I’ve been thinking about the excuses I use to keep from doing what God is calling me to do. I know that I will make the time needed to do the things I want to do, but those things that He asks me to do that feel like stepping off a cliff, and I know I will have absolutely no control over the matter or the outcome, I tend to hold back and tell God that surely tomorrow will be early enough to take that jump. Our loving Father is good at asking us to step out of our comfort zones! I know that is where I experience the most growth, but it is still uncomfortable and too easy to put off. I can’t help but remember all the times I have said that I will start my diet tomorrow, or I’ll eat healthier tomorrow, or I’ll start going to the gym or working out or give up this favorite food because it is so bad for me or start eating that non-favorite food just because EVERYONE is saying it is a “super food” and so good for me that I just have to add it to my daily eating plan. Do you get the gist? Do you identify? There is an old saying that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Thank the Lord that I am not on that road, but my good intentions have never gotten me to where I want to be. And if I’m honest with myself, those good intentions are nothing more than excuses. Did you know that in Ecclesiastes 11:4 it tells us that if we wait for the perfect time, we will never get anything done? And, do you know that God’s boundaries of eating within hunger and satisfaction don’t come with all the rules I listed above? Those good intentions leave me in bondage while God’s boundaries lead me into freedom.
So what happens in my life when I constantly say, “I’ll start tomorrow” or “next week” or “after this event or that celebration” (because we cannot possibly start eating “right” when we know we have a huge party or get-together on the horizon!)? When I say these things I am looking forward. The first problem with this is that I am not living in today. I have this terrible habit of playing out scenarios in my mind of “what if…” I can have a whole movie going on in my mind. You may be thinking, what’s wrong with that? Let me tell you. When I do this with planning way ahead, my focus isn’t on today and what needs to be done today. What is playing out in my head may not even happen. I look ahead for roadblocks that will make it impossible to move forward with God’s eating plan. The biggest problem is that there will always be roadblocks. I will always find an excuse to not start today. How sad that I forget God and His promise that He will always give a way out of temptation.
What happens when I say, “I’ll start later”? I never start. Is this your story too? Saying this sets me up for failure no matter what, and what I am really saying is, “If I can’t do it, then I am also not going to allow God to do it.” Ouch!! It hurts to even remember the times I’ve said such things.
Do we think that God would give us permission and grace by telling us, “Yes, eat as much as possible tonight, and tomorrow you can start being good at following the boundaries I have set for you? No, He wouldn’t for He tells us to be holy as He is holy. (All over Leviticus, and my favorite in Hebrews 12:14) Why do we give ourselves permission to do this same thing?
What does God’s Word say to me about putting off doing what His plan is for me? In Romans 13:14 I read that I need to put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no plans to satisfy fleshly desires. So when I keep putting off what I need to do and what God wants me to do, I am doing nothing more or less than planning to satisfy my greedy flesh that in its natural state wants more than its fair share. In 1 Peter 2:11, I am urged to live in this world as an alien and a temporary resident and to abstain from fleshly desires that war against me. Yes, it is a war, and so much of my time has been spent trying to fight it. And I hate to say this, but I wasn’t fighting very hard. My flesh wouldn’t let me.
I want to live the rest of my life with the phrase “I’ll start tomorrow” removed from my vocabulary. I want to live the rest of my life committed to God’s lifelong boundaries. It won’t be easy, but I want to see what my life will look like. I want to see what plans God has in store for me and the only way I will see is with a clear head that is no longer living in a food fog. I know that God wants me to make this commitment because in doing so, I am letting go of the reins and handing them over to the only ONE that can do more than I could ever hope or imagine. (Ephesians 3:20)
Dear God, my Creator and the Lover of my soul, create in me a pure heart that seeks to honor You above all, with my mind, my heart, my soul, my words and my food. Lord God, break the strongholds of overeating and putting off till later what needs to be done now. Break the idols of food focus and procrastination in my heart. Remove from my lips the words, “I’ll start tomorrow.” I want to live in the now in total surrender to You. I want nothing in my life that is held above You or that I run to instead of You. You are my Strong Tower. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
How about you? Are you ready to remove “I’ll start tomorrow” from your vocabulary? Are you willing to pray with me for God’s plan to be worked out in your life? I’ve jumped off that cliff. Will you join me? Our loving Father is there with His arms opened wide to catch us.
Can I be honest with you? (I hear a round of, “Yes, absolutely!”) We are in a battle. Have you ever identified with the cartoon images or pictures of people with an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other? I can always imagine the conversation going on. The devil is saying, “Go ahead! It won’t hurt! No one will know!” While the angel tries to be the voice of reason, “Don’t do it! It will hurt! Remember last time, please! Sure, no one will know, but it will show on your body. And God will know!” Have you been there? Our culture tries to paint a cute or funny picture of what is going on all around us. Sadly, it is neither cute nor funny. It is real.
I’ve listened to the devil’s voice. He likes to be my personal critic. He likes to tell me how I will never succeed…in my job, in my relationships, in my prayer life and in my Hunger Within journey. He tells me to just give up. I will never measure up. I will never be thin enough, smart enough, funny enough, or honest enough. One little thing can go wrong and my whole “Praise God” attitude can go down the drain. I have felt like I fight and fight and never get ahead. Do you identify? Have you been here?
The Thin Within/Hunger Within ministry deals with our food issues, disordered eating and problems with body image. It teaches us how we got in the shape we are in and what to do for healing. The beauty of the Thin Within/Hunger Within ministry is how the material spills over into the other areas of our lives. Yes, dear reader, the Thin Within/Hunger Within material can help us in all areas of our lives where we struggle!
I found myself in a spot just this week where I needed to use the Thin Within tool of Observe and Correct. I have been struggling within myself at a new job. I am doing things I have never done before and I have been questioning if I am good enough or smart enough to do this job. Understand that no one at my new job is making me feel inferior or is saying anything to make me think this is true. This battle raging is within me. It is the proverbial good vs. evil that goes on around us all the time. I felt fear start creeping in and I didn’t like it. I am gratefully far enough on my TW/HW journey to not be running to food to deal with what was going on in my mind. But that sure doesn’t stop the battle in my mind between the lies of the devil and the truth found in God. And the battle raged.
At this point you may want to quit reading. You may think the story is over because you are remembering your own battles that ended in defeat. Believe me, I’ve been there too. But, not this battle. I am slowing coming to realize that the battles I fight do not belong to me. They belong to the Lord. My job is to be prepared for the battle. He is the one who fights it. I observed that I wasn’t prepared to fight this battle and I needed to suit up if I want to have victory. I corrected by going to God’s Word (Ephesians 6:10-18) and remembering my studies in Hunger Within that taught me how to prepare. I prayed. I wielded the Sword of the Spirit and prayed Scripture. I told the devil the truth to counteract his lies by wearing the Belt of Truth. I held the Shield of Faith. I told God in my prayers that I trust Him and that He is my Strong Tower and I am safe in Him. I prayed that I want my life to reflect His glory. I could feel the fiery darts of the devil being deflected as I stood in the Lord’s strength. I was wearing the Helmet of Salvation that affirms that I am bought with a dear price and I am His. And my heart was covered with the Breastplate of Righteousness. Because of His sacrifice, my heart pumps with life because He gave His life for mine. I am covered with His righteousness. I went into battle, fully outfitted and fully prepared. I stood. The Lord fought. He won.
Do you find yourself in battles you feel you will never get out of or ever win? I find when I fear I am losing, it is because I am trying to fight on my own. We have God’s promise. He is there with us. Will you prepare, and suit up? Will you then stand and let Him fight the battle? We are in a battle, but it is not ours to fight. The battle belongs to the Lord.
The spring 2016 Hunger Within class has started with a bang. I would like to say I am amazed at how similar our stories are, but I am not. We all have so much in common in our upbringings: as far as our weight goes, our skewed views of our bodies and that silent hunger within that we try to fill with so many things – the number one thing being food and dieting. Most of us have dieted till we are blue in the face and would do anything to never diet again. Most of us have been up and down in weight many, many times. I am seeing that most, me included have been members of every diet club where we have spent exorbitant amounts of money to not eat (see my blog http://www.thinwithin.org/only-in-america/). We have joined gyms, been instructors and have even fallen into exercise bulimia. And many of us were members and leaders of another biblical intuitive eating program that a few years ago became not so biblical. What does all this have in common? We have all been on a search to feed our Hunger Within with everything we could find except going to the One who created it in the first place.
