Lay's potato chips are sinful

Lately I haven’t been doing so good on treating my body like a temple. Since my vacation, back in the first of September, I have munched on every salty snack, delved into all things chocolate and enjoyed the view of my gym clothes as the lay folded neatly in my closet. The problem now, is I feel horrible. I am exhausted all the time, my moods are up and down, I don’t sleep well and I have a nagging case of heartburn that I’ve never had before.  I know the reason….I have chosen to eat junk, therefore I feel like junk. Even as I pull open a bag of Lay’s potato chips, I know I am going to pay for it later, but I just can’t help myself.

But I find some comfort in the fact that I am not the only one guilty of this vicious cycle….my hubby is joining in the war against healthiness. Seriously, we know we gotta get back on track……on Monday, I’ll start, I promise!

Well, in Nehemiah 13, we find that the Israelites are stuck in a similar rut. They have been told what is right and wrong, what rules they should follow and how God would want them to live….they just can’t give up the old patterns they’ve grown accustomed to.

Vs 15- 18 says, “In those days, I saw men of Judah treading out their winepresses on the Sabbath. They were also bringing in grain, loading it on donkeys and bringing their wine, grapes, figs and all sorts of produce to Jerusalem to sell on the Sabbath. So I rebuked them for selling their produce on that day. Some men from Tyre, who lived in Jerusalem, were bringing in fish and all kinds of merchandise. They were selling it on the Sabbath to the people of Judah – and in Jerusalem at that. So I confronted the nobles of Judah. “Why are you profaning the Sabbath in this evil way?” I asked. “Wasn’t it just this sort of thing that your ancestors did that caused our God to bring all this trouble upon us and our city? Now you are bringing even more wrath upon Israel by permitting the Sabbath to be desecrated in this way!”

See, the Israelites were in the same boat as I…..continuing in destructive patterns knowing full well that the consequences were not going to be good, but they just couldn’t get past it…they just couldn’t change.

So what does Nehemiah do? He removes the evil.  Verse 29 says, “Then I commanded that the gates of Jerusalem should be shut as darkness fell every Friday evening, not to be opened until the Sabbath ended. I sent some of my own servants to guard the gates so that no merchandise could be brought in on the Sabbath day.”

Nehemiah did two profound things –

1)  He closed the doors. He shut the gates to eliminate the merchants from getting in. For ourselves, what do we need to shut the doors on? If there is a temptation, an evil, a sin we can’t seem to overcome, maybe we‘re going about it the wrong way. Maybe it isn’t about beating it, maybe it is about eliminating it – throwing it out of the city, our lives and shutting the gates on it.

2)  He put someone on guard. He decided that a locked gate wasn’t enough. If there was even the slightest chance those merchants would get in, Nehemiah was going to stop them. So, he had servants guard the gates. If we make changes to purge sin out of our lives, to eliminate temptation, wouldn’t we be wise to guard our gates? We should do whatever it takes to keep ourselves out of harm’s way and protect the city, our hearts.

But those pesky merchants weren’t giving up so easily. They decided to camp outside the gates. Just waiting…

Vs. 20 says, The merchants and tradesman with a variety of wares camped outside of Jerusalem once or twice. But I spoke sharply to them and said, “What are you doing out here, camping around the wall? If you do this again, I will arrest you!” And that was the last time they came on the Sabbath.

Once again, Nehemiah wasn’t taking any chances. When they pitched tents, he issued threats. When temptation camps out just on the other side of the gate, it is easy to open the door and toe the line. But if we remove it from our hearts, from our lives and even from our surroundings, it is less likely to make its way back in.

For me, this philosophy needs to apply to my health. Choosing to not eat a bag of potato chips is closing the gate. My mind is made up. I am not going to eat them. Deciding to get rid of the chips all together by way of the trash, not the stomach, is guarding the gate. Making a choice to not venture down that aisle in the store is chasing off the temptation camped outside the gate.  Do you see my point?

What areas of life do you need to shut off, guard and shoo away? Make the decision to not just close the door, but clear the area!