Shamblin Devotional

THIS I SAY THEN WALK IN THE SPIRIT AND YE SHALL NOT FULFILL THE LUST OF THE FLESH

Fasting is the support of the soul. It gives us wings to ascend on high, and enjoy the highest contemplation. God, like an indulgent father, offers us a cure by fasting. - St. John Chrysostom

Without mortifying the taste, it is impossible to preserve innocence, since it was by the indulgence of his appetite that Adam fell. - St. Catherine of Siena

Gwen Shamblin Lara, MS, RD, pioneer of faith-based weight loss, was killed in a plane crash on May 29, 2021. Her husband Joe Lara, who played Tarzan in the TV series ‘Tarzan: The Epic Adventures,’ was piloting the plane. The last of his maneuvers were consistent with a type of spatial disorientation called somatogravic illusion. 

When she was in college, Gwen’s love for God, her sudden 20-pound weight gain, and her academic knowledge collided. By studying God’s perfect design and naturally thin eaters, Gwen was permanently set free from overweight and diets. Soon, people turned to her for help to lose weight. In 1992, she founded Weigh Down. 

I joined Weigh Down in 2005. I did my first Weigh Down class, and lost all of my weight quickly. I lost 40 pounds, and it was in maybe two months.

I read the Weigh Down diet book cover to cover. I jumped into a Basics class, and have been in a class ever since. I went on to lose 120 pounds. More importantly, I was freed from depression, suicide, anger, unforgiveness, laziness, procrastination, anxiety, and panic attacks. I have a healed marriage, healed finances, answers for my children, and peace and joy in my life. 

Matthew Chapter 4 says, then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. After fasting 40 days and 40 nights, he was hungry.

I found Weigh Down through my mom. And I am just so grateful, because through putting the teachings into practice, I lost 30 pounds. And it has just been so fun. My life is so full of joy and peace. 

I was so afraid to not eat the fat free, the low calorie. I used to count every fat gram and knew everything that I was eating. And it was just miserable. It was a very painful way to live.

Think about how hungry he was.

I was miserable. I tried to control, and got really focused on myself, and dieting, and exercise, and just constantly filled my mind with what I was gonna eat, what I wasn’t gonna eat. My life was just consumed with myself. I did a Weigh Down class and it totally changed my life.

Now I feel so free. I eat regular foods all the time.

Every year my heart gets more clean. And every year I’m less pulled to the food. 

There is something victorious about waiting. Denying yourself. These are some of the happiest moments you’re going to feel.

I used to pray, God, if you’ll just let me be thin, I’ll be a missionary for you. I promised everything. I’d go to bed crying, telling my husband, this time it’s going to work. And he’d say, I love you just the way you are, because he knew it wouldn’t work. 

We go all the way to hunger. 

I was told I had a disease. I was told that I probably had been abused by my father, but I couldn’t remember it. I was definitely desperate for an answer.

We are to consider what has been set before us. Did God give it, or did Satan offer it? Did you turn stones into bread, or did you wait for the angels?

My vice of choice was an eating disorder. I tried every latest diet, hired personal trainers, went to counseling. I was even in an outpatient treatment center. I’d heard the principles of Weigh Down. And I thought, if I could just get on that website and see what’s going on, maybe that’ll spark some renewal in me. 

It is working for everyone. For children. For people who think they have no hope.

Are you a prophet?

I don’t believe I know what my gift name is. I’m still wrestling with that.

I was a whopping 310 pounds. I had a love affair with food my whole life. I don’t remember being thin ever. So when I found Weigh Down and started putting it into practice, the weight melted away. People at work called me The Incredible Melting Woman.

LABOUR NOT FOR THE FOOD WHICH PERISHETH

BUT FOR THAT FOOD WHICH ENDURETH UNTO EVERLASTING LIFE

One thing I can say is, when Gwen prays, things happen. She’s taught us that we can go to God and pray about anything.

Years ago, they likened me to a present day Moses, breaking people out of the slavery of overeating.