God created our Hunger Within because He wants us to go to Him. He wants to fill us and satisfy us. He wants us to taste and see that He is good and we are blessed when we trust in Him (Psalm 34:8). When we try to fill that hunger with the things of the world, we may feel satisfied for a short time, and then whatever we are using falls flat. We may feel that we have to have the control over our food that diets seem to give us. Sadly, when we fall off our diets, the food starts controlling us. We think if we could just get the food to obey for once we would melt into the bodies we believe we need and deserve. We get desperate, looking under every rock to find the one perfect plan that will finally work for us. Well, I have found it!! Only God can satisfy the longing soul and fill the hungry soul with goodness (Psalm 107:9).
I searched and cried out and I prayed and then I finally surrendered control. God’s Word became real to me in a way it hadn’t before. He told me that if I would look for Him wholeheartedly, I would find Him (Jeremiah 29:13). We as Christians like to quote Jeremiah 29:11 about how God has plans for us to prosper us and not harm us. I love that verse. But, somehow I would stop reading before I got to verse 13. I wasn’t having any victory because my whole heart wasn’t in it. I still wanted things my way in many aspects of my food issues. I wanted what I wanted whenever I wanted and in the amounts I wanted till the pain of being at the weight I was became worse than the pain of giving up control. I sought the LORD God with all my heart at that moment of surrender, and I found Him. I found Him in my pantry and in my refrigerator right where I had been looking for something to fill me. He was there all the time, just waiting for my choice to be Him over all the other choices. He was patient, so very patient and longsuffering as I chose this thing and that thing over Him. And the day I surrendered fully to Him and His plan of eating for me, He grabbed me into His arms and comforted me through the pain of giving up control.
What about you? Are you tired of trying to fill that Hunger Within with the things of the world and are you ready to surrender to God who is the only One who can truly fill you? He is right there, in front of you as you stand with your refrigerator door open looking for just the right thing to satisfy your craving. Reach for Him and taste and see that He is good.
Behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth; shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness AND rivers in the dessert.
Isaiah 43:19
Oh, how I dislike the beginning of the year. I even dislike it more now that I am on this journey with Thin Within/Hunger Within. I used to dread the beginning of the year because the pressure was on. It was time to start that new diet or eating miracle and everyone was doing it. The questions started and the testimonies abounded. Look at how great I am and the progress I’ve made. What are you giving up? Which food group are you doing without and which food groups are you eating? I’m cleansing from this and that and that and this. I’m sure I have this intolerance and am sure (without a medical diagnosis) I am diseased in this way and cannot eat that food any longer. (No disrespect intended to those who have celiac disease, Crohn’s disease or are diabetic! If you have these conditions and diseases, you need to watch certain food items and follow your doctor’s instructions.) I am surrounded this year with a plethora of friends who are following man made diet laws and food restrictions. It hurts me to see them following along with blind faith and great expectations. Why? Because, I was once one of them. I jumped on each new bandwagon that carried the newest fad or miracle food plan and always ended up in the same place. It didn’t work in the long term for me. I would lose, yes. And, oftentimes I would even feel better. But, in all honesty, I was never going to stay on that bandwagon for the rest of my life. And even though I might have had some weight loss, the loss wasn’t going to stay gone because nothing was changed in my head and in my heart. These plans were something for me to do to #1 to fit in, #2 to possibly get the body I have always wanted and #3 to finally get that stupid food to obey and work with me! Sadly, the food would once again gain dominion over me in my heart and mind and once again I would be back to eating in the ways I had always eaten.
Can I share something that I find amazing? We don’t have to go through these machinations! (According to Merriam Webster’s dictionary, a machination is a scheming or crafty action or artful design intended to accomplish some usually evil end) I don’t know if you have noticed, but man has made many, almost limitless food rules and diets over the years. I have seen so many in my lifetime of just 57 years, and I am sad to say have tried most of them. I have “given up” food groups. I have fasted (not spiritual fasting, but greed fasting just for weight loss). I have cleansed and I have been righteous. I am a carnivore who even became a vegetarian for 2 years. Solomon, you are so right in all of your God given wisdom for in Ecclesiastes 1:9 you tell us, “That which has been is what will be, that which is done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.”
