January 2, 2020
Wanting the Most High Most in the New Year
Wendy Speake
Today’s Truth
That they may know that You alone, whose name is the LORD, Are the Most High over all the earth (Psalm 83:18).
Friend to Friend
“MY NAME IS WENDY AND I’M A SUGAR ADDICT.”
Those nine little words changed the trajectory of my life when I posted them online in 2014. Innocently, I invited people on my Facebook page to join me for a 40-Day Sugar Fast. I wasn’t simply having a problem with sugar, I told my friends, I was experiencing physical and emotional problems too. My sugar tooth was dictating my thoughts and my days. On top of that, constant neck pain and stomach aches plagued me. I was gaining weight, my muscles and joints were always hurting, my sleep was fitful, and my emotions were a wreck. I was grumpy and impatient with my kids and my husband. Sadly, sugar wasn’t making me sweet. I didn’t need any more conviction, what I needed was transformation. I needed more than another diet; I needed something deep within me to change.
The response to my online invitation was overwhelming. “Me too,” they cried. “Yes!” they affirmed. “My name is Melissa . . . My name is Alexis . . . My name is John . . . My name is Jenn . . . and I’m a sugar addict.” There’s something about sugar that has a grip on us, and we know it. We run to sugar for our comfort and our reward. We turn to it in boredom. We depend on it when life is stressful. We crave it when we’re depressed and use it as confectionary therapy. And even when life is at its best, we celebrate with cake.
We’ve been running to sweet snacks to get us through our days for far too long. It’s become a habit. No, worse than that, it’s become an addiction. And addiction works much like a prison. We’re unable to break out of the bars and the bondage that hold us back from health and wholeness. But the worst side effect has nothing to do with “health and wholeness” and everything to do with holiness! We’ve been running from sugar-high to sugar-high when we should have been running to the Most High.
Now here we are, at the start of another year, right after a holiday season full of sugar cookies and peppermint lattes, and I’m feeling the pull all over again. I want to want Him most… for He is the most important part of my life, but often I don’t value Him above all else. Truth be told, I run to so many other things all year long.
How about you? At the start of this new year have you put Him first and foremost? Each time you’re tempted to run to your phone because you’re bored or run to food because you’re stressed or run to the store because you’re feeling those old empty aches and pains deep down inside, purpose to run to Him first. When you reach for something to eat, stop yourself and open The Bible. Ingest more of Him in 2020 than you did last year or the year before. He is the only thing that can satisfy our hungry hearts. Let’s want Him Most this year!
Consider joining me for the next 40 Day Sugar Fast! For 40 days, say no to sugar in order to grow hungrier for our sweet Savior! Let’s hunger and thirst for the Most High… most this year.
Let’s Pray
Dear Lord, I know I need more of You and less of the stuff and fluff that leaves me hungry and unsatisfied. I want to want You most of all. Take all the refined sugars that I run to and teach me to run to Your gentle refining instead. Sugar and social media and friends… I’ve loved them most of all for most of my life, but I want to want you most from this point on!
In the Most High Name of Jesus the firstborn, the Highest and most exalted One,
Amen.
Now It’s Your Turn
Are you a binge eater? A secret eater? An emotional eater? Just during the holidays or all year round? Or maybe it’s crunchy, salty snacks that you fix your thoughts on instead of fixing your mind on Christ. Tell the Lord all the reasons why you can’t go forty days without your favorite food and let Him show you that with Him it’s possible — when you put Him first and foremost.
We suffer spiritually each time we reach for a sugar high rather than the Most High and hungering for sweet treats gets in the way of our hunger and thirst for Him. The goal of this fast isn’t that you will begin to choose healthy food options; it’s that you will come to see Christ as the only option. The more you ingest of Him, the less hungry you will be for the things you once craved. We’re fasting from sugar so that we might learn to hunger MOST for Him!
More from the Girlfriends
Wendy Speake hosts an annual 40 Day Sugar Fast for women who long to turn to the Lord instead of sugar to get them through their days. For forty days you’ll fast from sugar and feast on the satisfying sweetness of Christ. Grab a copy of The 40 Day Sugar Fast book today, and join the online community at 40daysugarfast.com. Our next community fast begins January 6, 2020.
