God has a texting plan! Well, ok, maybe that is not entirely accurate. God doesn’t actually need a texting plan.
Let me back up. I didn’t really have a clue about text messaging until a few months ago when communication with our very busy worship/youth pastor required that I be able to get in touch with him. Prior to that, when I saw someone actually typing on their cell phone, I thought it seemed like such a worthless and time consuming endeavor. “Why don’t you just call them?,” I wondered!
Emailing or calling Pastor Tony didn’t work, so I tried something on a whim I never had done before…I shot him a text message from my cell phone. To my joy and utter surprise, I got a response! I discovered very quickly that when needing to get or give information to Pastor Tony, nothing was as efficient as texting! I bought a texting plan and my world hasn’t been the same since, though, I don’t typically use texting for anyone else.
Last weekend, my 15 year old baby 🙂 went on a evangelism trip to Costa Mesa. She had never been away from home before. Suddenly texting took on a whole new meaning. Throughout the day (and night) she could shoot me a text or I could ask her where she was and what she was doing. It was incredible to get to participate in her life that way…getting little glimpses into what she was doing. I knew when she ate, when she slept (when she didn’t!), when the adults on the trip got to sneak in a shower at the gym across the street, when they stopped for gas or snacks, when they arrived at the evangelism conference and when they went to the beach to witness.
She made it through (and so did I), I think partly because I could actually feel like I was involved through what had before seemed like such a silly technology–that of texting. It was super cool when she shot me a photo of her at that very moment at the beach while the group was talking to a homeless man named Jim. There was my baby! I felt like I was there! I knew about what she was doing and going through!
The other day, as I was going through Psalm 139 which the HEAL book has had us focus on quite a bit, it struck me why this Psalm is such a testimony of God’s love for us.
1 O LORD, you have searched me and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O LORD.
– Psalm 139: 1-4
He used my text messaging Michaela all last weekend to demonstrate the fact that his involvement is proof of his love (as if I need that after Romans 5:8 and other texts).
While my baby was on the trip, I wanted to know her sitting, rising, going out and lying down…I wanted to know if she had brushed her teeth and what she had eaten. Why? Because I love her so much! I didn’t spend my time texting any of the other kids on the trip. Why? Because they don’t have my heart like Michaela does.
It struck me that this is the way the Lord is…he is so intimately acquainted with me and wants to know all about me (and does, in his omniscience) because he loves me so much. If he didn’t love me, he wouldn’t bother with knowing all my ways…So, what would the Lord say in a text message? He knows all my ways and cares intimately about it all…what is on his heart to convey to me?
I wanted to know every bit about my daughter while she was gone. Every breath, every step, everything she was learning…I wanted to know it all. And I couldn’t stop telling her how much I missed her and loved her. I wanted to know more. Because I am not omniscient, I relied on text messaging! 🙂 God relies on his omniscience to accomplish the same thing…all because he loves me so very much!
My husband did something strange a couple of weeks ago. Not one for too much physical “exertion,” Bob typically avoids (like the plague) activity that can generate a sweat. 🙂 Ok, maybe it isn’t quite that bad, but he isn’t one of those kinds of guys that needs to pump iron or run 5 miles to feel like a man. 🙂
So, when, one morning during our quiet times, he asked me if I would like to get a membership to California Family Fitness again, I was quite surprised. Not only was I surprised at his suggestion of the idea given it costs money to do this, or at the fact that this implies a willingness to sweat, but it also struck me that we live 40 minutes from the nearest facility that is worth it’s salt in sweat, which means quite some time investment to get our money’s worth.
I have a confession to make. Not like it is a new confession or anything. I have made it here at the blog before. I love exercise. I am a reformed gym rat. But my problem is I fear returning to my former obsession. The pendulum is way at the other end of things for me in this. What once was obsessive “fear of NOT working out” has become a fear of working out. I fear that I can’t handle any kind of routine exercise.
Maybe God has us placed 40 minutes from CFF (California Family Fitness) to help safeguard against this. When we lived 5 minutes away from the gym we belonged to in the 90s, I worked out twice a day for over an hour. (Hubby calls this my “bulimic period,” as he is convinced–and he is right–that I used exercise to “purge”).