If there is really nothing new under the sun, then what is a person who really and truly wants their body to reflect that they are the temple and dwelling place of the Holy Spirit to do? We must go back to the beginning. God created. That is the truth that Thin Within/Hunger Within is founded on. That 2 word phrase is all we need. That is the phrase which is the truth and healing balm that we who are Jesus following, Holy Spirit led, God fearing Christians, need to find peace and comfort around all food, eating and body image issues. God created…God created in each of us a natural way to eat. He created us to eat when we are hungry and He gave us the ability to stop eating when satisfied. He gave us who are in Christ Jesus a road in the wilderness to safely travel on as we go forward (just as He kept the Israelites safe as they traveled in the wilderness) and He gave us rivers of Living Water to drink from when we are in the dessert (He gave the Israelites water from the Rock in the dessert). WE don’t have to wander aimlessly anymore. We don’t have to look back with longing for whatever Egypt tempts us. We have all we need in how He created us to be. We can surrender and find healing.
My question to you sweet reader is this, “If you don’t feel you are on that road in the wilderness (being kept safe from the world’s ways) or are drinking that Living Water in the dessert (John 4:14 – Jesus said, “But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. The water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.), what is holding you back from doing so?” If you have found or find yourself even now on that Merry-go-round of trying to follow a man-made food plan or diet and you are sick and tired of trying to live up to something that deep in your soul you know is not what God has planned for you, then I invite you to join me and all the others who came before me that have found freedom and victory over all these food issues through Thin Within/Hunger Within. God’s healing and comfort awaits you. All you need to do is take the first step.
Today, I am going to share about something that has been weighing on my heart and is something difficult to admit. Because of recent reactions of mine to things going on in my life, I had to ask myself this painful question: “Why do I still get upset when things in my life don’t go my way, even though in my heart I know that I trust God to take care of me?” Where is the disconnect? God has proven Himself faithful, time and time again, yet I go into a tailspin when something goes wrong. I am afraid that even though I trust Him, there are still many areas in my life where I am trying to control things by my own power. I have proven time and time again that doing life by my own power never works.
I have always heard it said that the distance between the head and the heart is one of the longest. Sometimes the distance seems insurmountable when it comes from taking head knowledge and making it heart knowledge. When I think about my anxious feelings over the last few weeks, I realize in my heart, I totally trust God, but it is my head that is getting me into trouble. I am too strong minded. I think too long and too deeply about issues that I can’t control. Wow, I didn’t think it was possible, but my heart is good and it’s my head that needs help. This is why it is so important for me to find the time in my schedule for renewing my mind daily. Oh, how life gets in the way…or should I say I allow life to get in the way. I make excuses…I have a new job, I didn’t sleep well last night so I have to press the doze button, I have a family commitment…I need to…whatever. Whatever I allow to be in the way of my growth is an excuse, and those excuses cause my daily life to suffer.
I am a firm believer that we always have time for what is important to us. I have to ask myself if my boundaries are important to me or if I am going allow the “stuff” going on in my life to “give” me permission to break them. Are the changes that God has done in my heart and life worth the extra time it takes each day to renew my mind so that those changes stay and grow to even more miracles? It is very easy to fall back into previous reactions to life. It is easy to run back to food. It is easy to run back to losing myself in TV or books or quilting or anything else that takes me away. It’s easy, but praise God, it is no longer comfortable. I want to guard the growth I have experienced this past year. I don’t want to lose the gracious gifts I have received from my Loving Father. I want to praise Him for even the “stuff” that could drive me back to the way I was before. I want to praise Him for the good, the bad and the ugly. I am grateful that God wants to grow my faith by letting me struggle. He loves and cares for me that much.
I have a favorite section of Scripture that has helped me in the past during times of frustration and fear. It is Habakkuk 3:17-19. It says, “Though the fig tree does not bud and there is no fruit on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will triumph in the LORD; I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. Yahweh my Lord is my strength; He makes my feet like those of a deer and enables me to walk on mountain heights!” What this says to me is that even when things look and seem impossible to get through, even then, He is with me. No matter what I feel, see, perceive or experience that makes me believe that there is no way to move forward, the way is there and it is the road the Lord has laid out for me. I don’t have to figure it out and I don’t need to know what will happen tomorrow. I just have to put one foot in front of the other and follow Him.
It’s too late to make a resolution, and those are only made to break. What I will commit to is making a daily effort to renewing my mind. I will not do this perfectly, but no more excuses. Will you join me? I believe God has great spiritual growth in store for those in Thin Within/Hunger Within this year. Let’s commit together to use the tools we have at hand to grow closer to our Lord who is the Author and Perfecter of our faith. No matter what happens, let’s draw close to our Source of all that we need.
