Koutz Farm Bible Study: The Daniel Plan (Day 8)

BIBLE STUDY FORMAT:

To begin this Bible Study, simply read the sections below: “Who”, “What”, “When”, “Where”, "Why", “How”, and “The Study Notes”. Use your own Bible as a reference and make sure to keep a journal handy for taking notes as the Lord guides you through your spiritual studies. When you are done, read the Prayer section (and pray along with us). Make sure to review the Action section and use our action points or make up your own actions. Make sure to check out our Questions & Answers section and if you want to dive deeper into your study invest some time in our References section, as well. This is how our Bible Study Format will be in this and all future Bible Study Posts. Let's get started...  

Welcome to Day 8 of the Koutz Farm Bible Study for “The Daniel Plan“. Before we jump in, let me apologize for the gap the notes and study videos. I ended-up in a really bad fibro-flare, then got a sinus infection that turned into bronchitis (unfortunately, this happens a few times a year). When this happens to me, all I have the energy to do is my day-job and caring for the animals on the farm. Everything else gets pushed away, but God blessed me with a husband that steps up to help keep things going at home when I can’t push through the pain. Today is Sunday, August 20th and the flare started before our last Bible Study day on the 7th of August. When my stress levels are high, the flares last a long time and due to circumstances out of my control, my stress has been extremely high. This is where I’ve had to lean deeply into my faith that God is going to make everything right – and I’m still waiting, but at least I have a light in the dark tunnel that I’m moving through. I spent yesterday in bed – all day – and the kids weren’t here and my husband stayed with a buddy of his to help work on an RV – so it was just me and the animals. I felt guilty about not doing anything when I had the time to do it, but my brain needed the rest more than my body did – so I honored that and spent the day and night in complete rest. I think it did me good, because I feel better today. The pain is still there from the fibro (but it is always there to some extent), the good news is I don’t feel the burning in my chest from the bronchitis and pressure in my head and pain in my ears from the sinus infection. So, I’m going to try and get back to the Bible Study, prayerfully on a regular basis, but I do ask for your grace and patience if I miss days; if I’m missing days, it is because I don’t feel good. When you notice this, please say a prayer of healing for me.

Now that I’ve rambled on a bit, let’s get started with why we are here: we are reading page 36 – 38 out of the main book, pages 10 & 11 of “The Daniel Plan Jumpstart Guide“, and introducing the Journal today, reading pages 19 – 28. Expand each section below (Who, What, When, Where, How, & Study Notes) to read our notes for today’s Bible study of “The Daniel Plan“. Make sure to read Day 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, & 7‘s notes. Don’t forget to let us know you are doing the study with us so we can reach out to you and support each other. Simply fill out the form on our Holler At Us page and tell us you are joining the “Daniel Plan Bible” Study.  

Side note: If you want to get the additional books/DVDs in the series for a more in-depth study on your own, we have provided links to those below.

Note Make sure to read the disclaimers provided in the study materials from the authors/publishers. Also, make sure to read Koutz Farm’s disclaimers at the bottom of the page. Koutz Farm does not specialize in nutrition or medical services and this Bible study is not meant to diagnose or treat medical conditions, nor is it meant to replace the advice/support of a medical professional. Make sure to consult your doctor before participating in any health, nutrition, or fitness program including those discussed in “The Daniel Plan”. Your participation is at your own discretion and at your own risks.

Quick Links To Study Materials On Amazon:

WHO

In day 8, the “WHO” is you! You are the one that has to make the choice. The choice starts with you and where you spend your hard-earned money and precious time. You pick what you put in your body. You are the “WHO” to be concerned with right now. The “WHO” is your family. The people you are responsible for and care for. You buy the groceries for the household and cook the food that you feed your family. Are you making them sick with your choices? The “WHO” is YOU.

WHAT

The “WHAT” in Day 8 is about the healing power of natural God-made foods versus the destruction to the body caused by man-made foods.

WHEN

The “WHEN” for today’s reading starts with your next meal, your next drink, your next trip to the grocery store, your next time in the kitchen. “WHEN” you are taking any action that involves making or putting food and liquids in your body, consider the health benefits or detriments of that decision BEFOREHAND.

WHERE

The “WHERE” for Day 8’s reading is your body, the grocery store, the kitchen, the dining room table, the plate, the glass. The “WHERE” is where your food and drink are purchased, created, consumed, digested, and “WHERE” they will heal or do damage. Your body is the most important “WHERE” of this reading.  

WHY

The "WHY" for Day 8 of "The Daniel Plan" study is

HOW

The “HOW” for our study today is by making a choice. The choice is in your hands. The “HOW” is to CHOOSE your health over your convenience. The “HOW” is to CHOOSE good foods over bad ones, to CHOOSE where you are spending your dollars – on food or more and more medical bills. Make the choice today. If you choose to stick with your old ways, then this study is not for you. If  you choose your health and the health of your family, then this is right where you need to be. CHOOSE.

STUDY NOTES

In reading the “The Food Essential” section of Chapter 2 in the main book “The Daniel Plan” and here are my study notes:

1. “Food can reinvigorate your health, reconnect families, restore vibrant communities, improve the economy, improve the health of the environment, reduce pollution, and even help our kids get better grades and avoid eating disorders, obesity, and drug abuse.”, says Warren.

2. Food is medicine – this is scientifically proven.

3. Warren notes that the side effects of the right foods are good ones (I’ll interject this by stating unlike eating junk foods and taking a bunch of pharmaceuticals). I’ll also note that this is true as long as you don’t have some food allergies – we know the foods we can and can’t eat and need to consider that throughout this program as well. We are all unique in that way, so as we go through the food portions of this plan, make sure you consider any food allergies and talk to your medical team before jumping into any major changes to your eating habits.

4. This is a powerful statement that Warren makes, “Every bite you take is a powerful opportunity to create healing or infirmity.”

5. Eat real whole foods that come from the earth.  

6. Warren list out some important stats in this section about the health of Americans, it isn’t good news, and considering this was written years ago the numbers have only increased to the negative.

7. Warren talks about the long-term results of eating convenience foods, fast-foods, processed foods, and junk foods – things made by man and not by God. He tells us, “But now we have discovered that this convenience has led to depression, obesity, fatigue, and the surge of people taking multiple medications for lifestyle diseases…”

8. Warren says the choice is ours and with “The Daniel Plan”, we will focus on what we can enjoy eating, we will be warned about harmful foods, but the plan doesn’t focus on what we can’t have. I’ll add that if you focus on what you can’t have, the devil has a way to twist that and make you desire that thing even more. The Daniel Plan helps us create positive habits that will replace the bad habits naturally. As we do these new things, the bad things will slowly fade in background until they are gone and we are new creations.

9. “OUR PHILOSOPHY IS THAT IF IT WAS GROWN ON A PLANT, EAT IT. IF IT WAS MADE IN A PLANT, LEAVE IT ON THE SHELF.”

10. The last note I’ll make on this section of the reading is the mention of “affordability”. Warren mentions that eating healthy can be affordable. This book was obviously written before this EXTREME inflation on our food. Healthy food has always been more expensive and now, groceries are hard to buy because inflation has made things hard for us financially. Despite this, as a person that has a chronic illness, I’m here to tell you that spending the money on healthy food is way better than spending the money at the hospital, on constant doctor visits, and on prescription pills. You are going to spend the money one place or the other (sadly, sometimes both). I wish I would have eaten healthy all my life instead of living off junk foods and soda, for the sake of convenience. As a person that HATES cooking, I can tell you that I choose convenience over time cooking in the kitchen and I chose what I thought were affordable foods at the time. Now, I can tell you I’ve spent money and time healing, in chronic pain and suffering.  I cannot say it is all because of food, I know there are many other contributing factors, but food is a place to start a healing journey. For me, it is time to choose expensive foods over expensive medical bills. If you haven’t gotten to this point, praise God! I will warn you now to start choosing healthy foods, don’t fuel your body with foods that are built to cause demise to your health.

