Cheating on Our Diet

“The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised.” In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing. ~ Job 1:21b-22 ~

It’s amazing to see how Job held up under the pressure of what was going on his life. God really knew his heart when He told Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, there is none like him in all the earth. He’s a perfect and upright man, one that fears Me (God) and shuns evil. He holds fast to his integrity.” And that is exactly what Job did. He may have struggled inside of himself but he held fast to the integrity, truth, honesty, reliability that got him where he was spiritually.

In the song “Blessed Be Your Name” written by “Tree63” they cover this well. They sing about blessing the Lord in all situations, good and bad. We’re not as unique as we think we are. We need to be like Job in our attitude. It doesn’t matter if we are living in the streams of abundance, desert places, wilderness or even where the darkness closes in on us we are to bless the Lord.


In other words if we are the kind of person we should be in Christ we are without excuse. If we are upright, one who fears God, shuns evil, and hold fast to integrity we will do as Job did. Too often we like to “mark” special occasions to use as an excuse to do what we want. Celebrating someone’s birthday gives us the excuse to go off our diet and eat cake. Breaking up with our spouse gives us the excuse to go out and get drunk. Losing our jobs is our excuse to go and take out our revenge on others.


When I was first diagnosed with cancer my husband and I were both on a diet. The news of the cancer was devastating and being the emotional eater I am it was the perfect excuse to go off my diet and eat something, anything but Don wouldn’t let me cheat on my diet.


We should be that lucky to have someone around that won’t let us cheat on our spiritual diet either. We are without excuse when the different situations happen to us. It doesn’t matter if God gives or He takes away it should be our hearts choice to say, “Lord blessed be Your name. Praise the name of Jesus.”


Blessing and praising God isn’t rejoicing that I have cancer. It’s telling the Lord I know you’re there and I still love you no matter what life swings my way and I know you still love me. Satan hates it when we do that. He’d rather we turned on God and started to blame Him for everything that was going on.


The one heart choice tears us down, the other gives us strength. I know, I’ve been there especially when I had epilepsy. My heart wasn’t choosing to praise the Lord then when I lost my job, my dreams, my choice of having kids, and everything else. I dealt with a tremendous anger that got me no where but further down. When I reversed that process and started to praise the Lord for who He was no matter what my situations on earth were I began to gain strength spiritually and stress seizures started to vanish.

It would do us well to learn how to properly praise the Lord. We are to be praising the Lord for all the things He is. It’s not praising Him for our new car, our million dollar bank account, our success. We can thank Him for those things but true praise needs to be centered on the characteristics of God. Praising Him for the earth He created, the oxygen we breath, the pull of gravity, His artistic abilities, patience’s, love, understanding, for being our Saviour, refuge, strength, and so much more.

Those things don’t require good times to do. They require a heart like Job’s. One that is upright, perfect, fears God, shuns evil and hangs on to integrity. Although there is pain in the offering, and frequently there is, still is no excuse to cheat on our spiritual diet and not praise the Lord daily as we should.

As with any diet when we cheat, we only cheat ourselves. Stay on track. Stay on your spiritual diet and praise the Lord frequently.

© 2011 Karen J Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing