Boundaries, Battles, and Spiritual Armor

Boundaries, Battles, and Spiritual Armor

by Marge Purvis

with a little enhancement from Barb Shelton 

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What makes sticking to boundaries so difficult? Why do we struggle with just doing it?!

I am convinced that this is a spiritual battle. We are in a battle for healthy bodies and souls.

Battles, by their very nature, are hard and require the right equipment and preparedness of heart and mind.

Our enemy likes wimpy warriors – strong warriors who fall on their knees and seek their Heavenly commander terrify him.

Every time we put on God’s Armor and fight with our spiritual weapons, we gain ground… not to mention terrify the enemy.

But battles are not usually won once and for all. The enemy keeps coming back to challenge our reserve and our resolve.

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STANDING FIRM

The Apostle Paul challenges us to “Stand Firm.” The only way to fight is by putting on the whole Armor of God as laid out in Ephesians 6:10-11.

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We’ve all read and heard this passage many times, but let’s read it again and ask God to take it deeper in us, especially in this arena of our battle with our boundaries with food and eating:

Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.  (Ephesians 6:11-17)

We fall when we put on God’s Armor in the morning and then lay it down and forget about it…  until we all of a sudden find ourselves experiencing defeat. Even though our Heavenly Father is with us 24/7, we get busy and gradually weaken.

Then comes the condemnation that we put on ourselves. “The club of condemnation” is not a piece of God’s Armor. It’s definitely a weapon, but it’s one the enemy uses to advance toward and against us. What we need is to take on weapons of righteousness. Like those found in 2 Corinthians 10:4:

“For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.”

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HELPFUL, PRACTICAL ARMOR

So today choose to wear that Armor of God all day. Here are a few forms it may take:

Reminders posted where you can see them. Like truths God shows you as you are putting on that Armor at the beginning of the day. (These Love Notes from Jesus are in the form of a free printable by Barb Shelton. The video and this form are in Barb’s “Let’s DO This” group on Facebook.)

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Truth Cards and Verses are a great way to keep these handy. Write them on cards or sticky notes.  (Here’s an article – Truth Cards 101 – with lots of ideas and helps for making your own Truth Cards:)

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A written prayer (by Barb Shelton) to pray when you start to weaken and realize you are open and vulnerable for a sneak attack.

Lord, my heart’s desire is that my thoughts, focus and purpose – now and in life in general – would be based on and all wrapped up in YOU, not in desiring more food or longingly looking forward to what and when I can eat next.

I do not want to give up my birthright of having a well-functioning body for “one more [unneeded] bowl of…” any food I just had for a meal that would take beyond my boundary of “5” if I were to eat more of it.

Lord, by your mighty power at work in me, I do not want to listen to or heed my head hunger, to give in to the temptation to eat outside of my boundaries.  In­stead… I am choosing right now to DIE to my “flesh machinery” that just wants to eat eat eat, more more and more! YOU are my food and drink, my highest joy!!!!! ALL the time!! Not just when I’m walking in victory!

I bring my broken appetite to You at the foot of the cross and ask You to put it to death…  and replace it with the appetite You designed for me when You created me.

Would You show me one more good thing about abiding in You? Lord, I want to be normal-in-You! And I know my only hope for this is walking close to You, allowing You to do Your work deep in me!! “For apart from You, I can do nothing”! 

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(And back to Marge as we close:)

So today I join you in fighting this battle.
God is on our side and He will give the victory!

~ Marge Purvis ~

 

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Marge Purvis

See her bio below.

Stress Makes Me Munch

Stress Makes Me Munch

I admit I’ve eaten when I’m lonely or bored, but stressed? Never thought about it until I flew with my husband. We own a Taildragger plane, but I rarely fly with him because it STRESSES me out.

So imagine when he flew me further than my own backyard this past weekend. The stress in my body exceeded Mt. Shasta’s 14,000 foot peak. If I’d been an earthquake, my stress level would have been a ten on the Richter scale. If I was a cat, I’d have been hanging from the ceiling by my claws with my fur standing on end.

Forget Thin Within’s boundaries and counting the cost. When we landed at a small airport, armed guards couldn’t have kept me from the snack vending machine. I wanted my sweet, endurance prize—an Almond Joy.

So yeah, Stress triggers my eating button. If I smoked, I would have inhaled two cigarettes at the same time. If I was a gunslinger about to fight the bad guy, I would have choked down a double shot of whiskey.

However, as I stood in the lobby, waiting for my husband to refuel our plane, I stopped to observe and correct my actions. I realized my taut nerves made me buy that Almond Joy. Eating it, was no solution.

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So I climbed into the backseat of our tandem-seat plane and tucked that mouth-watering baby inside the seat pouch in front of me. When the flight got bumpy, my eyes feasted on the package; imagined how it tasted. But I refused to eat it unless it was absolutely necessary.

Understand, my husband is an experienced aviator who’s flown his whole life. He’s safety conscious, especially with me, because he gets stressed when I’m screaming, “Not so high!” 

Everyone has their thing that makes them stressful. Mine is flying…actually, it’s being suspended in the air higher than ten feet. I feel the same way about aerial trams. So, I’ve had to “work” at not being stressed when I fly.

Here’s what I discovered in the cockpit that calms me and carries over into my life so I’m not a walking Almond Joy.

1) I listen to Christian praise music and meditate on the lyrics that talk about God’s presence and character.

2) I listen to imagery podcasts that help me control my breathing and relax my body.

3)  I pray for people rather than focus on myself, and relinquish my desire to control or fix their problems.

4) I recite Biblical Truths

5) I distract my mind by doing a Word Search. I also have an adult coloring book filled with scripture. Coloring books are popular because creativity relieves stress. I used to embroider and needle point to relax.

6) I read a light-hearted book.

7) I poke fun at myself and laugh.

8) I close my eyes and pretend I’m soaking in a warm bubble bath. 

These suggestions help me relieve stress…and avoid munching…whether both feet are on the ground, or I’m 10,000 feet in the air.

But honestly, when life gets crazy bumpy and it’s absolutely necessary….I munch on the Almond Joy. Only now I know to give half to my husband so I don’t consume all those calories. Why add guilt to stress? 

Prayer – Lesson 11 TW Class 2014

Prayer – Lesson 11 TW Class 2014

alliwant

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition,

with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 

And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding,

will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

~ Philippians 4:6-7

 

This Week’s Video:

Video Questions:

1. God wants me ____________ more than he wants me ________________.

2.  Can you stop the video and pray about your desire to release weight, or to defeat your anorexic tendencies, or your bulimia or…? How about stopping and doing so now and waiting just a bit in his presence. If you feel led, share with the community here at the blog what you dared to ask the Lord for.

3. What is the one “rule” that I mention? What part does prayer play for you in this journey? Is there room for growth? How so? Is there a way you can be intentional about it?

4. Have you been keeping a God List? If this is new to you, have a look here for what a God List is and how to create one. It can be transformative!

5. Have you used your God List to do a Praise Fest? Here is a series of posts about the Praise Fest and also links to Sound Files that are examples of what a praise fest might look like. When I exalt God, I am not likely to exalt myself! Give it a try! Share with us what happens.

6. Can you think of a time when it might help you in your journey if you were to have a Praise Fest?

7. How can Praise and Gratitude profoundly affect our journey? “Instead of proclaiming myself as ________ over my life, I proclaim Him __________ over my life” (04:24). Why does this matter?

8. Praise is _______________________________________________. (05:30)

9. Gratitude is _____________________________________________. (05:35)

10. When I struggle with obedience, there are three questions I can ask (05:58). What are they?

11. How do these three things relate to Prayer?

12. What difference can any of this make to you?

Renewing the Mind

This week, ask the Lord in prayer to make you aware of any lies that you still believe. Invite him to show you HIS “Big T Truth” that can replace any lies or, even, “little t truths” that you are giving too much sway in your life. Create new truth cards from what He shows you.

