons that someone does not make the summit is the lack of proper training and preparation.

Isaiah 41:10 “‘Do not fear, for I am with you; Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’”

When I look at this picture, I ask myself if I have properly prepared for my climb. Am I making the right decisions that enable me to climb my mountain?  What am I doing today that helps me move another step up my mountain?   What will my experience be as I climb? Am I willing to face my fears along the journey? Or will I let my fears stop my journey as I watch others pass me by? Do I need to make changes so that I will reach the summit?

Mountains come in many different heights, through different valleys, through different terrain. And each mountain teaches me something new about God, about my Lord and Savior, my purpose that He created me to fulfill in Him. It is in walking through the valley to reach the summit that I am more deeply connected with my God and my Savior.

 

What is the mountain that stands in front of you – that you have been asked to climb?

Just like David followed a prescribed plan each day so that he would be prepared for what he would face on the climb, God has a plan for each of us as we begin our day with Him. Am I reading His plan? After reading His plan, what am I doing next? Did I hear what He said, so that I implement His word in my daily routines?  Or do I just continue to approach my day, as I always have,  seeing it only as another day, doing what I need to do in the workforce, at home as I relate to my spouse and children?

I encourage you to begin each day with  God. Set your alarm 15 minutes earlier than normal. And don’t forget Saturday and Sunday to do the same. Open His word and read one Proverb, or one Psalm, or a chapter in the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John).

 

And after you have read, write down what you hear God’s Word says to you. Think about it, ponder the truth and how it applies to what you are about to face – a new day of opportunities! God desires that you look to Him for direction. His desire is not that you stumble or fall. He wants you to experience Him. In Christ, we are fully equipped to meet any circumstance, any difficulty.

Proverbs 4:12 “When you walk, your steps will not be hindered, (impeded), for your path will be clear and open;  And when you run, you will not stumble.”

I asked David to think back to that day when he traveled to the summit.  What was it like? One comment that he made has spoken to me more than once. “Mom, I just kept putting one foot in front of the other, no matter how much pain I felt. I knew that as long as I kept moving, I would reach the top – one step at a time.”

I am including some notes from David, as he looks back on that day of victory. ‘Because of an approaching storm, the guides had to make a choice. Begin their ascent earlier than normal, which meant that they would have to move back down the mountain in the dark! It was doing it now, or turn away not fulfilling our dream. We had been preparing for this moment for months. So we began our journey to the top. The mountain turned those away that waited.”

As David thought back to this moment, he writes about coming down in the dark.

“As the sun sets at our backs behind the mountain, it casts an engulfing shadow of impending darkness. Soon each careful step could be placed by each member’s lamp lighting the narrow route down the mountain. The last 2-3 hours was darkness with headlamps guiding our path. You could see the big city as we headed east; I think it was Yakama? I thought it would be scary in the dark but it was not at all. You are just putting one foot in front of the other –  it was fun. You know death is on either side.  A wrong step could spell disaster. But you are roped to your team. It felt perfectly normal and I had great people selling me the equipment so I had the best stuff. Of course, our guide knew the path. Without them, we could not have done it.”

And this is a copy of an email he sent to his guide following the climb.  “Thank you for the best pictures of our Aug 29th climb. I wanted to share with you what they meant to me and my family. The whole climb was dedicated to my mom. It was always a dream of hers to climb it so I did it for her even signed her name in the book. That’s why it was so important to me. When I finally spoke to her about the climb and told her to open her email to see the picture of her name in the Rainier book it was all yayyy great that’s the good news now the bad. She said she had colon cancer. I had no idea during our climb.
When she was in the hospital I gave her an 8×10 of your attached pic.  She said it was time to climb her mountain! She had the surgery and it was all cut out. She was told from pathology that the cancer did not spread. She kept getting sick and they put in a tube down her nose and pumped out the gunk from the colon.
Many doctors and nurses loved the pic. One doctor had climbed 5 times and knew exactly where the pic was.
With much prayer after a long week, she got home 2 days ago and is doing great.  It seems she too climbed her mountain. Today is her 76th birthday one month to the day of our climb together.”