I follow a blog where the writer has shared that each year she asks God to give her a word. This word is her focus for the year. For the last couple of years, I have followed suit and asked God for a word of my own to focus on through the New Year. This year’s word came with some conviction from the Holy Spirit. I really wasn’t surprised. The conviction is for something that has been on my heart and in my mind for a while now. You see, I am seeing how very negative I can be. I like to appear as a positive person, but if you would hide in the back of my car while I’m driving anywhere, you would hear that I am not. God tells us in His Word that out of the heart, the mouth speaks (Luke 6:45) and I am sad to say that when I am driving by myself, I hear myself speaking very negatively. I won’t speak this way around you. It is when it is just God and me, and it breaks my heart when I hear it. If I’m not careful, I can be led into eating outside of my God given boundaries of 0 to 5, and then I have two trials instead of one. I am grateful for the conviction of the Holy Spirit. I hear His voice and He leads me to confession and repentance for my words.
I always have a choice with how to handle these attributes about myself that I am troubled by. I can let them make me want to drown my sorrows in food, or I can let them take me to God’s Word. Because of all the work God have done through me around my eating issues and all that I have learned through being in the Thin Within Community I know that food is not the answer. Wanting to overeat is a symptom of a deeper issue. I need to go to God’s Word instead.
I love when God leads me into His Word and shows me the depth of what can be found there for my every trial and sorrow. Through dealing with my negative emotions and feelings, He led me to Hebrews 12:1-15. This is what I heard Him telling me through His Scriptures about how He wanted me to handle my feelings and what He wants me to get out of them:
He wants me to lay aside the weight of this issue.
He does not want me to sin because of this issue.
He wants me to endure.
He wants me to run the race.
He wants me to look to Jesus Who authored and finished my faith.
He wants me to experience joy.
He does not want me to become weary or discouraged in my soul.
He does not want me to despise His chastening.
He does not want me to be discouraged.
He wants me to accept discipline because I am His daughter.
He wants me to accept the profit of His discipline.
He wants me to partake of His holiness.
He wants me to accept this momentary pain with a glad heart.
He wants me to yield to the peaceable fruit of righteousness.
He wants me to be trained by my trial.
He wants to strengthen my hands and feeble knees.
He wants to make my paths straight.
He wants to heal me.
He wants me to pursue peace.
He wants me to pursue holiness.
He wants my life to reflect Him, the Lord, so others will see Him.
He wants me to fully experience His grace.
He wants me to let go of bitterness.
He wants me to forgo any trouble.
He doesn’t want my actions to cause anyone to be defiled.
And, He wants me to seek Him first.
So, my word of the year is Positive. I know from Hebrews how God wants me to handle my negative emotions and feelings and what He wants me to get from them, but in my daily life, how am I going to experience the power of being positive? Once again, I go to God and His Word. He has given me Philippians 4:6-8 as my life verse this year, and I know it will give me guidance with living out my word Positive. The Apostle Paul tells me, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made know to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Finally brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” Living any other way is not bringing me into God’s will and is not honoring to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
What about you? Can you claim the truth and promises found in Hebrews 12:1-15 for yourself for whatever trials you are dealing with, whether they are food issues, relationship issues or other struggles? And will you, like me, let Philippians 4:6-8 be your life verse for this New Year? Our loving and gracious Father wants so much for us. Will you join me in allowing Him to work in us this year? 2016 is going to be a year for change, and I believe with God, all things are possible.
One of my favorite Christmas songs is “Mary Did You Know” written by Mark Lowry and one of my new favorite renditions of this song is the one performed by Danny Gokey (see it here: Danny Gokey – Mary, Did You Know? (Live) ). It is so powerful, but the true power in this song is in Whom it is speaking about. This song is all about Jesus: what He did, and what He still does today.
It saddens me that as we go into the New Year, there will be many of us who will make a list of New Year’s Resolutions. These lists will include things like eating better, new diets to try or old tried and true ones to go back to (they really aren’t tried and true if you are still seeking to lose weight and keep it lost!), diligent exercise plans, self-improvements galore and many things of the same nature. Maybe your list includes wonderful things like praying more and reading the Bible daily. Those are great things to do and I keep those resolutions myself each New Year. The problem with making resolutions about weight loss and fitness is that they seldom stick. We keep trying to make ourselves fit into a mold of health and vitality and we just don’t get there. And when we fail year after year, we keep beating ourselves up and our feelings of failure just keep us living our lives the same way we always do. Do you want this year to be different? I know I did last year at this time, and I would like to invite you on a journey with me for this New Year. It starts with placing “Know Jesus Better” at the top of your resolution list, followed by “Know Who I am in Christ Better.” It is in these two resolutions that you will find the strength for change.