Pick One (book or workbook):

Trade Book

We have completed the assignments for the Thin Within trade book.  It was a ten-week study for those using the book. However, now would be a great time to go back through the study guide pages and the book itself and complete any exercises or questions you haven’t yet completed. Use this week and next as a chance to catch up. 🙂

Workbook Assignment

1. Read, highlight, mark 🙂 Lesson 11, Prayer, on pages D34 – D38 or listen to the “audio book” version of it at Sound Cloud.  Discuss it here in the comments section below this post or at our Class Facebook Group.
2. Complete the exercises for Lesson 11 on pages D40 – D46. Next Monday before the webinar, respond to the Review questions on page D47 or even better–do so at our Facebook discussion group!
3. Use the entries for Day 71 through Day 77 in the Temple Tool Kit. What have you learned through your use of any of the tools in the Temple Tool Kit?
5. Memorize Psalm 139:23-24. Personalize it and add it to your truth cards.
6. Join us on March 24th for our live webinar at 4:30 Pacific Time. We will be wrapping up lesson 11 on Prayer.

How About You?

We have a new class starting up on the heels of this one. On March 31st (the same day as our last webinar for this class), Karon Ruiz is launching into a study of workbook #2 in the series. Visit our class page for more information.

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NOTE: The Webinar wrapping up Lesson 10 on Forgiveness is here.

Here are the Webinar Lesson 10 Discussion Questions on Forgiveness.

When Food Torments You

Photo Courtesy of iStockPhoto

Photo Courtesy of iStockPhoto

NOTE: When I share a sound file like this, I feel a little weird. I know that my way of relating to God is probably different than most. I feel like I have let you into my secret prayer closet when I share files like this. I have prayed about sharing this and feel like God is in it, so I will step out in faith and trust that if you think I am weird, a nutcase or a Jesus Freak that someone somewhere is going to be ministered to, encouraged, or something…to make it totally worth whatever it might cost me. LOL! 😀

So, with that disclaimer aside…

God never intended food to torment us. When the thought of eating scares us because we know how we are, let’s take a proactive, intentional stand. Let’s renew our minds. Let’s trade the lies we have believed…including the lies we believe about ourselves when we do mess up. Let’s make a plan to do things differently. Let’s re-establish a boundary and then stick with it in the strength God gives. And let’s pray!

This is a sound file (if you are a subscriber, you may need to visit the blog site to access the sound file) that shows an example of how I  renew my mind about how I think about food. This is intended to be an example, but you can also pray silently along with this. I hope that you will join me in continuing to renew your mind with truth. If this idea is a bit foreign to you, it comes out of Romans 12:2 and our bible study of Barb Raveling’s material (if you missed it, please find the list here).

[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/92250958″ params=”” width=” 100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

You are welcome to download this file and put it on a CD or your iPod, but even better if you record one of YOU doing this very thing!

So, what do you think? Is this a practical approach to changing the way you relate to food? Is it possible it could help you? 

If you aren’t comfortable doing it quite like this, you could truth journal. Learn more about that here.

You Alone, O Lord


Deep calls to deep
in the roar of your waterfalls;
all your waves and breakers
have swept over me.
– Psalm 42:7

Stormie Omartian’s book, The Prayer That Changes Everything, has ministered to my heart a great deal. I want to share the prayer found on pages 128 and 129 in it’s entirety. It is my prayer that it reaches into the deep places of your heart as it does mine.

O Lord, I worship You and praise You as Immanuel, my God who is with me. I long for more of You. I seek after You and thirst for You like water in a dry land. I want to stand under the gentle waterfall of Your Spirit and feel the soothing mist of Your love showering over me. I want to be immersed in the center of the flow of Your Spirit. I want to be close enough to You to feel Your heartbeat. You are the only answer to the emptiness I feel when I am not with You. The fullness of Your being is what I crave. The intimacy of embrace is what I long for. I know there is nothing or no one in the world that can do for me what You do. I want to feel Your presence in my life in a new and powerful way. You are far and above anything on earth I might long for. You are all I desire.

Just being with You changes everything in me. Longing for you makes me long to be free of anything that would draw my attention away. Lord, I draw close to You this day. Thank You that You promise to draw close to me. With You I am never alone. I love Your holiness, Lord. I love Your beauty. With joy I draw water from the wells of Your salvation (Isaiah 12:3).

Thank You that You have chosen to be with Your people. I am grateful that I don’t have to strive to be with You, I only have to long to be with You. Help me to make You the first place I run to when I have longings in my heart. I don’t want to waste time turning to other things that will never satisfy the need I have for intimacy with You. My soul waits for You, Lord (Psalm 33:20).