As you listen to this, that you’ve been covered in his precious blood, because I have a feeling whoever is listening to this and whatever you choose to do with this information, we’ll draw you way closer to him and for you to start experiencing heaven on earth. 

I believe that’s a real thing  that we can experience heaven on earth and it’s through these Lenten experiences that we continue to draw closer and closer and closer to the Lord. And so the church has so beautifully put this time, In the church calendar, but I really believe that we could be living this way all the time, but for those people Who are listening to this? 

And they want to know what in the world should I give up for Lent this episode is for you And I wanted to do this podcast because every year I search other people’s podcasts and other YouTubes to find out what’s the best thing to give up for Lent. And I think it always comes down to the same thing.

So my brain likes to freak out and pretend like there’s a best thing, and my brain likes to pretend like I don’t know what God wants, but it does always come back to realizing that He will reveal it. I’ll just have to slow down enough for him to talk to me and actively pursue wanting to know what he wants from me.

My brain likes to tell me a whole bunch of things too, like I should give up things that are extreme, like coffee. My brain spins out like, Oh my gosh, how could I ever do that? That just feels so hard. Is that really a good idea? And so if you find yourself in the place that I usually am believing that there is a best thing, believing that it has to be arduous and hard, then this episode is for you.

Cause I just want to give you a couple of things to think about as you pursue getting closer to the Lord this Lent,  because the truth is, Is that no matter what, our goal is to be closer to him and he will reveal what he wants for you. And we get closer to him two different ways. One by adding things into our lives that keep our attention more on him.

And the other one is by removing things  that are distracting us. that are taking us farther from the Lord. And I did a podcast at the beginning of the year that was, should I quit? Should I really give up on my New Year’s goals? And essentially it was like, yeah, if it’s taking you farther from the Lord, then absolutely you need to quit doing whatever that was.

So today in this podcast, let’s just twirl around some ideas and I hope that it creates a crack of willingness for you. I hope it gives you some things to not only think about, but also to  take to the Lord and ask him some specific questions. So let’s dive in. The first thing that we need to remember is that the ultimate reason we do anything for Lent is because we want to be closer to the Lord.

There’s two things that help us get closer to the Lord. One is by adding things into our lives that bring more of God into us as I already said, and the other one is to remove the things in our lives that are actually taking us farther from him. So let’s talk about that first. I feel like that’s kind of the biggest thing.

What are the things in your life that are distracting you from the Lord? What are the things that you are watering that aren’t of Him. That you are actively doing that’s creating more of not God in your life.  I’ll give you an example. That would be things like overeating. Anything really like sinful that separates us from the Lord.

And I use the word sinful here in that, Hey, these are human things that we all fall into. And it’s usually found in the extremes. What are those things? What are the things that you are doing over doing? It could be over drinking, over scrolling, over doing, over tasking, over rushing, over worrying. Anything that’s over,  you’re over something, something doing it in a hyper extreme fashion.

I remember one year I gave up excessive busyness  and I wasn’t really sure how to  give that up except to start to notice when I felt lots of pressure and rushing. I won’t get to the method of how you can give up these things that are distracting you, but you can at least ask the Lord, Hey,  where is my mind? 

That’s not you.  What feels too much in my life?  That’s not you. One of the ways to do that is to start looking at your thoughts. What are you thinking of the majority of the day?  That’s not God. Could it be your to do list? Could it be the scale? Could it be the food you eat? Could it be doing and doing and doing things,  meaning your to-do list, but it could be so that other people recognize what you’re doing.

Even if you choose to do none of these things, it’s a really beautiful way to start asking the Lord, Hey,  what are my attachments? Where are my affections? Lord. What do you see that I love more than you? You guys, these are all human things. It sounds really dramatic to say those things like, what do I love more than you Lord?

But I’ll tell you Denise Jelinek has a lot of strings that are attached to other things in my heart that aren’t God.  And I continue to ask him to help me cut those strings, to reveal to me what those things are.  And it is your courage, that spirit of courage that the Holy Spirit gives you to  be willing to look at those things, to at least acknowledge that they’re there.

It’s a spirit of humility. And once we know they’re there, we can simply grow an awareness of those. So let’s start asking the Lord, Lord, what am I attached to? That’s not you. Where are there strings in my heart that are attached to things that aren’t you? The easiest ways to find those, the Lord of course will reveal things to you, but the easiest way is to see where your thoughts are and you can just take a day to notice, what am I thinking about?

