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Episode 062--What is a Stronghold?

This is the first week of 2021, but today I\\u2019m really excited about something that happened in 2020. My new book, Sweet Surrender: Breaking Strongholds went live on Amazon on Dec. 30, 2020.\\xa0

Even though I\\u2019m a Christian weight loss coach, I am a writer first. Writing and eating comfort foods were my two passions. But it was my love of overindulging in my favorite foods that eventually got me to the place that I could barely walk and weighed 430 pounds. I\\u2019ve lost 250 pounds with God\\u2019s help. What I share in Sweet Surrender are the strongholds I had allowed to creep into my life that kept me captive for way too long.

I used to think sugar was a stronghold in my life. It wasn\\u2019t sugar that was the stronghold, it was the thoughts, desires and feelings I had that made me think I needed sugar or I would die. Crazy thing is it was my overeating of sugar and other comfort foods that landed me in the hospital with a death sentence hanging over my head if I didn\\u2019t lose weight and keep it off.

Lying there in that hospital bed, I began to realize that feeling sorry for myself wasn\\u2019t going to help. That was the day I decided I would do everything possible to live. It was a turning point, but not a drastic one. I didn\\u2019t all of a sudden lose 250 pounds. I had to first face why I was eating when I didn\\u2019t need to eat. I had to understand what strongholds I had allowed to be constructed in my life.\\xa0

A stronghold is a tool of the enemy designed to enslave us. The meaning of the word means a fortification, like a walled fortress on a hill. In many places in scriptures, God is called our strength, our strong towner the place we run when we need help. God should be our stronghold.\\xa0

There is another meaning of stronghold, though. It can be something that takes root in our lives as an argument against God. It\\u2019s something we begin to believe because of circumstances or situations in our lives but it is a lie.\\xa0

2 Corinthians 10:3-5 NIV talks about this. \\u201cFor though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.\\u201d

A stronghold is a false mindset which imprisons a part of us. It begins as a lie. It gains a foothold as we begin to feel it is helping us in some way. It develops into a mental stronghold we think we need to survive. We see it as protection, but it is becoming a prison that keeps us further from God.\\xa0

Strongholds are mindsets that God says must be broken. If we can get to the core issue or the lie on which any stronghold has been built, the stronghold has to fall. I talk about this and so much more in the free ebook, What Is A Stronghold?\\xa0

In my new book, Sweet Surrender: Breaking Strongholds, I share the strongholds I faced and how God helped me break them. I encourage you to get both of these and enjoy walking in freedom!

Link for the free ebook, What Is A Stronghold: https://www.teresashieldsparker.com/sweet-surrender/what-is-a-stronghold/

Sweet Surrender: Breaking Strongholds Link:\\xa0https://www.teresashieldsparker.com/sweet-surrender/