I Want Cake and Yes, More Cake Please

There was an offer on the table for ice cream, but I wanted cake. It was my birthday, and my sweet husband wanted to please, but it was late, and bakeries were closed. However, to my delight, we found ourselves in front of several sizeable refrigerated display cases filled with the most gorgeous cupcakes, elegantly decorated with words like chantilly and salted caramel in the name.

Almost heaven in my book. From decorating it to eating it. I love cake. 

But over the last few years, I’ve learned to quench my desire to overload on the sugary “carbilicious” treat and enjoy only a few bites, enough to taste. Why?  Because I know our history together. It’s something I still battle today. So while my daughter and husband had their two scoops of frozen deliciousness, I savored my few bites of cake.

You’ve heard the phrase, “Have your cake and eat it too.” It’s a cultural idiom we’ve used over the years to express how we can’t hold onto something and consume it simultaneously. It offers a word picture of incompatibility.

What is your version of “cake?” i.e., What’s incompatible in your world right now?

When I found myself unable to change things myself, I had to conclude my thoughts; my ways are incompatible with an authentic, wholehearted godly life. Isaiah 55:8 – NLT – “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” s… So I had to decide to embrace truth. I chose to believe God when He said my heart would never desire the right things. Jeremiah 17:9 – NLT – “The human heart is the most deceitful of all t…  It was never going to be in my ability to live the life I was created to live without Him.

I acknowledged I am a forever “cakeaholic.” Absolutely, on my own without God, I want “cake” all the time – literally and figuratively. Without God, I cannot say no to anything my heart thinks is “good.” On my own – without real power in Jesus – it’s more and more “cake,” please until it kills me.

For so long, carbs and sweets soothed an intangible need for comfort to soften the hard edge of unspoken feelings and emotions inside me. I used them until I’d run out of emotional eating tools because the number on a bathroom scale became the priority instead of actual wellness. But, I hadn’t satisfied the longing inside; instead, I switched to a more powerful numbing tool to soothe.

Why do we long for the things or someones that aren’t good for us? Wwwhhhyyy do we do this to ourselves? (Envision a palm plant to the forehead.) We can see harmful patterns in others so quickly, yet we can’t see them in ourselves, and then we convince ourselves we have it all figured out and all under control.

We all do it. We all desire the “fix” – something or someone to help us ride the emotional roller coaster of life. Have you endured the struggle? The inability to stop something or someone who, for lack of a better word – hurts us. While we deny, justify, prop up and enable behavior and attitudes that don’t serve us anymore because we aren’t strong enough to resist? And what do we do when we finally realize something or someone isn’t healthy for us, but we can’t stop? 

What’s incompatible with your life right now? What are you consuming that is incompatible with God’s desires for you? Is it a relationship or a substance? Is it bitterness or unforgiveness? Is it an addiction or a passion that’s turned into an obsession?

I was holding onto something that was hurting me while I was trying to grab onto God’s promises at the same time. I wanted to have my “cake” and God’s promises. God’s promises ask us to let go and depend on Him. Let go of the thing that was killing me, frankly.

I know what I did. I surrendered to God.

At my lowest point, when I was holding onto the temporary fix alcohol was giving me, God’s promise in Jeremiah 29:11 spoke to me personally. Jeremiah 29:11 – NLT – For I know the plans I have for you,” says the … I inserted my name into the verse and read the Bible for the first time like these promises – a hope and future – were for me personally. 

God’s promises are good. He asks us to taste and see. Psalm 34:8 – NLT – Taste and see that the LORD is good. Oh, the jo…  

He’s so much better than cake.