Women
A Weighty Matter
Shared by Patricia Backora,
Author of the book: Tough Love in Christ's Millennium
Which you can order online from: http://www.publishamerica.com
Nehemiah 8:10; Matt. 5:28; Luke 16:15; 22:28-30; Romans 14:3-4; II Cor. 4:7; Galatians 4:8-9; I Timothy 4:3-5
When will God's people learn that to keep their priorities in line with what He specifically put His Church into this world to do, and stop wasting His time trying to get Him to hallow the twisted cultural values of this world? God's House is meant to be a refuge from the oppressions of the world, not a promoter of them.
When will God's people realize that He did not create every woman to look the same? There are differences in height, bone structure, skin tone, and musculature, even within the same racial groupings. And_are you surprised_ He did not design all women to be tall and willowy! Those who break this cultural beauty edict are not suffering from some demonic affliction which needs to be cast out by prayer and fasting!
Satan has taken a perfectly sound concept_healthy eating habits_and overblown it to employ as a weapon against the female sex in particular. He has convinced worldly women that the heavier they are, the less they’re worth. Hollywood actresses are setting the trend, defying even death to make themselves ever thinner; just so their popularity will not die. Good health is far less important to these vain women than being able to count their ribs. Although it is natural that women’s forms mature out of early childhood, society pressures them to defy nature itself and strive to reverse their own maturation. Satan wants women to look like starving boys!
Satan’s original lie: Eat from the forbidden tree, and you’ll gain in prestige. His current lie: DON’T eat, and others will respect you more. His aim is to distort the image of womanhood in revenge for the verdict and judgment of the Garden of Eden, which cost HIM status. He hates to see women robust and feminine-looking, as God intended for them to be. He knows people can’t focus on more than one issue at a time, so he drives the worldly woman to worry so much about her “fat” that she never spares a thought for her eternal fate. The devil keeps her fixated on her body image and other people’s opinions of it. Above all, he is delighted with the current attitudes of vainglory and self-obsession which motivate the trend-setters of this wicked end-time culture. It is bad enough that the beautiful, the popular and the wealthy have grabbed all the best things of the earth for themselves and shoved aside the humbler souls, saying: this is OUR world, get out of our way. But it is not to be so in God's church. People might have been renowned for their outward comeliness in the Old Testament, but in this dispensation God takes pleasure in working through humble vessels full of the Glory of the Lord, that the excellency may be of Him and not of the flesh.
A strange new doctrine is taking shape in God's Church, one never ordained through the mouths of prophets or apostles: Girls, get skinny for Jesus! Its principal tenet: In order for a female saint to qualify as an overcomer, she must first subdue her flesh; that is, eliminate as much of it as possible. These misguided women interpret God's Word to mean that the more meat they banish from their bones, the more acceptable they are to Him . Thus, a woman’s body is seen to be her greatest spiritual foe, something to vanquish via dieting. No corresponding sacrifice is demanded of the male believer. God didn’t write one set of rules for women, and another for men. Where in God's Word does it stipulate that men are saved by grace alone, but His daughters grow closer to Him by starving themselves to resemble pre-teen girls; or worse, the current trend, which is to look like a stick topped by an overlarge head?
One large TV evangelist I won't name has attacked women who gain weight after marriage. But who is HE to talk? He was unfaithful to his first wife, then remarried another woman. I think that's a much greater sin in the sight of the Lord than a Hershey Bar or two!
Jesus set a precedent when He drove out the money-changers and merchants from the Temple. These carnal men were using His House to carry on with the commerce of this world. Likewise, the diet industry is plying women of the Western World with pressure to think they need their products, telling even normal-weight women that they need to slim down till they’re gaunt. When a woman finishes a plate of food, it is seen as greed. If she were ladylike, people think, she would only just nibble at her plate. Eating is now perceived as an act of guilt and shame, even by God's own people who have been hoodwinked into adopting and sanctifying the devil’s values. While corrective measures may be necessary when people’s health is at risk, he quest for an elusive body shape can become an idolatrous obsession!
The last thing a wounded woman needs is to have the hang-ups of this world thrust upon her again once she enters the church door. If all the women talk about their is "being beautiful enough to represent Jesus" that's finding fault with God's creation. We should look well groomed and eat healthily, but we are to be Christ-obsessed, not self-obsessed. Dieting for Jesus is NOT to be made a requirement of women’s discipleship! Weight loss is NOT to be used as a yardstick to measure gains in spiritual growth! And thinness is NOT to be made the measure of spirituality!
God's Church is meant to be a place where souls damaged by the lies of the devil are mended. Many new converts come to Him with a lot of baggage heaped on them by society. They see themselves as ugly rejects who failed to make a nice niche for themselves in this perverted world. Often, a person will not come to Christ at all until he is thoroughly fed up with the status quo.
Millions of God's children all over the world are have to depend on Him to keep daily food on their tables. Christ's main concern is to meet the needs of people who call upon Him in faith, that the Father might receive Glory. He is busy about the work of saving lost souls and seeking out His lost sheep. While millions perish for want of spiritual and natural food, image-obsessed women worry that they will eat the same luscious, abundant food their husbands so readily indulge in. And no, God doesn't excuse carnal husbands for staring lustfully at skinny girls on the street just because their wives are having a hard time shedding a few pounds after pregnancy. He counts that lustful look as adultery, regardless of the excuses men make for it. Sadly, even some of God's daughters diet not for health and optimum vitality, but to make men lust after them.
How vain, for a woman to boast of the many days of fasting she's endured to gain a gaunt figure which supposedly is “a good testimony for Jesus”, and to brag about the heavenly reward she expects to get for such self-denial. This is a pointed dig at her sisters who eat normally and are not so thin. In God's eyes, it is a far greater sin to indulge in self-exaltation than to polish off a whole box of chocolates in one sitting!
Next time your big sister comes over for a hug don’t say anything to make her feel small.
[email protected] http://www.kingdomageministry.com
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