So he had the idea of doing this–of getting a gym membership, but that is a long step away from actually signing up. So imagine my surprise when he came home one day and gave me three membership cards (one for me and one for each of our two kids) so that we could now freely go to the gym…Wow. I guess he really meant it.
Although it has been two weeks since he did this, yesterday was the first day the kids and I got over to the gym. We began with a half an hour of racquetball–which is a blast as far as I am concerned. I love tennis, but racquetball with my kids is great because we can spend time pummeling the ball instead of chasing it like we do out on the tennis court.
After racquetball, we ventured upstairs to the cardio equipment. Since the last time we had a gym membership (probably a couple of years), I am amazed at the “improvements!” Now, you can hook up your iPod to the treadmill and, if you select a movie on your iPod, it will display on the screen in front of you. I can watch my Beth Moore videos and improve my spiritual fitness while I walk/jog/run my way to physical fitness! Goodness!
My kids and I did the treadmill for about 20 minutes, too. Will wonders never cease! 🙂
I do have to admit, though…when we first got to CFF, I felt like an addict assaulted by the “substance” she formerly abused. There were scales everywhere to hop on. I walked by and tried not to look. The last thing I want to do now is fall off the Boycott Scales wagon! Then, as we went into the women’s locker room, a woman was having her hips measured by a personal trainer. Yikes! I wanted to holler: “No-o-o-o! Don’t do it! Be free! You can tell if you have lost inches by the way your clothes fit! Don’t give in to the man-made numbers!”
I must rein in my passion just a bit. 🙂 Fact is, many people don’t have “issues” with numbers, graphs, charts and the like the way I do. This is my personal battle and I need not become a zealot attempting to rid the world of scales and tape measures!
There were a couple of familiar things, however, that did surface following our visit to the gym. One was the old “Now I deserve to eat _______.” Ah…the activity of my life is not to be the determining factor for when I eat. My body’s legitimate hunger and satisifed signals are…and even these, I must submit to the Lord. I am glad I saw that this is what was going on!
The second familiar feeling that followed a fun, enjoyable workout at the gym was this sense of inexplicable confidence. I felt…well..good. I mean, even the tweak in my arthritic ankle couldn’t keep me from plain old feeling good. I think it is this sense that I have done something that I know honors the Lord and is good for HIS temple–my body. This is an investment in properly caring for that which I am merely a steward of. My body is NOT my own. It belongs to Him. As such, I must care for it the way He wants. My spirit and heart and mind are his as well, so doing something for one aspect of my “self” at the expense of one or more of the others is not His way.
This morning, when I turned to my HEAL book, I came to page 83 where the authors point out that there are things that I can do to help me to feel positively about my body. Given that I have this tendency to beat myself up, self-deprecate–definitely NOT glorifying to God–it stands to reason that if there are practical things I can do to help me feel better about my body and not at the expense of my spirit, mind, and soul, then maybe I should do them!
Moving my body in fun, enjoyable activities is one of those things that makes me just feel good about my body. When I consider that God has made me naturally atheltic and that he has put in me a love of exercise…well, I can get pretty out of touch with these two blessings pretty easily when the only activity I engage in is spreading hay out on the hillside twice a day or stacking hay bales. Yes, some seasons of my life are naturally more active than others, but this season isn’t one of those. I am home with my kids much more focusing on our highschool science and math courses, trying to help them out…so I am home much more.
I appreciate that the authors of HEAL have asked us to generate a list of things that cause us to feel better about our bodies.
So how about it…without sacrificing your emotional or mental health, what can you do to feel better about your body? What can you do to honor God with your body?
I will continue to generate my list, but also I am on a quest to break free from the fear that being at a gym or around scales and tape measures will somehow lure me back into my former obsession. God wants me not to allow anything other than HIM to determine my steps. Fear can be an idol that I “obey” if I don’t deal with this.
I am chasing after the joy that I know is in Him as all things are balanced BY Him and for His glory!
The image that “graces” this blog entry–I hope you see just how bizarre it is–is, apparently, a computer modified (hard to say “enhanced”) image of a model who is already rail-thin. Is this really what they think we should look like??? Look how big her head is compared to her hips!
Yesterday, my former pastor sent me a link to an article that sure is penetrating.