I really believe that we forget that our God is a miracle worker. Our Lord Jesus who healed the sick and cured the incurable still does that today. In the words of “Mary Did You Know” we hear “The blind will see; the deaf will hear; and the dead will live again! The lame will leap; the dumb will speak the praises of the Lamb!“ When you hear those words in this song or when you read this truth in God’s Word, do you believe them? Or, do you believe that was then, and this is now? Do you believe that those healed by our Savior deserved to be healed for some reason and in your own thinking you believe you don’t deserve healing? Maybe you don’t think God cares about healing or fixing problems that we see as things we suffer though because of our own making? Well, I’ve got news for you! Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, God is the same today as He was then and as He will be tomorrow. Jesus Christ performed miracles before He walked the earth, as He walked the earth and as He sits at God’s right hand today. This year let’s develop our FAITH muscle and start truly believing!
Our issues and problems matter to God. He loves having those very things draw us closer to Him. It is through drawing closer to Him that we develop perseverance for this journey. It is through trusting Him to handle the decisions and temptations that He proves Himself faithful and loving. Jesus did heal the sick, cure the dumb and lame, brought the dead back to life and calmed the storm with just a wave of His hand or a word from His lips. This New Year, will you allow, once and for all, your Savior and Lord Jesus to calm the storms in your heart? Will you let go of trying to change your own life by making a list of New Year’s resolutions and instead make it your desire to know Him better and to fully accept who you are in Him? Believe me when I say that I now know I can’t change myself. Believe me; I tried more times than I’d like to admit! What I can tell you for sure is that God changed my life this past year and I never want to go back to the way it was before. It started with looking for a Biblical way to lose weight and ended up with me fully surrendering the whole issue of weight loss/gain, food focus and disordered eating patterns over to Him. Each act of surrender on my part was met with a greater blessing of the Holy Spirit’s work in my heart and mind. This time last year, I was in your shoes: fearing God would never heal my heart around issues with food and weight. He led me first into a Bible Study that was deep in the Word, but soft around food boundaries. I found I still had too much leeway to try and control food to my own whims and wishes. Through that study, He led me into Hunger Within and the God designed boundaries of eating when hungry and stopping when satisfied. He introduced me to His pleasant boundaries, but I didn’t totally surrender to Him until I woke up to the fact that what was coming out of my mouth in words didn’t match my actions. You see, I was still trying to live up to my list of things to do instead of allowing God’s list for me to take effect. I gave up trying to do this myself and gave control over to God. This change in me has taken work on my part. I have had to use the tools of daily Bible reading/study, renewing my mind through truth journaling, truth cards and scripture praying and I have been involved in the TW/HW community. Doing those things took the focus off of me and placed my focus where it needed to be…on God, the Miracle Worker. The work is simple but not always easy, but the miracle that God has done in my heart is real and a tribute to how He still works miracles today!
Let this New Year be one of great growth and change! Let this be the year to delete, “I blew it again!” from your vocabulary and exchange it for, “Christ Jesus is working a miracle in my life!” Join the journey to true freedom in Christ this year and every year!! Join me in singing these words,
“Oh, the blind will see; the deaf will hear; and the dead will live again!
He’s the great I Am!
He’s for me.
He’s healed me.
He’s the great I Am!
He shall be called Wonderful and Counselor!
He’s the great I Am!
There’s healing in His hands, lightning in His eyes.
Truly this man is… He’s the great I Am, the great I Am!”
I have been noticing that my heart has felt different this Christmas season. I am more focused on others. I am looking forward to time spent with my family. I am not tense or nervous or insecure about the gifts my husband and I are giving to our family. I am joyous, content and I feel peace. I can’t ever remember a Christmas in my whole adult life where I have felt like I do this Christmas. You may be asking, “Why the change?” I believe that my heart change has come from a year of working the program of Hunger Within, following 0 to 5 boundaries, renewing my mind and daily spending time with my Lord Who is the Lover of my soul and the One who died to not only free me from the penalty of my sin, but He also died to break the power of sin in my life.
