In today’s Biblical devotional for Christian women, we will ponder Proverbs 4:27 and its practical application in our daily lives. I will share with you how I personally battle two TWO evils in my own life (lust and gluttony), and I’ll help you examine your life and witness how God is leading your path straight. https://onlinediscipleshipforwomen.com/proverbs-4-27 The examples I’ll be sharing are for adults only. Children should not be listening to this content. The examples of evil from my own personal life, which I’ll share today, will be relevant to most of the Christian women listening to my Christian podcast The Anna Szabo Show and reading my Christian blog Onlinediscipleshipforwomen.com I am Anna Szabo, and right now you’re listening to The Anna Szabo Show Christian podcast for women who love Jesus. I make content to help you create a joyful life by embracing God’s word. My passion in life is to help encourage and empower you by sharing my testimony of God’s amazing glory in my own life story. Subscribe to my podcast and tell other Christian women about it to help me do God’s work through this women’s ministry. If you’d like to support my ministry, you can donate at onlinediscipleshipforwomen.com, the link is in the notes below. There are three things you can expect: You’ll hear the Biblical devotional I prepared for youThere will be an exercise for you to do in order to ponder Proverbs 4:27 as it relates to your own faith journeyI’ll pray for you to lift you up to God and ask for His peace, protection, provision, and promotion in your life PART 1. BIBLICAL DEVOTIONAL FOR CHRISTIAN WOMEN This is the most difficult devotional I have ever set out to create. I’m going to share with you my deepest struggles, which I’d prefer to forever keep to myself of course, but God called me to share my testimony and tell you my story to display His glory. God’s glory is not the only thing you’ll see displayed throughout this Biblical devotional for Christian women. You’ll witness what’s called “the human condition,” which is my endless struggle with the flesh. The flesh and the spirit always at odds within us, the Christian women who desire to obey and honor God. I desire to obey and honor God. My Heavenly Father God specified two evils, and told me personally to flee from these two evils. What are they? Proverbs 23:2 says: “put a knife to your throat if you are given to gluttony.” Why is gluttony so evil? Proverbs 23:21 explains this: “the glutton will come to poverty, and the drowsiness of overindulgence will clothe them with rags.” Not only is it expensive to indulge in gluttony but also overindulgence in food leads to drowsiness, which is the opposite of what God’s word directs us to be - alert, aware, awake, and alive fully as His daughters and disciples of Jesus Christ. We can’t serve God being drowsy, which is a feeling of being sleepy and lethargic. Whenever I indulge in gluttony, I feel not only sleepy and lethargic but also powerless as the desire for food overwhelms me. After I indulge in gluttony, I feel off my path, exactly the opposite of what Proverbs 4:27 teaches: “Do not turn to the right or the left; keep your foot from evil.” Whenever I surrender to this first evil, the sin of gluttony, I stray away from God. 1 John 2:16 explains this in great detail: “For all that is in the world - the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes - are not from the Father but are from the world.” So what it means is that whenever I give into the desires of the flesh, such as the sin of gluttony, indulging in food, it is not from God, so it is evil. The first evil I battle is gluttony. Only a few people know this: my best friend Maria, my neighbors Gabby and Mary, and the readers on my Christian blog posts about fasting and the plant-based diet. I will link those resources below in the description box if you want to read. There, I shared my food diaries, and they reveal my struggles with gluttony, the first evil that’s distracting me from God. The second evil in my life is lust. “Do not turn to the right or the left; keep your foot from evil.” - Proverbs 4:27 says. How does lust lead me to the left and toward evil when I’ve been celibate for many many years? Matthew 5:28 establishes this very clearly: “a woman who looks at a man with lustful intent has already committed adultery with him in her heart.” If you know my addiction story, you know that I struggled with promiscuity and slept around for years. I am divorced three times, and I live a simple, single, celibate life with Jesus Christ who has my heart. But this celibacy is fragile, though I’ve stayed faithful to God for many years, I know how fragile I am, and how strong the enemy is, so I battle this evil courageously every time lust is lurking around looking to devour me and lead me astray from Jesus....