WHAT IS YOUR "WHY"?

If you are reading the Jumpstart Guide with us, we are reading Day 2, pages 10 & 11. It instructs us to define our “why”, which parallels into another program I’m doing to reach my career and financial goals; I’m going to be sharing a lot more about defining your why and taking some steps to map out your future using “mental maps”. Aside from “The Daniel Plan”, if you want to learn more about other steps I’m taking, programs I’m in, etc. make sure to read my other blog post (that are not under the Bible Study section). For now, if you’d like to get started making a difference for your financial future, start where I started by clicking here. In transparency, this is an affiliate link to a REAL program I’m in and that I am learning a lot from. I’m well beyond this course now – but it is the right place to start. Click here to learn more.

MY WHY:

I have been in severe pain for so long that I can’t remember a time without pain. Being in this much pain has definitely plunged me into valleys of darkness and on top of “dream” hills that are so bright, filled with God’s light. I call them “dream” hills because the small moments when I have energy and feel good are dreams-come-true for me and I tend to over-do it on those days, plunging myself back into a valley. Through this journey as a Fibro-Warrior, I’ve learned how to bring light into my valleys and keep the darkness at bay and that took me a long time to learn. Being God-centered is my motivation, because I don’t care if I’m in a valley or on top of a mountain, God is with me through it all. I want to be able to fulfill whatever plans God has in store for my life. I don’t want to miss out on something important He wants me to do or to fail Him more than I already have. For myself, my motivation is to be better at everything I do, I hate giving 100% at work and having 0% at home. I want to give 100% to everything I do, all the time. I want to have more adventures, tackle more challenges and come out on top of them. I want to feel good and I want to look good. I want to do this for myself, but more so for my family that relies on me to keep bringing in income, keep a clean house, keep cooking meals, and still have time to do things I love like spending time with the animals, helping others, and learning as much as I can about whatever it is that has my attention at the moment in time. I want to do it all – and I’m out of energy, so my “why” is to get healthy natural energy back in my life so I can do more across the board.

KNOW YOUR NUMBERS

If you are reading the Jumpstart Guide with us, Day 2 also gives you an activity to get your basic health numbers written down. My husband and I are going to do this activity tomorrow after work, but I won’t be posting our starting numbers until the end of the 40-day (+) program. You will write these down in your journal on page 27. Go ahead and get your numbers together (or pick a day this coming week to do them) and write them in your journal.

Things You'll Need To Get Your Numbers:

"THE DANIEL PLAN JOURNAL" NOTES

Open your journal, “The Daniel Plan Journal“, and read pages 19-28. Here are our journal notes:  

• Understand the “Plate Guidelines” and start working to implement them with every meal. You need to get the “Plate Guidelines” from the books (you can find it in the journal in this section of the reading).  

• “The Daniel Plan is about progress, not perfection” says Warren. Remember this as you go through the plan. We are only human and you will have good days and bad. This is a journey and you will go through valleys and hills. Just keep going. Don’t get stuck in a valley. You’ve got this!

• This section of the journal mentions using The Daniel Plan app, but this is not available any longer. I put a link to their recommended apps in the Actions section below.

• You’ll need to take the health assessment survey to pinpoint your starting goals. You’ll find the survey starting on page 22 of the journal.

• The journal instructs us to go to The Daniel Plan website to learn about the “Stages Of Change”.  I’ve linked that here for quick reference.

Here are my results from the survey. You DO NOT have to share your results with anyone, unless you want to.