I am 26 years old, and I came into the Weigh Down program in 2000 with my family. I was a young girl then. But even then I knew that I had that greed for food. With my first pregnancy I gained 42 pounds, and lost that weight within 10 weeks. And the one thing that just helped me so much was knowing that I didn’t deserve the food. I didn’t deserve to indulge in something I might enjoy, even though God allows us to enjoy the food. But I got to be thankful for the small amount that I did get. I would never leave this place or this program, because this is where I have found true joy.

Everyone has heard it over and over, but it’s true. Every single aspect of our family’s lives completely changed. 

We’re gonna put food back in its place. It has been preoccupying you. It has been taking over your life. It’s not your friend. It’s not your comfort. It is not going to be something that blesses your life. It is going to be something that robs you.

I AM GONE LIKE THE SHADOW WHEN IT DECLINETH

I AM TOSSED UP AND DOWN AS THE LOCUST

The temptation to eat is going to disappear. Temptation and spiritual warfare are from God. This is just part of the journey, to see if you love the Creator more than the created.

A word to the men out there: look, credit to the ladies. At least they admit, God, I’ve gotta lose this weight. But guys, we’re living in a time where they’re trying to normalize the term Dad Bod. Well, men, I say raise the bar. I don’t wanna live this way. And you guys shouldn’t want to do it either.

Pick out your food. Eat some. Hopefully it’s only 15 or 20 minutes and you’re out of there.

My heart just finally opened up, and I knew I was sick of sin. I went back through all my old emails from my first class, and I’m like, God, I just wanna find you again. What I want is that passion for you. And I don’t care about how many pounds that is, as much as I care about finding you again and getting you back.

I gave food all my time. I loved dieting because I could think about the food and study the food and the content of the food every day. Guys, this is sick. I was sick. That path would have led me to complete obesity, because I was never going to make a good anorexic.

The fear comes in because you don’t ever wanna lose that feeling again. So that bite I took, literally spitting it out, because I don’t wanna go backwards. 

How can I be okay with eating at a time when I’m hungry, seriously growling for two hours, but my boyfriend isn’t hungry? How to not feel guilty, or almost selfish?

Well, if you bypass hunger, it’ll go away very quickly. If you can get something to drink, or sometimes one cracker, it’ll go away. You can let it come back when your boyfriend wants to eat.

It had to go deeper than just a food rule. I had to make it about a relationship with God. I’m not hungry, and I don’t want to lose this relationship with God.

Your body will pick up the extra food you had for all those other meals that you overate. You have your own refrigerator on your body. It’s like intravenous feeding.

MY KNEES ARE WEAK THROUGH FASTING

AND MY FLESH FAILETH OF FATNESS

It scares me to death if I see that scale go up, because I know that it means that my heart has a problem. And I’m so grateful for the gift of guilt.

He says, if you destroy this body, I’m gonna destroy you. 

One of Satan’s sneakiest lies is the one that tells you, I just cannot love God the way that Gwen and Joe do. The truth is that Gwen and Joe are people just like you. 

We see God all over every eating occasion.

Once you understand that Gwen and Joe Lara are regular people - albeit people who have found this incredible relationship with the God of the universe - then you realize that you can absolutely imitate their love for God, so that you, too, can make Him your everything. It goes back to Week Three of your Weigh Down Basics. Can God do better than Rocky Road ice cream?

I looked at those M and M’s and I said, I want God more. And if this is going to separate me from God, then I don’t want those M and M’s. 

Gwen Shamblin Lara was a narcissist. She always had the answer.

And I notice you don’t call her Mom. You call her Gwen.

I quit calling her mother probably around 2010.

I’ve been through a lot, we say. I deserve it. I’ve had a tough day. I can eat this. I’ve not eaten much. It doesn’t matter.

I grabbed the biggest stack of Oreos I could. And I just dropped them on the floor.

I’m tempted to go to the food, but then I get away from it, and get on my knees to cry out to God, and then he provides a distraction, a way of escape.