In church this morning we read Matthew 6:21. It got me thinking about the change in my heart that I have been noticing. I remembered Christmases in the past where I was worried if everything would go all right. I worried about the food and if everyone would enjoy it. I worried about the gifts I was giving. I baked and overate on not only the baked goods, but the dough that went in to the baked goods. I seemed to feel lousy a lot of the time because I was overeating on all types of foods, often having a binge when the house quieted after bed time for other family members and I was finally alone to enjoy what I used to think of as my friend and my comfort, excess food. Then I would feel depressed because my weight would start going up and I would have to start thinking about the New Year and weight loss resolutions. When I think about this scripture, I realize that my treasure was totally in the wrong place and my heart showed it. Can you identify with this pattern? I didn’t think I would ever break free from this annual destructive pattern in my life, and what I found out by seeking the Lord’s help, is that I never would break free with my own will. It has only happened through Him working in my heart. It is Christ’s transformation power that is changing me; not anything that I could have ever done on my own. He is transforming me through the renewing of my mind as I seek His face and His word in my life daily. I started noticing the shift the more I realized that I was not being set free by following my boundaries perfectly. Who could follow boundaries perfectly? I am being set free by the renewing of my mind.
The blessings gained by going into this holiday season without a focus on my body size, the types of food I am eating or attempting not to eat or trying to think ahead to my New Year diet, are innumerable. My mind is clear as I fast between my meals: the food fog is gone. My heart feels love as I think about others and take them to the Lord in prayer: my self-focused internal frustration and anger at myself and others is gone. I have had the energy to get everything I needed to get done, done and the things that were not important, I let slip peacefully from my mind: my body’s exhaustion from never having my ingested food totally digested is gone. I am content with what I have, how much I have and where I have it: my discontented heart is gone. When I wake each morning and I choose to focus first on the Lord, my life falls into balance. I feel that what He has accomplished in my life this past year is truly a miracle.
How about you? Would you like to find yourself in the place I am and so many other sojourners on the Thin Within/Hunger Within pathway? Would you like to wake up next Christmas season to realize that your heart and mind is on the One who is the reason for the season and not on all the worries you have had in the past? If so, trade your inclination to start thinking about New Year’s Resolutions and your thoughts of what diet to start on January 4th (that’s the first Monday in January…after all, we always started our diets on a Monday!)and instead check out the upcoming classes of either the Thin Within book or workbooks, or sign up to take the Hunger Within class I am co-leading with my friend Deanna Lewis that starts in February. Let’s journey together through this upcoming year with the Lord and each other, hand in hand as we seek the Lord’s face and His plans for our lives, renewing our minds daily and walking through pleasant places as we follow our 0 to 5 boundaries around food. My prayer is that next Christmas, you too will find you are living a miracle!
I am in the 2015 Holiday Victory class that is studying Barb Raveling’s book, Taste for Truth. Even though Barb isn’t a member of the Thin Within community, reading this book (now for the third time) has been so life changing on my journey towards freedom from disordered eating and thinking and I wanted to share some truths that I found on day one of this Bible study.
On day one in Taste for Truth we look at our role compared to God’s role in the transformation process. I hope after reading this you will agree with me that everything we have done in the past to get to what we felt was the perfect body size without bringing God into the picture was an exercise in futility.
Take for instance the scripture found in John 8:31-32 – Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” In this scripture, my role is to abide in God’s Word and believe in Jesus. God’s role is to fill me with truth and to set me free. Do you see the beauty of what happens here? I abide and He works.
Here in John 15:1-5 I see that my role is to once again abide in Christ Jesus; to stay around Him and remain in Him. As I do this staying attached to the True Vine, I will bear fruit. If I don’t stay attached to Him, I can do nothing. God’s role as the Vine Dresser is to prune me. He will remove from me the sin in my life that prohibits the producing of fruit. How good is our heavenly Father that He takes on the job of changing me?
I love that we read and study the truth of Romans 12:2 in this book and our Thin Within/Hunger Within material. This is such an important step in freedom from disordered eating, body focus and food obsession to dealing with every area of life. In this scripture, my role is to renew my mind through God’s Word which has the power to transform me. I also have to let go of any area of my life that conforms to the world. I have found that if I don’t renew my mind on a regular basis, it is easy to be like one of the masses. Sadly, without abiding in Christ and renewing my mind, I tend to be like everyone else. God’s role is to aid in my transformation through the work of the Holy Spirit and to allow me to know His perfect will.