• FAITH = 14 | Hubby’s: 14

• FOOD = 11 | Hubby’s: 12

• FITNESS = 6 | Hubby’s: 15

• FOCUS = 15 | Hubby’s: 17

• FRIENDS = 15 | Hubby’s: 20

 Here are my answers to the questions in the exercise from The Daniel Plan website (I haven’t asked David to do this part yet, but know that I won’t share is more personal answers if he ask me not to share them):

• Looking 5 years, 10 years or more into the future, if I could heal (or at least mostly heal) versus if I keep going down the path I’ve been on, this is what that might look like:

  • HEALED: I dream about “what if” a lot of the time. So, I have a picture in my mind of the things I’d do if I were better. This exercise might not be easy for everyone though. For those of us that live in a state of chronic-pain we dream of this while we sit in bed crying because we hurt so bad. The dream hurts, too, because they say Fibromyalgia can never be healed. I know, God can do the impossible and with Him I can be healed. I often think I don’t deserve healing on this earth, though. That might be the barrier I need to break down. Anyway, I digress and to answer the question, if I were healed I would be 150-pounds or less, I’d have toned arms, and this dang double-chin that I’m starting to get would not be there anymore. I’d still be aging because unfortunately, that’s what bodies do naturally, but I’d be aging more gracefully. I’d look healthy and feel healthy. I’d start volunteering again at animal shelters, senior-care, MS centers, and veteran support programs, etc.  I’d go get my wildlife rehabilitation license and start my own wildlife rehab center, so the locals don’t have to drive all the way to San Antonio or Kendalia for help. I’d have my own business, doing the stuff I love to do and making a living off of it. I’d have a thriving farm, with a beautiful productive garden and lots of animals that get to roam the full property instead of just their designated areas (because we’d have a fence around the place to keep the animals safe from the highway). I’d be able to care for them without help and be able to work outside despite the heat and sun beating down on me. I’d be able to work to support my family, still have time to cook, clean, and spend time with the family every day. I’d spend more time with my friends, which means I’d have to travel more to get to them. I’d “quit” my husband’s day-job so he could pursue his dreams. I’d be able to do this because I have the ENERGY to do it all and the energy is the major thing that holds me back right now, more than the pain. If I could increase my energy, life would start changing positively, drastically, and quickly. And if this could happen, it would all be because God broke the impossible and made it possible, so of course I’d give Him all the glory and praise He deserves every day. I’d like to say I do this now, but I’m far from perfect in my walk with God (or in anything), again because I lack the energy to do it everyday. I’m trying though and that is a starting place. 

  • CURRENT PATH OR GETTING WORSE: This one is easy. If everything stays the same and I don’t heal or decline, I’ll have good days and bad days, more bad than good. I’ll struggle, but I’ll get by for 10 to 20 years. Quality of living won’t be great, though. If things get worse, I’ll be dead in 5 – 10 years. There is no way I can continue the health decline I’m on and be alive, my body won’t be able to handle it and my mind won’t be able to fight it.

  • My starting date: TBD still. I’ll post it once I get ready to make the commitment. It’ll be soon!

  • The benefits I’ll see when I start: Closer Relationships, Especially With God | Improved Energy | Lose About 40 lbs. | Healthier Appearance |  Better Sleep | Less Pain | Organized & Cleaner Home |  Career Benefits | Financial Benefits | Fun Benefits

PRAYER

Dear Heavenly Father, my Creator, and Protector,

Going through the beginning exercises of “The Daniel Plan” have opened my eyes to things I need to improve on, things I’ve known need improvement, but I’ve struggled with. I’ve tried handling most aspects of my life on my own, wanting to be in control instead of giving you the power to help me.  God, I’m asking for your help today. I have identified the areas I want to focus on the most, and I want to improve in these areas for both our sakes. I want to glorify you, my God, by taking care of my body and my relationships. I want to feel good and be healthy so I can fulfill the plans you have for me, so I can face and conquer the challenges set forth in front of me without fear. Lord, I can only do this if I give all these things over to you to help me with. So, today, my prayer is that you help me see success and that you guide me through this Daniel Plan program, in the areas I need it the most. Lord I give you the power over my life fully, to break the bonds that bind me, to free me from worldly-views and desires, and to do the impossible where all I see are “impossibles”. I give you control over the areas of Faith, Food, Fitness, Focus, and Friends, identified by the Daniel Plan.  I ask for you to help me have patience and grace with myself where I may fall short, for I am often harder on myself than anyone else is on me. I need you, Father God, I need you in my life – every aspect of it. I submit to you although I know it will be a learning process and a journey that won’t always be easy.  I need your deliverance, Lord.  

