It’s easy to eat anything I want. It’s easy to cave in to the desires of my flesh and the cravings of my appetite. It’s hard to say no as I drive past Panera. It’s hard to say no to a cinnamon-crunch scone or cinnamon-crunch bagel. It’s hard to say no to a soufflé and have egg whites for breakfast. It’s hard to say no to the chocolate in the pantry and have turkey instead. It’s truly hard.

It’s hard work to maintain your health. It was hard work to transform and obtain health, but it’s also hard work to keep it. It’s a lifelong journey. It’s a process. It’s forever. It’s forever learning not to give in to every weakness and every desire of the tongue. It’s taking your thoughts captive and making them obedient to Christ every day. It is saying, “I don’t want to be controlled by impulse. I want to be controlled by the Holy Spirit.”

I can’t remember the last time the Holy Spirit told me to eat a donut. I do know the few times the Holy Spirit has led me not to eat on my plan. It was mostly because I was being blessed by someone’s gift of food or because I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that it would be rude and disrespectful to turn down what I was being offered. Everything we do outside of faith is not pleasing to God. I want to include Him on the journey. 

When I am gluttonous, crazy, and consuming everything in sight—which is what happens once I hit the sugar trigger—I go back into my old patterns. I fall back into that old gluttony. I know when this happens, it’s a train wreck. I’m running, gunning, and making excuses, eating the next pleasurable thing and the next thing and the next. It’s insanity. Inside, it’s not what I want to do.

I’d like to encourage you today by reminding you that everyone struggles. You are going to fail sometimes. It’s okay. Dust yourself off, get back up, and keep pressing forward.