 

Proverbs 3: 5-6 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.”

 

 

“Walk in the Spirit, and I will not fulfill the desires of my flesh.” (Galatians 5:16)

What does it mean to walk in the Spirit? How do I put feet to my faith?

One evidence of God’s working in our lives is controlling our thoughts, words, and actions. It involves moderation, constraint, and the strength to say “no” to our fleshly desires and lusts. Our flesh is under the influence of sin. One definition of sin is “filling a legitimate need through illegitimate means.”

For example: often, we fill the need to be loved with food, pleasures, the internet, serving in the church. For years, I attempted to satisfy my need to be loved with food, and you can still see the result of that decision today. Even though today, that void is filled with God’s unconditional love, as you can see from the family photo in my earlier post, I still carry the visible evidence of over-indulgence.

However, one benefit from the lockdown we experienced in March was coming face to face with my addiction to sugar and junk food. I was content with my addiction. I was accepted, and not openly judged, God was using me, I was willing to stay right where I was. I had convinced myself that my life was full because I was doing what I enjoyed. But I also had to admit, in those quiet moments before the Lord, that He had something better for me. There was so much more God wanted me to experience if I was only willing to repent,  admit my addiction, and stop eating junk foods. But had I not done this several times in years past?

Every day is fresh and new. With each brand-new day, God offers us new opportunities to please Him. On May 25, I admitted that I needed both motivation and accountability to start exercising again, to stop eating junk food. My journey to victory began.

I cannot remember how many diets I have used and successfully lost weight. On my last attempt, I was within 30 pounds of my goal weight, had not eaten sugar or junk food for two years, daily walked 3-5 miles, and in a moment, it was over. In a moment, with one encounter, I returned to the bondage of my past abuse and slowly began adding pounds. My flesh was delighted with my choice! Sound familiar?

Several years ago, God filled my emptiness with His love; I no longer crave the need to be loved. God also cut the chains of bondage to my past abuse. I was living in freedom, and I rejoiced in that freedom. I was growing, fulfilling my passion for teaching women the Word of God, even to the dream of writing my studies.

It is true, I am disciplined in many areas, and especially in studying God’s Word – time spent alone with Him. But every time I stood in front of a mirror, every time I put something on that just did not fit as comfortably, I was confronted with the evidence of my addiction and feeding my flesh with what it craved. I faced my “weight” every day and told myself it was okay. My weight would not keep me from heaven or from living my dream. My life was full and rich. I was content with my addiction. Except I still walked in front of my fellow believers, carrying with me the evidence of following the dictates of my flesh.

Every other time I faced my food addiction, I had repented, agreeing with God that my food addictions were sin. I asked the Holy Spirit to enable me to resist the temptation of addictive food choices. So what was different this time? Why do I say to you today: My flesh is no longer in charge of what I eat. I will not return to feeding my fears, my cravings, my flesh with food. I no longer hold on to clothes that are too large, quietly thinking if this does not work? No longer, they go into the thrift store box.

Why was I now able to write in my journal on June 2, only nine days from beginning my journey,  “I am free from sugar; I no longer crave sugar.”

Time to see how the correct application of Scripture freed me from my fleshly, destructive habit. Let’s begin with Galatians 5:16, “Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.”  How many times I have taught this passage of Scripture, but obviously, I was not applying it in my food addiction.

 My Missing Link!

Second Peter 1: 5-6, is often called Peter’s ladder of virtues. As I studied this passage, I noticed that knowledge, self-control, and perseverance were linked together. Why? How are they related? God was providing me with building blocks on how to overcome, how to walk in the Spirit, put feet to my faith!