Please note: I do NOT agree with everything in the article–such as the reference to Eve’s having eaten the fruit as “mythical,” so please don’t email me about that. I do, however, feel the author offers some challenging thoughts that I can prayerfully take to the Lord to help to foster a godly evaluation of my own heart.
It connects well (for me) to what lesson 4 in HEAL is about, so I thought it might be helpful to share it with those of you who might want to take the time to read it.
But for many, the prospect of a “good” body comes to function as a kind of “ultimate purpose” that gives their lives personal meaning while connecting them to a much wider cultural devotion to thinness. (Michelle M. Lelwica, Guest Voices, Thin and Salvation)
One of the things that challenged me as I read this is I wonder to what degree I have allowed striving to achieve thinness or, even, wholeness in this area of food, eating and body image to define my purpose in life? Is this a godly thing? Sure, the Lord may have called me to a ministry related to this issue and I have no doubt that he has…but have I allowed striving after this to define my purpose? Or have I allowed Him to define my purpose? There is a subtle, but profound difference.
I spent a few minutes making my own “body beautiful” (well, not quite, but you get the idea…). If I had taken a bit longer to do it right (I have never modified a photo like this before), I could have done the same thing the graphic artist did to the photo of the model to an image of me at my heaviest. This comparison is shown to the left. Is this really what I want to be about? I could even have plastic surgery to make sure everything looks just so without an image being required or a graphics program. That is where the mindset that I have had can take me if allowed to go to its logical extreme. Boy, this is sobering. I look at the image of the model that Ralph Lauren put on it’s publication and advertisers are convinced that this is what we want, girls! This is sad!
The HEAL book really challenges me in this regard in lesson 4. My body is a temple of God’s presence. He really has esteemed this body that he has created. Do I believe what He says in His Word about my physical body’s value? Do I treat my body, His temple, with respect and esteem, or do I desecrate and demean it with the choices I make? What self-talk do I engage in? What do I say to myself or others about this amazing body that God has made?
Even if I have made choices that have hurt my body, right now is a new moment, a fresh start. I don’t mean like starting a diet. Not a Monday, first-day-of-the month or anything else. I mean literally a fresh start. I can repent, change my mind, my heart, my behavior…allow GOD to give me HIS thoughts, HIS heart, and an ability to will to act differently.
Contrary to what the world says, your body is not just something to be looked at and adorned. Its purpose is to serve, encourage, and love the people we encounter. Girls, it’s time we discover and reclaim the true, God-given purpose of our bodies. (Smith and Halliday, HEAL, page 79)
So, to what end will I pursue thinness or, even wholeness? Will I allow this to be my “purpose?” Frankly, I want to chase hard after God and only God. If I cling to Him, my purpose will be God-determined and my life God-honoring. I will love Him and people, serving others in a way that infuses my life with joy and meaning! How hollow and superficial striving to fit back into a certain pair of jeans seems in comparison!
Hmmm…if I really stop and get still about this “issue”…that of my body, how I feel about it, how it functions (and, admittedly, how it *looks*…which I hope to be less of an issue for me as I grow up!), and ask the Lord “Lord, what do YOU have to say about it? What is your heart about this?” I come away with a very different viewpoint than when I shut him out of this. He is interested! He does care!!!
Let’s all ask ourselves some questions:
Can I be still, quiet my heart and mind for a bit and wait on the Lord, wait to hear the HOLY Spirit (as opposed to “the condemning spirit,” or the “perfectionist spirit” or…whatever else) testify to my heart what the Lord’s mind and heart is for me in this? AM I healthy? AM I functioning the way He intends? Is there anything that I am in denial about, anything I fear, anything that I idolize in this area of my life? What does *HE* want of me? Does he want me to be more active and prayerfully, joyfully, worshipfully move my body more frequently? Am I obsessed and does he want me to have freedom from insisting on 90 minutes of cardiovascular workouts each day and strength training 4 days each week? Does he want me to allow more “meat on my bones?” Or does he want me to realize that I am making my heart work too hard by carrying extra weight on my frame? Does he want me to come to peace with food and my body in a way that my physical body doesn’t seem to indicate I need to? Do I fixate too much on clothes…does my vanity with wanting to look a certain way keep me from being humble, modest and able to be set free?
What does the *Lord* want for me?
These are questions that we can benefit from asking — but let’s ask the LORD what the truth is! As we do, we may come out of the experience better able to have a vision for where we are heading with the Lord as our guide relative to food, eating, our bodies and views of ourselves.