The other is being able to find your attachments and you know that you’re attached to something because You can’t take it or leave it. There’s this like, I need this. It has to happen this way. And we can be attached to things like coffee, Denise Jelinek, like food, like chocolate, but we can also be attached to ideas. 

We can be attached to the way we think things should go, a certain outcome. And that’s where we’re not really, practicing surrender. And that’s where we just get to continue to surrender, but we know if we can’t take it or leave it because we have a feeling about it, it’s called an antecedent feeling, which just means when you think about the thing, you have an enjoyment and excitement about it.

Now, that doesn’t mean like a, for example, I love coffee  and I have a, when I think about coffee, I think, Oh my gosh, yeah, it’s just so great. Like I get this excitement  when I think about not having coffee. I almost get a dread. Like there’s a massive feeling. I don’t have a wholly indifference. I don’t have this whole concept of I could take it or leave it.

I want to get there and I do want to work on that.  But that’s how you know if you don’t have a take it or leave it. So for example,  for a long time I believed that my husband should kiss me before he goes to bed. And I just had this attachment to this belief, like, we don’t have a great marriage if he doesn’t do that, or he doesn’t care about me if he doesn’t do that. 

And now I have kind of like this indifference, like if he kisses me before I go to bed, awesome. If he doesn’t, no big deal. Like I don’t make him kissing me or not kissing me mean anything. And so I just want to give you a couple of examples so that you can notice what you are attached to for a very long time.

And even sometimes now I find I’m attached to having a snack before I go to bed. It’s not a right thing. It’s not a wrong thing. But there was a time when I would not go to bed. Like, I didn’t think that was even an option to go to bed without taking some food  with me to bed, eating it in bed, and then turning the light out.

Now, I have more of an indifference. I can take it or leave it. I can plan it. I cannot plan it. I can plan it, it can be optional, but I find that I can go to bed, and this is crazy you guys,  I can choose to not eat it even if I get to bed. Like, especially if it’s something that’s wrapped up. And I’m like, oh, you know what, I really just want to go to bed.

Interesting, and so those are the things that you want to ask the Lord to reveal to you. Lord, what’s separating me from you? And it’s pretty easy to know some active things, but there might be some more quiet things that he wants to reveal to you. And you guys, he just loves when we go and talk to him.

Lord, where’s my heart that isn’t on you? What am I attached to?  And he might also reveal something you guys that you are actively doing that’s growing separation between the two of you.  It’s so easy to see with food.  One of the things that we teach you in our community is how to get through the ups and downs of life without stress eating.

But the biggest part that I teach you is how to decrease the stress in your life. Where are you creating more crosses and more stress in your life? Maybe the Lord’s like, hey, you know what?

You know, it makes me think of, I was coaching this week about, the crosses that we create in our lives. And one of the ways that we can find the crosses that we create versus the crosses that the Lord gives us is by looking at the facts. And,  one of the women that I was coaching, she has a family member who has been diagnosed with an addiction and  That’s the facts.

The cross that she’s adding to that is, oh my gosh, he’s gonna die. He’s gonna die. And then she can really spin out on how he’s gonna die. We’re gonna find him dead somewhere. And then there’s that the whole concept of salvation. And will he go to heaven? But you guys focusing on that. Family member has addiction is the cross that she is experiencing.

But the cross that she’s adding to that and that extra burden and that extra heaviness, that is not the face of Christ, that does not keep us aligned with the Lord is, Oh my gosh, he might die. And what about his salvation? And worry worry worry worry, worry worry worry. And that is how we’re making our lives harder by those crosses.

So the Lord might reveal something to you like that. And just so you know, the end of the story is in coaching, we were able to say, okay. Well, what if we just started to focus on a new thought that when our brain wants to spin out on the worry, we can say something that is just as true to her brain, which is addiction is really hard on the whole family.

And addiction is really hard on the whole family felt very true to her. And it helped her recognize there’s challenges here, and then she can refocus and connect more with the Lord in that calmer state.

So essentially the three things that can be taking you from the Lord are the things that are consuming your thoughts, our attachments, and the crosses that we’re creating ourselves. And you guys, I believe all of those things are pretty much a different way of saying the same thing, which is just, you know, there are thoughts or thoughts that are, that are not of God.