What knowledge had I learned, that if I applied, would change my pattern of failure? I educated myself about my body.  I learned about sugars, preservatives, and how they related to my recent “brush” with cancer.

Each morning I began drinking 16 oz. of celery juice (green yuk!). Because I have a strong dislike of celery unless covered in peanut butter or cream cheese, this was a struggle. At first, I was only able to drink 8 oz. but in time I could gulp 16 oz. I have moved from a strong dislike to tolerable. But it helps to know that the taste is only for a moment!

I also purchased a mini trampoline (with a bar) and began jumping. In the beginning, I could only do what are called health jumps – a total of  5. My body screamed….STOP!!!!  Because of practicing consistency rather than intensity, I now jump 15 minutes each morning. And this I really, really enjoy, rebounding to praise music every morning!

Now that I have the knowledge, I am to add self-control. When you hear the word self-control, what comes to mind? Some possibilities might be willpower, self-determination, gritting your teeth, and just doing it, or self-discipline.

God has given His children, a Helper that the world cannot have; One who strengthens us, dwells in us – forever – the Holy Spirit. (John 14:15-17)

The word self-control can be misleading if we emphasize “self” deceptively thinking we can control our flesh through willpower and self-determination.  Digging into the root of this Greek word helps us to understand God’s truly incredible provision for His children.

This Greek word translated, self-control, speaks to being controlled by an inward strength, an inward force. Where the Spirit does His work, He is to be in control; we are strengthened inwardly by His strength, energy, and lordship. Instead of imposing restraining habits upon our self-life, He invades the very fortress of our self-life. He deals with self’s desires; our natural, fleshly will power. We absolutely cannot control the flesh in our power, not now, not ever! Do not fall into this trap. The only One Who can control the fallen, anti-God energy of the flesh is the Holy Spirit! To be self-controlled (Spirit-controlled) is to live freely in grace, not in bondage to the desires, passions, and appetites of the flesh.

There is a paradox here: to be Spirit-controlled results in being self-controlled. As we walk in the Spirit (Galatians 5:16), He produces in us the ability to control every area of our lives in line with His divine purposes. However, this implies an active responsibility on our part.

We must be enabled, not merely helped. What is the difference? My dictionary tells me that the meaning of help is to give or provide what is necessary to accomplish a task or satisfy a need; to assist; facilitate. The word help implies we have some ability but not enough; we need someone else to supplement our partially adequate skill.

By contrast, enabling means to give power, equip. It implies that we have no ability whatsoever, entirely powerless. But when by faith, we renounce self-sufficiency and embrace reliance on the power of the Holy Spirit, we receive divine empowerment, enablement, and strength to obey our Lord and Savior.

And to all this, I am to add perseverance, endurance. What will keep me going in this direction for the rest of my days, never again addicted to food?

It is in finding the “why” that will cause us to be consistent every day, changes I am making today will become life changes. Previously, my why would be, “Isn’t it obvious, I need to lose weight? I’m fat!” “My doctor tells me I need to lose weight.”  And the list goes on!

But guess what, those reasons will never break my habit of food addiction. The result of making changes in my diet will be weight loss,  more energy, smaller clothes, but from my experience, I will not persevere, hold fast to my new habits.

So back to Scripture. I considered the life of Christ. Repeatedly He said He came to do His Father’s will. Because He loved His Father, He only did what His Father told Him to do. And for what reason:  to glorify His Father.

My ‘light bulb moment’!

God created my body. Only He knows what I need to feed my physical body. As I gain knowledge about different foods, about my internal organs, I practice self-control (Spirit-control) based on what I have learned. It is saying “yes” to the Spirit. “Yes” to Christ’s promise of experiencing abundant life, full, rich life every day through every choice I make! It is not saying “no” to certain foods.  The key is in the order; do not reverse it. “Yes” to the Spirit, “no” to the habit!