On page 76 of the HEAL book, the authors give us examples of “Body Vision Statements” of others who have allowed the Lord to guide and direct them in this process. I, too, want to allow the Lord to give me His vision of what he wants for me. Part of my Body Vision Statement includes “To release fear, to make peace with my body, to rest in a lifestyle where I keep the proper balance and don’t become focused on me, but on serving others and the Lord…”
How about you? What does the Lord have to say about these things to you?
What kind of expectations have we placed on ourselves? What standards do we subtly expect (or, even, demand) that we live up to?
We have a challenge before us…that of living in this world with all the messages that are constantly bombarding us about physical standards but not giving in to this…to keep our focus, instead, on what matters for eternity–spiritual values.
Lesson 4 challenges us to evaluate these things. We are encouraged to choose God’s perspective on beauty instead of the world’s ideal.
Truthfully, my thoughts about that are…it is tough to know God’s perspective of beauty unless we really spend time in His Word. We have the world bombarding us…literally…from every angle. Every window in shopping malls and stores taunt us with what beauty looks like, TV, billboards, magazines, newspapers…it is hard to escape it even if we don’t read magazines or watch TV. We want to constantly bathe our minds in the truth of what God’s view of beauty is.
10 Listen, O daughter, consider and give ear: Forget your people and your father’s house.
11 The king is enthralled by your beauty; honor him, for he is your lord.
Psalm 45:10-11
I love this passage from the Psalms as it speaks deeply to my heart of how the Lord sees me. He is enthralledby my beauty. He is enthralled by yours.Wow!
The authors make some comments about Psalm 139: 14
David does not applaud himself for his individual design nor does he criticize God’s work. He gives God praise for the work he has made…David recognizes the brilliance of his Creator and shouts out genuine praise and thanksgiving. Let’s aspire to have hearts filled with praise for the awesome and unique way God has made each of us.(Smith, Halliday, HEAL, page 74)
We are challenged not to dishonor God by condemning His creation–ourselves. When we view ourselves so negatively and with contempt, we don’t accomplish anything godly whatsoever. We sadden the heart of God. He created us.
One of the best ways to learn how to walk in the truth that you are body beautiful is to talk to God about it. Ask God to help you see yourself through His eyes rather than through the eyes of the world. If you want to love your body, you have to fall in love with the One who made it!
How will you, how will I, begin to combat the worldly perspective today? How will we embrace the truth about who we are and the amazing body God has designed for us? Our minds need to be renewed with truth in this. What can we practically do, today, to cooperate with God’s intention?
Take some time to follow the advice of the authors and to journal, asking God to change the way you see yourself. Spend time asking the Lord to help you to have His perspective on your body and to help you reject any way the world’s thinking affects you.
You might want to do this every day…and tenaciously cling to his promise that he can transform the way you think. Share with us here anything that he shows you!
Answer here at the blog: If you have been memorizing all or a portion of Psalm 139, how has this been affecting you? Do you find yourself believing the truths in this passage more? Do you believe that you are fearfully and wonderfully made? Is this affecting your ability and willingness to trust your body’s hunger and satisfied signals?
How is it going with regard to applying yourself to the “Seven Super-Practical Steps of Healthy Eating” mentioned in this blog entry and on pages 66-67 of HEAL? Are you experiencing *more* heart or head hunger as you turn to food less often for other needs and use food only to nourish physical needs–stomach hunger? Share it with us here so we can pray with you and/or journal about it with the Lord.
Continue to do the “7 Steps of Healthy Eating” and evaluate how you feel emotionally, spiritually, and physically as you do.
Read through the material in lesson 4 on pages 73-85.
If you don’t have the HEAL book, consider getting it! (I really think this is an amazing, power-packed little book!)
Prayerfully begin to evaluate “What do I really hope to accomplish in my life relative to my body (physcially), my walk with God (spiritually) and my emotional well being (emotionally)?
Evaluate and write out as you ask the Lord “What am I willing to do differently in my life to experience the realization of these goals?
Again, to combat our flesh’s tendency to make this be all about our bodies, take time EACH day to praise God for his attributes, his character, his actions on your behalf, and to thank him for things in your life specifically. Have a praise party each day and see how gratitude can transform your life from the inside out!