In Jesus' Name,

Amen.

ACTION

• Read: The Daniel Plan pages  36 – 38; “The Daniel Plan Jumpstart Guide” pages 10 – 11 (optional reading); and the Journal pages 19 – 28.

• Read: Corinthians 10:31

• Look at these apps recommended by The Daniel Plan (in lieu of the Daniel Plan app recommended in the journal, which is no longer available).

• Complete the health assessment survey called “The Daniel Plan 5 Essential Survey” to find your starting point.  This starts on page 22 of the journal.

• Go to The Daniel Plan website and do the “Stages Of Change” exercise, linked here.

• Do the “40-Day Health Assessment”, which I call “Know Your Numbers”, on page 27 of your journal.

• Order your Bible Study Materials for this study:  “The Daniel Plan“, “The Daniel Plan Journal“, or the 2-book set.

QUESTION & ANSWERS

QUESTION:

ARE YOU AND YOUR HUSBAND GOING TO SHARE ALL OF YOUR PERSONAL JOURNEY WITH US?

ANSWER:

I will share MOST of my journey with you and SOME of my husband's journey with you. I feel sharing my personal story with you is an important part of the journey, but there are some things that I want to keep to myself. As for my husband, I will respect his wishes as to what I share and don't share with you as we go through this journey together. He is doing this only because I asked him to, because he loves me. His investment in the plan isn't as deep as my own at the moment, so I'll share what I can.

QUESTION:

THE BOOK SAYS THERE IS A DANIEL PLAN APP, BUT I CAN'T FIND IT. WHERE IS IT?

ANSWER:

The website notes that the app isn't available. I'm not sure if it ever took off or it was there at one time and then went away. All I know is they don't have the app any longer and they put out an apology online about it. Click here to read the apology.

QUESTION:

THE DIFFERENT BOOKS IN "THE DANIEL PLAN" SERIES HAVE WRITING EXERCISES IN THEM, BUT THE JOURNAL DOESN'T HAVE A PLACE FOR ALL OF THESE ANSWERS TO BE WRITTEN DOWN IN IT. WHAT ARE YOU USING TO KEEP ALL YOUR PROGRAM NOTES TOGETHER AND ORGANIZED?

ANSWER:

I am using a few different methods. The first is here on this website - I'm actively taking notes as I read & putting them into this Bible Study Template I use for my Bible Study Blog Posts. They are all kept together for me this way, but I know that not very many people have their own Bible Study website to post notes on, so try one of these ideas:

• Get a notepad to write everything in and keep it with your study materials. Use it only for this program so you don't get other things mixed in with it.

• Start a digital notebook using something like EverNote or Microsoft OneNote (or a similar note-taking app or software) and make sure to use it consistently throughout the program - keeping all your notes together.

• If you write small, you can use the margins of your journal to write notes in as well.

BIBLE STUDY TIPS

We suggest getting either the two-book set with the Journal and The Daniel Plan in a physical copy that you can use to take notes in etc. At minimum, you can do what we did at first and buy the Journal in physical form and The Daniel Plan book in the digital form (on platforms like Amazon's Kindle Unlimited or Audible).

REFERENCES

• "The Daniel Plan" Website

Check Out These Other Great Books By Author & Retired Pastor, Rick Warren:

Our favorite Study Bibles:

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