I think fasting is one of the coolest things on the planet, because you are throwing yourself into a state where you’re crying out, you’re needing. It may be somewhat painful. But there’s something about a fast that readjusts my whole head into amounts, and volume, and portions. Into what you’re capable of doing.

For the first time, I knew it was God telling me no.

He was trying to get Jesus to be a victim. Make the world center around him. Eat when he wanted to eat. 

I bit on a piece of tuna fish sandwich, and it had a piece of glass in it. And I’m like, good one, God! Gwen says she likes to be empty when she’s up on stage. And guess what? I’m empty!

The world has fallen prey to Satan.

When we lived in Memphis, in the early days, there was a more humble Gwen Shamblin at one point. I would definitely say that. 

What changed?

She started getting praise from people. She started getting lifted up. I think people can get addicted to that.

Look at this map. The world is welcoming the victim voice. I deserve more. I need to eat more. Food comforts me. As they become pagans, the map is becoming darker. And the white is disappearing. And the redder it’s getting, the more severe the immorality.

I BECAME A REPROACH UNTO THEM

WHEN THEY LOOKED UPON ME THEY SHAKED THEIR HEADS

Focus on yourself. You wanna go to a mental institution, then just keep focusing on your little old self. But here you are, and now you’re going after God. And you wouldn’t give it up for anything, would you?

Never in a million years. The thought of going back out there scares the pants off me.

Do you wonder how Gwen starts each day full of love and appreciation for God? She wakes up and could easily have the same worries as everyone. But the difference is in the choosing: give the worries to God, and choose to be a positive personality!

Any direction you go is gonna be a dead end. You’re gonna wind up bigger and heavier and more miserable, if you’re not doing it right. People try everything but what they need to try. And it’s a lie. It’s a delusion. They try everything but going to God.

At the end of 2016, my wife and I had a conversation. God had given us everything we thought we wanted, and we had squandered that away. We were greedy. We were overweight and miserable. And through the years we had downloaded All Access and deleted it, and downloaded it again and deleted it. And I’d heard the truth, and I knew it was the truth. And so we downloaded All Access again.

AND HE HUMBLED THEE

AND SUFFERED THEE TO HUNGER

AND FED THEE WITH MANNA

WHICH THOU KNEWEST NOT

Remember the consequences of disobedience. The more you eat, the more you want. So the less you eat, the less you want.

You taught me to do it for God. And ultimately, I wanted to go to heaven.

Pray when tempted to eat. Run to His Word, the workbook, the audios.

I remember waiting for the growl, thinking, I don’t wanna defy you, God. I would hear you on the videos and I didn’t wanna defy him anymore. And you said it on the tapes. Maybe you won’t stop eating for your wedding or for a boyfriend or for a husband or for a wife. But you’ll do it for God.

AND HE WAS THERE WITH THE LORD FORTY DAYS AND FORTY NIGHTS

AND HE DID NEITHER EAT BREAD NOR DRINK WATER

AND HE WROTE UPON THE TABLES THE WORDS OF THE COVENANT

There’s people that actually get mad when they get an intervention. Or they get mad if they’re awakened in the night. And I’m sitting there going, I love it! I love it because it’s like, the heavens are wanting to talk to me? The heavens are wanting my attention? Who am I that God would want my attention?

I’d roll out of bed, and it would be pitch black in the room. And I would just pray, oh God, help me find my glasses, and help me put my hand on the Bible. And maybe on a sweater or something warm. It would happen over and over.

I would keep my heating pad underneath the sofa. I’d have a blanket folded up by the sofa. I would hide my Bible and make sure someone else didn’t pick it up and move it.

And I realized that it was God, indeed it was Him, calling me.

Gwen Shamblin Lara is survived by her son, who is quoted in the text above, and her daughter, pictured below, on the right.

I say it to you in the sight of God, that in every possible way I could, I always forced myself once or twice a day to take food. And I pray to God that he will grace me in this matter of eating, so that I may live like other creatures. - St. Catherine of Siena