Report here through the week about how all of this goes for you and what you notice!
As we come to the end of Lesson 3 in the HEAL book, there are a couple of activities that we would do together if we were together in a group in someone’s living room. So, I hope you are hungry…get your favorite beverage, snuggle up in your favorite throw and settle in with the rest of us.
Lord, please guide and direct our time in this “virtual living room” as we study and pray “together.” Though we may not be near in proximity, I trust you will bind our hearts in your Spirit. Most of all, draw us closer to you. Help us to see what we truly hunger for and what will truly satisfy. Thank you, in Jesus’ Name…Amen.
Even if you don’t have the book and even if we aren’t face to face, we can enjoy what the Lord may have for us in similar activities:
Return to John 4 in your bible — the story of the woman at the well–prayerfully put yourself in the story as the woman. Imagine the sights, smells, feelings of being the woman at the well. How do you feel being there in the heat of the day, trying to avoid all the other women? What inner heart aches do you have? What types of heart hunger or head hunger are you likely to experience? How have you been trying to meet that need? Has it been working? How do you feel about this? It is really preposterous that a man–any man, let alone a Jewish man–would speak to you, given the “type” of woman you are. And what is he doing here at the well in the heat of the day when *no* one comes? What do you think as Jesus speaks to you? What does he say to you specifically relative to YOUR heart and head hunger? What does he invite YOU to do? How does he personally meet YOUR need? What do you think and feel as he reaches out to you in tenderness? Try to immerse yourself in the passage and imagine truly being there. Feel the heat of the hot sun and the dryness all around. Feel the sand beneath your feet. Hear the sounds of the desert…the quiet of a world without modern conveniences.
Close this meditation with a time of prayer and praise to him that he has chosen to meet you at your “well.” If you are like the rest of us, we continue to try to draw from a well, assuming it has what we need, wishing we could be done with it forever…only HE can meet the need once and for all…he alone is our living water.
For the second activity, evaluate each type of hunger specifically. For each of the three types of hunger, heart hunger, head hunger, and stomach hunger, answer these three questions:
1. What emotions or feelings do you experience when you have this type of hunger? 2. What thoughts do you experience? 3. How do you respond to this type of hunger?
Heart hunger is often the most difficult to take to the Lord. Prayerfully evaluate what types of heartaches you face most frequently and note if this has been the case for you. When you feel wounded, empty, in pain in the deep places, do you turn to the Lord to meet that need? If not, why not?
When are you most likely to feel heart hunger? Consider what you usually do about it and what can you do instead. What would the Lord most likely want you to do about it instead? Can you look up verses in the bible that will encourage you in this? If you like you can select two of the following scriptures and journal how they encourage you regarding your heart hunger:
Psalm 73:25,26 Psalm 42 Psalm 63 Psalm 103 Psalm 107 (Note especially the phrase “Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress. “) Psalm 145 Isaiah 55 Isaiah 58:11-12 Ephesians 1:3-14 Philippians 3:7-14
Finally, take time to praise the Lord for His character and his actions on your behalf based on what these verses (and others you can find) tell you. What can you do to begin to experience him as your satisfaction when heart hunger rages? Are you willing?
Lord, thank you that you want to send forth your word and heal me…you have done this, Lord. I pray that I might respond by believing you, what you have said, what you have done…and truly turn to you when I feel deep emptiness–hunger–in my heart. Thank you that you are sufficient. Lord, help me not to turn to food to meet the emptiness of my heart. Instead, I pray that I would respond to you and your love and allow you to truly satisfy. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
On page 65 the authors remind us of John 8:34, where Jesus says, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.”
Do you want to be a slave to food? You have the choice to remain a slave to food or to be set free. When you submit to head hunger or heart hunger or starve yourself, you’re giving food the upper hand over your life. Yet food has absolutely no power over us unless we give it that power.(HEAL, page 65)
The authors follow a short discussion about the freedom God intends for us with “The Super-Practical Steps of Healthy Eating.” These are seven simple steps that can help you eat mindfully and with freedom!
Select when to eat. This is between the parameters of stomach hunger and stomach satisfaction. Developing a sensitivity to physical sensations in the location of your body where your stomach rests, is vital! 🙂
Select what to eat. Food that satisfy you and nourish you.
