We're halfway through our reading plan together. Woohoo!  **What stood out to you in this week’s reading? I’d love to hear what you highlighted and what notes you jotted in the margins. What light bulb moments did you have as you read? Share below!** “If you do not feel strong desires for the manifestation of God, it is not because you have drunk deeply and are satisfied. It is because you have nibbled so long at the table of the world. Your soul is stuffed with small things, and there is no room for the great. God did not create you for this. There is an appetite for God. And it can be awakened.” (John Piper, A Hunger for God) The fourth chapter in our book club pretty much the summary of our entire focus for this 40 Day Sugar Fast: it is awakening a desire for God, a hunger and thirst for Him that can only be explained by His Holy Spirit working in our lives. And as we invite Him to throw sugar off the throne of our lives, we discover that, as Wendy pointed out, God says, “Thanks for the sugar, but I want all of you.” We cannot pick and choose what we give God control over. There comes a point in each of our lives where we must make the decision: either we submit everything we are to all He is or we continue living lives of quiet desperation, seeking satisfaction in all the empty promises of half-full peanut butter jars and candy bags. Jesus came to give us “life to the full” (John 10:10), but that only comes once we’ve renounced anything that would compete with Him in our affections. We must examine what threatens our wholehearted devotion to God, and lay it down on the altar, entrusting it to Him. Having given God our sweet tooth, we must now ask, “What else, God? What else threatens to squelch my desire for You? Take it all.” Would you join me, brave souls, in doing that today? As you finish reading this post, take a moment to open your heart to the Spirit’s piercing gaze, and ask Him to search you and reveal any sin that needs confessed, any idol that needs thrown down, any security blanket that needs thrown into the fire that we may throw ourselves wholly and completely on Him. Though this uprooting of sin hurts, it’s a healing operation, like removing a cancerous tumor that threatens our lives. We invite the pain of denying our own comforts and pleasures, our cravings and whims, to experience a deeper hunger and thirst for Him. We quietly whisper, “Take it all, Lord.” DISCUSSION What is it, friends, that’s holding you back from complete surrender? Lay it at His feet, and give it all to Him. And if you feel led, share it with us in the comments below that we may pray for each other and receive His healing and fresh mercy.

  2. praying for God's deliverance.

  3.  — Edited

    I have had issues with food all of my life. I feel safe talking about it in this group. People don't believe I struggle in this area because I am not over weight. Nor am I anorexic or bulimic. I know the shame, awful discomfort and obsession of over eating. Yesterday in this book I read 2Peter 2:19, ...for whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved." I know I am free from this addiction to food because I am in Christ and he is in me. The Holy Spirit will help me to resist temptation when I yield my desires to him. Thanks for teaching truth in this difficult area.

  4. Me again... I see my sin and it hurts so much to admit it...  I'm struggling to trust God to fill me up with what I need . Sooo many times I've been in a long term trial ( years of heartbreaking pain) and it has strengthened me to trust him but I've also lost trust in the journey. I'm again in another long term heartbreaking journey! Just trying to survive.  So much on me to do and casting it off is almost impossible. It's never ending! Pls Father show up !  I trust him but I turn to food to comfort me b/c he takes so long or just won't remove it!  But the trials keep coming and I'm totally losing all my Peace, Joy and Comfort. Crying out to him to be enough and to release me and to fill my life with Enough to handle all this that is happening.  My baby has Autism she is 3.5years old. My oldest has consist anxiety issues. Plus trying to give enough for all 3 kids and my marriage and all the extra stuff/people in our lives.  We felt God telling us to move last October but our house isn't selling. Trying to move closer to family, doctors and a church that will support us.  Father pls give me more to do all that you ask of me. I'm so weak and I want to honor you in every way. 😭