And I recently listened to a podcast about spiritual attacks and essentially the father Ripperger said, Hey, the devil does not care what you’re thinking about. He just wants to distract you. He wants to keep you from thinking about God. I was like, wow, that is just so darn simple. Which is a beautiful segue into the next thing that we can start doing.

Is, for Lent, perhaps you would like to start doing something that brings more of the Lord into your life. I’m not saying that the things that we remove, Of course we’ll bring more of the Lord in, but we could also add things that will bring more of the Lord in. And one of those things,  you just start doing things that bring more of the Lord into your life.

I remember one year I started going to daily mass twice a week and rearranged my schedule. That totally brings more of the Lord in.  You guys, we have our 63 Surrendered challenge where we practice four daily disciplines every day that unite your food and weight struggles with the Lord, which is so amazing because you’re doing two things at once in the 63 Surrendered.

It’s a framework where you’re bringing more of the Lord in and  learning how to  get rid of the things that are separating you from the Lord. Things like overeating, stressing about food. So that’s a little plug for that. We actually have our kickoff call tomorrow gang where the kickoff call for 63 surrendered is the day before Ash Wednesday, which is cool cause we start on Ash Wednesday and the whole week of Ash Wednesday is learning the system.

So don’t feel like you’re behind. If you  hear this podcast and it’s Friday after Ash Wednesday, you can still sign up because we are preparing the whole week and the whole week doesn’t take preparation.

So that’s my plug.   If you’re looking to  unite your food and weight struggles with the Lord and help allow him to heal you, join 63 surrendered. Our kickoff call, like I said is tomorrow  but we have all week that we’re preparing. So even if you hear this podcast, At the end of the week, just click the link, get in.

You will have a Lent that is just so meaningful to you. And I say that because another thing I want you to start considering when you think of what should I give up for Lent is something that is transformative. What I mean by that is not something that you’re checking off the box, something that truly changes you, that changes your relationship with the Lord, that reorders  your life, that puts God more, that puts Him first.

And when I say reorder, often what I find in the women who listen to this podcast, who are in our community, is Things have just been super out of order and it’s not your fault. When we look at people who have food and weight struggles, typically they listen to the diet industry and they listen to the scale and they have made many M I N I gods of weight, of the way they look, of following the perfect diet.

And the reason why that never leads to lasting weight loss  is because it’s so out of order. The Lord never meant for you to look to a scale and how you talk to yourself and how you treat yourself. You guys, he’s given us exactly  how he wants us to think about ourselves. We are a temple of the Holy Spirit that were made in the image and likeness of God.

And a lot of you know that in your head and you can’t internalize it and it’s not your fault. The only reason why you can’t internalize it is because above him and his teaching is you started to treat yourself not in the way that he wants you to treat you, but according to the scale. According to following or not following the magic food plan. 

According to the way you think you should look in the mirror. In this Lent, you can reorder that.  You can reorder that and that doesn’t mean you’re going to stay the same weight. Your weight will naturally balance out when the order of your life is balanced out. 

And I’m not talking about all the things I’m just saying you will slowly by slowly by slowly start to allow the Lord to be at the top and Let him inform you of how he wants things to go  and I think that’s a beautiful way to think of Lent is we’re just reordering our life We’re reordering taking one step forward using this Lenten season to reorder your life. To put God first, get rid of the things, or one thing that seems to be taking his place.

So we’re going to look for something that will transform you. That by the end of Lent, you will be different. And it isn’t something like a sugar fast for 40 days.  Unless that’s what you want to do. Totally fine. But fasting from sugar for 40 days is cool and great. And you like have a really cool experience, but does it change you? Is it lasting? 

What does it mean if you just go back to sugar? And I think one of the things I hear from women often is that they have so much self control over Lent. And then when Lent is over, they’re really confused on why they don’t have control. Because it was sort of a white knuckle thing and I’m not saying that’s a bad thing to do I’m just saying it might not be what the Lord is calling you to do. 

Maybe he doesn’t want you to just give up sugar or chocolate, maybe he wants to transform you, maybe he wants you to learn how to surrender everything to him and that’s one of the things I hear from women who’ve gone through 63 Surrendered is they have learned to surrender not just their food and weight struggles to the Lord and have peace with food, but so many other things in their lives, they have learned to surrender, which is the key to being able to get through the ups and downs of life without stress eating.