Sit Down. Sitting down keeps us from mindlessly grabbing at whatever is out on the counter. By the way, driving in the car doesn’t count as “sitting down!” LOL!
Say Thanks. Inviting God into the experience. If whatever we do–eating or drinking–is supposed to be done to the glory of God, it stands to reason we want to welcome him into the dining experience. Eating can be an opportunity to refocus our hearts and minds on all the blessings God has given to us! Use this quiet moment, too, as a chance to ask him to help you to eat without greed and to know when to stop. I have found that a simple prayer of “Lord, this I do for you” really helps to keep me honest. If, in that moment, I can’t pray that way, then chances are I am not physically at a point where I should eat.
Slow Down and Take Small Bites. It takes time for my stomach to register with my brain that it isn’t hungry any more! Eating slowly really does make a HUGE difference in the amount I end up eating!
Savor the Flavor. We can delight in the texture, smell, taste and sight of what is before us. We can do this with a thankful heart!
Satisfy! Be sure to stop when your stomach is no longer hungry. If you follow these practical steps above, you will know when is a good time to stop.
When these steps are followed, you will be amazed at the changes that happen in you physically, emotionally and spiritually. This isn’t about a list of laws or rules, but suggestions to help you and I be aware of when we *need* to eat. It helps foster the *ability* to give our eating to the Lord as a sacrifice of praise.
I will be honest with you…again, it is amazing how little food it takes to satisfy my physical needs when I apply myself to these steps. Typically, it can be quite disappointing for those of us who LOVE to eat food for a million reasons other than physical hunger. But the Lord can move in and meet the needs that have previously driven us to keep doing the same thing again and again, expecting different results. We want change, don’t we? I know I do! Lifelong, lasting change! I don’t want to be a slave to food!
…you need to be spiritually nourished. So ask God to open your heart to his presence and power as you pray and feed on His Word. Invite the Lord into your struggle, and surrender the deeper hungers of your heart to him. Ask God for the willingness to relinquish control and trust him with your needs while you obey as he directs. (Emphasis added – Smith and Halliday, HEAL, page 64)
This little statement is packed with a lot of truth!
Many of us have experienced a *life*-long struggle with eating and our weight. It is so very easy to fixate on the food and our bodies. We have become accustomed to doing this–to fixating on food and our bodies as we have over the years (though it sure hasn’t served us well, has it?).
The authors encourage us to invite the Lord to do a work within us…this is where the root of our struggle is, after all. As we release our deep hunger and our insistence that we have something NOW to fill the hole, we begin to experience what God intends…a true, more deep, solution and satisfaction for what truly ails us. Making it a daily prayer (if not more often) that we will give HIM the control in our life is so helpful in keeping a godly perspective. I love that the authors point out this two-faceted process…we trust HIM with our needs, to do *HIS* part, while we also put one foot in front of the other in obeying what He tells us to do–doing OUR part in the strength he provides.
I have hesitated posting this post to the blog. I wrote it a few days ago…If you struggle with embracing the idea of how we eat being at all related to “obeying God,” I want to encourage you to either not read the rest of this post and to spend time asking the Lord to reveal HIS truth about this, or to prayerfully continue to read. What GOD says to you is the most important. NO human should put a yoke of slavery on you.
So, while Romans 8:1 and other verses of scripture clearly teach us that there is NO condemnation in Christ…while we can know beyond a shadow of a doubt that GOD’s response to our sin is not “disapproval” or anger, it is hard for us to embrace this when all our lives we may have equated “disobedience” with incurring someone’s wrath, disappointment or disapproval. I urge you to realize…we are talking about God. He doesn’t need my obedience. He doesn’t need me! He chooses me. And he did this, Romans 5:8 says, while I was yet a sinner! Ephesians 1 says he chose me before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight–in love he predestined me! He has chosen me before I ever did anything godly or good! So I surely can’t lose that “approval” and “love” with any actions of mine. My actions didn’t “win” Him and my actions won’t “lose” Him!
So as we go on, please know that the last thing I want is for the enemy to use my words to heap condemnation on anyone. The Lord doesn’t do that!
But the truth is, in this society where we have food on demand, TV on demand and everything else with all kinds of options for what we “demand,” it is counter-intuitive to “Just Say No” to something that we want–even when it isn’t what God wants us to do. He wants what is truly best for us. He looks at the big picture. We tend to look at what will bring immediate gratification.
