What can make the biggest and quickest change in your circumstance?

I was talking to my therapist, yes therapist, and he asked me the question, what has changed? First, I am not afraid or ashamed to tell you that I talk to a therapist. If you have trouble with your back, your heart, or healing from a broken arm you get therapy to help strength the part of the body that needs help. Why is the brain not any different? Why do we judge and look down on those who are brave enough to say, something is not right, and I need help to strengthen it? Anyway, my therapist was wanting to know what had changed for me since that last time I talked with him. I was calmer, more at peace, and something was positively different. I noticed it too as I sat contently aware with having a full night’s rest. It had been so long since I received that. “There are two things that are different,” I replied. My diet and my perspective. “Really? How is that?” he asked. This is my reply and I hope you can find some help in it as well…

As my therapist knows, I suffer with chronic health issues. One particular issue I had struggled with in the weeks before this appointment had been chronic thrush, insomnia, and a head cold. While struggling with these issues, my body had gotten to a place that it was not responding to the medicine I was taking. No matter what I took prescription, high dosage, etc. the symptoms of my chronic thrush would not subside and blisters were starting to form on my tongue. The only way out of this was through, and with going through meant facing more diet challenges. Starting on the day the sores appeared, I take steps to go on a low carb diet. 50 grams or less per a day. Some call it Keto, I call it living like my ancestors did. Within a week my symptoms were gone, my anxiety was at bay, and I was sleeping all through the night! All by just lowering my carb intake. Now take in mind, I already was on a gluten free, low dairy, no acid diet. Adding low carb which gave me energy and helped keep my colitis at bay was SCARY. I was scared of starving to death! It took me three days with no carbs at first, then added in the low carb and today I feel so much better. My mind is more focused, I have energy, I am calmer.

The second thing was a belief I was carrying around that was keeping me stuck! That belief was God was letting me suffer for no reason! Let’s be honest! Even none believers ask the question, “If God loved us, then why does he let us suffer?” Its not the question or the answer that keeps us stuck, but the belief behind the question. If we truly believed that God was good, we would not question his motive for not rescuing us. My whole life I never believed that God was good, and could be nothing but good. I believed God to be selfish and want his way no matter what I went through. I believed that if I was suffering then I deserved it for a reason. I believed that God was using my suffering to teach me a lesson. At surface level all these conclusions make sense. Yet, being in the midst of the storm, this belief makes it impossible to have hope, and I know God wants me to have hope in Him. So, what it is that is wrong? What is this belief that I carry that keeps me from having so much peace? That God was both good and bad? The truth is that God is and can only be good!

 Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.Do not err, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. James 1:13-17

God had led me to study James in the Bible and in my reading for this particular day these verses came to life. I had read them many times before, but today they came alive and penetrated me deep into my soul. God cannot be tempted of evil neither can he tempt any man. What? A truth hidden in plain sight! God cannot be full of goodness and evil. He has to be one or the other. The next part of this verse tells us where temptation, or trials as defined in the Hebrew language, comes into play. They are not placed in our path by our loving God, they are instilled within our desires and the sinful nature we are born with. A common thing that all humans have and struggle with. This small revelation, made a huge impact on my life at that moment and helped me with the belief that God is good. It changed my perspective! In changing my perspective, it changed this belief that I had been carrying around my whole life.

Within a week, I had two things that made a quick change in my health and in my peace. A balanced diet, and a change in perspective. Now, I am not saying these things are a must for everyone, but what I am saying is that in God’s time, and within my circumstance these were the right steps for me to take. Maybe, you are struggling with chronic health issues, but not eating well? Maybe you have a core belief that you have instilled in your soul that keeps you from having peace? Either way, I know someone who can give you the answers you are looking for, and he is just a prayer away to reveal them to you! Just be honest with him about your thoughts towards him, and be honest with yourself about the daily choices you make and the fear that drives them!