“Granny, I do not understand the problem. If you can pray for someone to be saved for 28 days in a row, why can’t you be a vegan for 18 days if it will help your body?”
My granddaughter was responding to my sharing of information I had received on how to help my body be healthier and why I could not do it. As the conversation continued and I offered a variety of excuses, I finally had to admit that I had mental assent that it was the right thing to do, but I was not ready.
She went ballistic.
“If you know the right thing to do and do not do it, it is sin. So if you won’t do it I am done. I am not going to feel sorry for you,” she said.
Two things were strange about this conversation: One, my granddaughter does not speak to me this way. Two, I knew God was giving me a choice, again. I did not get offended because I knew God was using her to give me another piece of wisdom to help my body. Yes, I am exercising. Yes, I am getting more sleep. Yes, I am taking a rest break during the day. But for a short period of time, I need to alter my diet.
The next day at church the preacher’s message was on obedience to the directives of God.
“Whatever He told you to do, find yourself doing it,” she preached. Confirmation! I was so convicted I started crying. I shared why I was crying with the congregation and some of them began to cry, too. I was not the only one who had received a command from God and put off obeying. Some knew they should tithe; some knew they should give their talents to the church; some knew they should come to church more often; but didn’t. Many vowed to do better.
Every day, God uniquely offers his children a path to abundant blessings. He wants His children to experience the kind of blessings only He can give: physical healing, strengthening joy, peace of mind, wisdom, and life’s provisions, just to name a few.
He says to us in a variety of ways, “I want to bless you.” If we are living beneath our privileges, it is not God’s fault. I am not sure if we are dull of hearing, too blind to see the path, or too stubborn to change our ways and be blessed. But His love for us compels Him to keep offering:
“I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live.”
(Deuteronomy 30:19)
I do know this. On June 10th, I will begin a vegan diet for eighteen days. God is trying to do something in my body. I intend to be obedient and abundantly blessed.