Romans 12:2 says that we need to refuse to be conformed to the world and, instead, be transformed by the renewing of our minds. It is no surprise that this is comes on the heels of verse 1 that urges us to offer ourselves as living sacrifices to the Lord. I must be willing to give myself to God and say no to self. In our fast-food, micro-wave, have-what-you-want culture, this is like swimming against the current!
So, let me be direct with you (and as I am, I am asking myself the same questions…):
Do you have one particular struggle that you face as a matter of routine?
The Lord LONGS to show compassion on us!
Yet the LORD longsto be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. For the LORD is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him! – Isaiah 30:18
If I struggle with something habitually, it is vital that I recognize this and invite God into this to help me with it. He calls me to change. He wants to infuse me with his joy, his strength, his ability to overcome and not to be bound by anything.
Is there a food, restaurant, behavior relative to food and eating that you know the Lord is calling you to lay down, but you consistently turn away from the Lord to say yes to what you want to do?
Again, I don’t ask this of us to bring condemnation, but to urge each of us to admit that we need the Lord. We need him now. His saving power can be experienced by each of us in the daily-ness of everything that seems so mundane, including our eating! But we must turn to him and in humility let him know we need him.
Maybe he is just calling for even a baby step of faith, but even that, you refuse him in one particular area…what is it?
I know that my sweet tooth really seems to be an idol in my life. I seem to bow before it constantly. The Lord longs to be my master. His heart aches. He is not burning with anger toward me over this. His wrath about sin was satisfied in Jesus! I stand before him as approved of and loved in the beloved, but that doesn’t mean his heart doesn’t ache for me to love only him!
Again, I ask not so that we might condemn ourselves. The Lord doesn’t condemn us either (see Romans 8:1).
But he does call us to rise above the attitude of “I want what I want when I want it.” He calls us to die to self. Jesus laid down his life and he calls us to lay down the practice of…always having ____________ on the way to work (insert StarBucks or Peets Coffee beverage of choice or anything else for that matter!)…or always having the buttered popcorn at the movies…or consistently throwing up after eating…or having to end a meal with something sweet…or…anything that we think we *can’t* say “no” to…is it possible we are not at a “can’t” place, but more at a “won’t” place?
I realize again that this leg of my journey is definitely about changing my “won’ts” to “wills.” With an act of MY will, I can *will* to do that to which he calls. I can say NO to self if saying yes to self is outside of godly parameters. I can *obey* him.
For me, God has done so much healing in my life that what might have formerly been “I can’ts” have definitely shifted…now I know that, in Him and because he has healed me, I can. I must rise up and walk.
Lord, you know my heart. Please help me to have a heart turned Godward…to say no to self when saying yes is outside of your will. In fact, Lord, I desire to want what YOU want, so I can have the joy of “indulging myself” and simultaneously pleasing YOU…because I want what you want! What a joy that would be to be able to say yes to self because self wants what Lord Almighty wants! But, Lord, I really want to choose YOU during those moments when I have other ideas…I want to do this joyfully.
Last weekend, my 15 year old baby 🙂 went on a evangelism trip to Costa Mesa. She had never been away from home before. Suddenly texting took on a whole new meaning. Throughout the day (and night) she could shoot me a text or I could ask her where she was and what she was doing. It was incredible to get to participate in her life that way…getting little glimpses into what she was doing. I knew when she ate, when she slept (when she didn’t!), when the adults on the trip got to sneak in a shower at the gym across the street, when they stopped for gas or snacks, when they arrived at the evangelism conference and when they went to the beach to witness.
She made it through (and so did I), I think partly because I could actually feel like I was involved through what had before seemed like such a silly technology–that of texting. It was super cool when she shot me a photo of her at that very moment at the beach while the group was talking to a homeless man named Jim. There was my baby! I felt like I was there! I knew about what she was doing and going through!
It struck me that this is the way the Lord is…he is so intimately acquainted with me and wants to know all about me (and does, in his omniscience) because he loves me so much. If he didn’t love me, he wouldn’t bother with knowing all my ways…So, what would the Lord say in a text message? He knows all my ways and cares intimately about it all…what is on his heart to convey to me?