I do not follow a “diet.” I do not say, “no, I can’t have that cookie, those

chips.” I can choose to eat whatever I want to eat, but when I make the choices, my flesh is choosing. When I walk in the Spirit by surrendering my food choices, every day, every meal, every moment of every day, I am walking in obedience, submission to the Spirit within.  Surrendering–yielding to the Spirit’s control–results in empowerment. He creates in me the strength to say “no” to my flesh, to the temptation. At that instant, all interest in the temptation, the impulse disappears. The Spirit is in control; my flesh has been subdued. And my Father finds pleasure in my choice and is glorified.

 

Putting feet to our faith, practicing what we say we believe unleashes the Holy Spirit’s power within.  Obedience equals Holy Spirit power! I have received physical, emotional, and spiritual blessings from God as I daily, moment by moment, open my life to the control of the Holy Spirit.  Obedience opens the door to God’s purposes for us. He invites us to seize the opportunity.

Jesus walked His earthly life in full surrender and dependence on the Holy Spirit. And why did He choose to walk in the Spirit’s power? Because He loved  His Father and His obedience gave His Father great pleasure. I am not making the choices I am to become physically healthy or to lose weight. Those are only the results I experience because of my selections.

I choose to surrender to the Spirit’s control because when I do, I please the Father, and I fulfill His purpose for me. And what is my objective, my purpose, or goal? The same as Jesus had as He journeyed on this earth. He had one resolve to glorify the Father. (John 12:28)

Are you clutching or holding tightly any habits that do not glorify your Father? Surrender to the Spirit’s control – you will be empowered to make choices that please your heavenly Father!

It is a little hard to believe that I am sitting in front of my computer, writing a post for my blog! Believe me, without the encouragement of my many new friends from around the world, and the help of my daughter, Ruth, this would not be happening. Likely, many of you are already familiar with my daughter’s blog, Media From the Heart. So now, here’s mom being introduced to this new global world of blogging!

 

 

A little about me: I was born and raised in a small coastal town called Long Beach…no, not California…but Long Beach, Washington. I am the youngest of 5 children, four older brothers, and then I came along. My brothers often gave me a hard time and told me I was our father’s favorite. And it is probably true. But my mom told me that I ruined the basketball team because I do not have an athletic bone in my body! I am sure you will hear more about my childhood as time goes on, but for now, I will push the fast forward button.

I met my hubby, Mel, of 55 years while at college in l963, and we were married two years later. We have been blessed with two children: David and Ruth and three beautiful granddaughters, Kristina, Katie, and Martha. Again….fast forward button!

Not too many years after Mel retired, we left Tacoma, Wa. and moved to the small rural community of Yelm, WA. Along with one dog, six cats, two miniature goats, our daughter Ruth, and her daughter Martha, we call this home.

I never considered myself a writer; I have always left that up to Ruth and Martha. But during this unusual time of COVID 19, as with others, our daily routine took on a new look. Everyone was at home, 24/7.

 

Hanging above my coffee pot is the above sign that Ruth gave me a few Christmases ago. I wonder how many times I have read that sign and really never gave it much thought. Sometimes I may have even laughed to myself, thinking, “At 77, no new dreams – maybe a new goal, but no new dreams”.

Praise God, He had a new mission for me, and He used the COVID-19 lockdown to unfold my new dream, but not my last dream: “Inspirations by Neva.”

So why this blog? I am most energized when I share God’s Word and the truths that He teaches me each day.  As a born again believer, a follower of Jesus Christ, He is my companion, my source of strength to face each new day and each unique circumstance. In John 10:10, Jesus tells us that He has come that we may have life, and that we may have it more abundantly. He desires that our lives overflow with blessings–physical, emotional, and spiritual blessings.

My posts will be personal and sometimes painful to write. But if just one person is encouraged, if through my experiences, one person is willing to turn to the light of Jesus Christ, my dream will be complete.

 

Welcome to my new website. Inspirational posts coming soon.