In 2 Corinthians 10:3-5, my role is to wield the Sword of the Spirit which is God’s true Word so that I can take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ Jesus. The only way I can wield the Sword of the Spirit is to abide in God’s Word. There is that word again…abide. Hmm, I think I see a pattern developing here. God’s role is to tear down my strongholds. I think about all the times I have tried to tear down and demolish all the “strongholds” or things that had a strong hold over me in my heart and mind, and I find from the scriptures that I was fighting a losing battle. The battle belongs to the LORD God, not me.
In summary: my role is to abide or stay connected to Christ Jesus through the reading and studying of God’s Word; meditating on His Word in order to renew my mind and memorize His Word in order to wield the Sword of the Spirit. This doesn’t work if I just do it on Sundays in church. This is a daily requirement. God’s part in the transformation process is transforming me from the inside out so that my outer frame and countenance reflects the inner change of my heart through my true focus and devotion to the Lover of my Soul, Jesus Christ.
What I usually do when I want to transform myself in the area of weight loss is to join a popular weight loss club and spend a ton of money and chronically work out. If I could have transformed myself, I would not have needed Thin Within and this Holiday Victory class studying Barb Raveling’s book Taste for Truth. According to the verses that I studied by myself and now with you all, what I have done in the past doesn’t even get me started on the road to true freedom from my obsession with food and body image. This is only done through the power of God as I abide in Him. How about you? Are you ready to join me on this journey that we walk together at Thin Within and to finally let go of all those plans that never work for His plan that will?
I’ve been thinking about the excuses I use to keep from doing what God is calling me to do. I know that I will make the time needed to do the things I want to do, but those things that He asks me to do that feel like stepping off a cliff, and I know I will have absolutely no control over the matter or the outcome, I tend to hold back and tell God that surely tomorrow will be early enough to take that jump. Our loving Father is good at asking us to step out of our comfort zones! I know that is where I experience the most growth, but it is still uncomfortable and too easy to put off. I can’t help but remember all the times I have said that I will start my diet tomorrow, or I’ll eat healthier tomorrow, or I’ll start going to the gym or working out or give up this favorite food because it is so bad for me or start eating that non-favorite food just because EVERYONE is saying it is a “super food” and so good for me that I just have to add it to my daily eating plan. Do you get the gist? Do you identify? There is an old saying that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Thank the Lord that I am not on that road, but my good intentions have never gotten me to where I want to be. And if I’m honest with myself, those good intentions are nothing more than excuses. Did you know that in Ecclesiastes 11:4 it tells us that if we wait for the perfect time, we will never get anything done? And, do you know that God’s boundaries of eating within hunger and satisfaction don’t come with all the rules I listed above? Those good intentions leave me in bondage while God’s boundaries lead me into freedom.
So what happens in my life when I constantly say, “I’ll start tomorrow” or “next week” or “after this event or that celebration” (because we cannot possibly start eating “right” when we know we have a huge party or get-together on the horizon!)? When I say these things I am looking forward. The first problem with this is that I am not living in today. I have this terrible habit of playing out scenarios in my mind of “what if…” I can have a whole movie going on in my mind. You may be thinking, what’s wrong with that? Let me tell you. When I do this with planning way ahead, my focus isn’t on today and what needs to be done today. What is playing out in my head may not even happen. I look ahead for roadblocks that will make it impossible to move forward with God’s eating plan. The biggest problem is that there will always be roadblocks. I will always find an excuse to not start today. How sad that I forget God and His promise that He will always give a way out of temptation.
What does God’s Word say to me about putting off doing what His plan is for me? In Romans 13:14 I read that I need to put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no plans to satisfy fleshly desires. So when I keep putting off what I need to do and what God wants me to do, I am doing nothing more or less than planning to satisfy my greedy flesh that in its natural state wants more than its fair share. In 1 Peter 2:11, I am urged to live in this world as an alien and a temporary resident and to abstain from fleshly desires that war against me. Yes, it is a war, and so much of my time has been spent trying to fight it. And I hate to say this, but I wasn’t fighting very hard. My flesh wouldn’t let me.