They’ve set down so many things that they were holding,  so many stresses, so many crosses that they were creating themselves, that the Lord said, you don’t really, you’re not meant to carry that. I’ll take that. Thank you.

You learn how to surrender those things and when you surrender the crosses that you’re creating yourself,  you have a lot more peace and a peaceful brain and a peaceful heart. Don’t stress eat friends.  

Consider that when you’re talking to the Lord that you want him to transform you, ask him how he wants you to be different so that this can be something you do for Lent and And it continues on. And in our 63 Surrendered Challenge, we of course will do it through Lent, but we will continue for a few weeks after Easter so that you can truly have the full effect of this challenge.

It will transition you into normal life, if you will, outside of Lent. So you don’t have to worry about Falling back into old habits because you will have solidified this new way of living, this surrendered method, the four daily disciplines. But listen, if you say, Hey, Denise, I don’t want to do your 63 surrendered.

I don’t want to do that. Then find some other way to be accountable.  And so this is another,  tip for you that I want you to get from this podcast is create some accountability for you  with the Lord. And in years past, if I didn’t have a group that I was part of, which you guys can create a group, get your friends together, do the same thing.

You could do that first, get your friends together and do 63 surrendered, but you could also do it for anything else that the Lord reveals to you. Perhaps he wants you. to bring someone else on this journey with you. And that accountability is great. Check in weekly, check in daily, but you can also just have something that’s between you and the Lord.

I remember creating a sheet for myself last year. The Lord asked me to grow in awareness  of what is of him and what is not of him in my life. That was so cool. One of the ways to do that was to ask the question, what is necessary and what is not necessary? He really wanted me to start opening my eyes to my life of where I’m actively pursuing things that aren’t him and what I am allowing in my life.

And so I just created a little form that, that daily I would say, well, what,  where was I distracted? What’s in my life that’s not of him, right? So maybe you can just create your own little tracker in your checklist.

So I hope this has been very helpful. As you think about what should I give up for Lent, here’s what we do. We go to the Lord and we say, Lord, what is keeping me from you? And you can just start to notice where your thoughts distracted, where are you actively growing distance between you and the Lord? What have become your mini gods?

Am I, and I gods. And in our world, I find that the majority of women find a mini God in food, weight, The way they look, other people’s approval, and their to-do list. It’s kind of like those five things. I’m going to say that again because, that might be one of the places that he’s looking, asking you to grow and putting him back as the leader of your life.

It’s other people’s approval,  the to-do list, the scale, the magic diet, and the way you look. And I do want to just say asterisks here. When you do join the 63 surrendered challenge, we have no food plan. We have a couple of food rules. They are, you eat the food that you love that you feel good about, and it’s for the woman who is going to be eating it.

So for example, you eating at your kitchen table is very different than you going out to dinner. So we need to make sure that you plan food that’s appropriate for the woman who’s going to be enjoying dinner. Or if you have a busy day, we make sure that you are planning for a simple, simple meals or whatever you really enjoy, but not like a five course meal, or maybe you pick up food on the way home so that you have takeout that night.

It’s just simple things like that. So we’re going to talk to the Lord, ask him to reveal what it is that he wants you to focus on this Lent.

You’re going to consider 63 surrendered because if food and weight have consumed your brain, this is a way for you to start to be free of that. To allow your weight to naturally balance out instead of pursuing weight loss like it is your job. When we believe our job is to lose weight, we’re not really focused on talking to the Lord because that is truly our job.

And our job is to create more peace in our life. 63 surrendered. We’ll do that for you. It’s 63 dollars for 63 days. You want to focus on what can actually transform you. That will make you closer to the Lord that will have lasting effects.

Okay, guys, as you know, the Lord is always your guide, and I hope that this podcast has blessed you so that you have some ideas to get closer to him. Have a blessed Lent.

And so I want you to go to weightlosswithaholyspirit.com, click 63 Surrendered, and you can join us for our Lenten Challenge. I promise you, you will be transformed. At the end of this challenge and you will be closer to the Lord in a real, authentic, lasting way that doesn’t ever dissolve. You won’t go back to your old ways after this challenge.

63 Surrendered, not just for Lent, it’s for a lifetime. So go to weightlosswithaholyspirit.com and get signed up today. Have a blessed day.