Lord, deliver me from doughnut

Parable of the Doughnuts
The story of a man whose weakness is eating doughnut
(adapted from Randy Alcorn, The Purity Principle)

“No more doughnuts”, his doctor says.
He vows to God, “No more doughnuts”.
He promises his family, “No more doughnuts”.
He calls the church - gets it on the prayer line.
He even goes to a doughnut deliverance ministry to have the demon of donut desire cast out of him
He means business!

But then, what does he do?
He goes right on reading about doughnuts,
listening to doughnut music,
watching TV about making doughnuts.
He spends time with other doughnut lovers,
talking about doughnuts,
joking about them at the office -
where he glances at doughnut calendars on the wall.
He looks through the newspaper for doughnut coupons
and subscribes to Doughnuts Desires, with its glossy, color photos.

Well, it’s not long before he’s driving to work and “just happens” to go by a doughnuts shop.
He rolls down his window and inhales.
Pretty soon, he’s buying his morning paper from the rack just outside the doughnuts shop.
He’s lingering just long enough to glance at the doughnuts through the window.
Then he remembers that he has to check some emails
And hey, this donut shop has an internet connection.
And while I’m there anyway, “Why not have a cup of coffee?”
Guess what, they have have a special on today, coffee and doughnut! for just $2.99

Now remember, this man has no intention of breaking his vow and eating doughnuts!.
But the totally predictable and inevitable result is ...
He’ll give in and eat doughnuts!.

And can't you just hear his sad lament?
"What went wrong? I prayed! I asked others to pray. I asked God for deliverance. But look what happens!"

"Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death." James 1:13-15)

Why Submission to Christ is Hard

The following Christian folk story from South India about a boy who loved to play marble aptly captures the inclination of our hearts, which make it difficult to completely make it captive under Christ:

The boy regularly walked through his neighborhood with a pocketful of his best marbles, hoping to find opponents to play against. One marble in particular, his special blue marble, had won him many matches.

During one walk he encountered a young girl who was eating a bag of chocolate candy. Though the boy's first love was marbles, he had a weakness for chocolates. As he stood there interacting with the young girl, his salivary glands and the rumbling in his stomach became uncontrollable, and he thought to himself, I have got to get my hands on those chocolates.

Concocting a plan, he asked the girl, "How about I give you all these marbles for those chocolates?" She replied, "Sounds fair to me."

He put his hand in his pocket, searching for the distinguishing cracks on the surface of the blue marble. Once he identified the blue marble with his finger tip, he carefully pushed it to the bottom of his pocket and pulled out all the other marbles.

As he handed the marbles to the girl in exchange for the chocolate, the boy thought his plan was a success and turned to walk away. As he began to eat the candy, he suddenly turned to the girl and asked, "Hey, did you give me all the chocolates?"

Our fallen nature persuades us to posture ourselves in the same deceptive and defiant attitude as the boy in this story. We want everything the kingdom of God has to offer. We want to have a secure sense of God's presence, we want all our prayers to be answered, we want to "feel close" to Jesus, we want to flourish in the riches of God's glory—we want it all. But we are unwilling to give up everything for it. Many times there is a "blue marble" in our lives that we seem unwilling to offer to the control of Christ. Until we can fully subjugate ourselves to God's will, our participation in God's kingdom will be limited.

Source: Christopher L. Heuertz, Simple Spirituality (IVP, 2008), pp. 116-117; Samuel T. Kamaleson, "Mangoes and Marbles," Decision magazine (January 1978)