One very enjoyable part of this study this summer will be to see how far God takes you. At the end of this study of the book, you will get to take the survey found in the “Before You Begin” section again…and you will find that your answers will be different. It will be one way of seeing somewhat objectively (well, sort of) that God has in fact been doing a new thing!
Since we BELIEVE what God says…that He IS DOING a new thing…whether it is measurable or not, visible or not, perceivable or not…we can KNOW that it is true. I anticipate, though, that by the end of our study, you will see some changes in how you answered these questions! It will be fun to use this little tool!
So please write in your book and answer the questions. It will be important and you will be glad you did it.
I am in a weak place today. I am overly tired and feeling a lot of pressure of things weighing on me. When I am in this place, I know I am vulnerable. Vulnerable to run to other things rather than to the Lord for comfort. Go figure! It seems crazy, yet there it is.
This morning, sleep deprived (the sky fell here in Cool, California at 4am…an electrical storm that lit the sky with an amazing display of cloud to ground lightning and hail 1/2 in diameter!) and feeling a bit lonely (hubby is traveling) and overwhelmed (wanting to have a clean house before I pick up a friend at the airport tomorrow, preparing to lead worship on Sunday morning, etc…), I turned to The Prayer That Changes Everything by Stormie Omartian this morning during my quiet time.
I felt God impress upon my heart that maybe someone here can use the encouragement found in some of the words that were a part of the prayer at the end of the chapter…
Lord, 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 Your embrace is what I long for…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) Amen.
You see, when I am vulnerable, I am prone to being “needy”–to feeling empty. This is when I can start reaching for anything to fill the emptiness. I reach for the very busy-ness that keeps me feeling stressed (figure *that* one out!). Or, I reach for food, for the internet, for escaping into reading–even godly Christian books… While none of these things are wrong, necessarily, the problem is *why* am I running to them? Simply put…to avoid what I am called to…and I run to these things instead of running to God.
As you and I continue the early part of this sojourn we want to ask God to make each of us–I want to ask Him to make ME–to be aware when I am doing this before it happens. This is the crux of much of our disordered behavior and disordered eating. It really isn’t about the food, the computer, the books, the busy-ness. It is about my heart, about your heart…and, mostly, about GOD.
Today, in the crazyness of my day, I want to have a heart that is still and knows that He is God. I want to feast on HIM internally, even while I am scrubbing the downstairs bathroom externally. 🙂
When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the LORD. – Exodus 34:29
Each time upon Moses’ return from being in the presence of the Lord in Exodus 34, his face was radiant. The Israelites could barely stand to look upon him because he was all aglow!
Have you ever known someone like that? Someone who seemed like they had been with God and reflected that outwardly? They might not have been beautiful by human standards, but something emanated from them –causing them to glow…and it spoke of intimacy with God.
The photo to the left is of my mother-in-law who is now with the Lord. Oh! How I love her! In this photo, Phyllis is eagerly opening a Christmas present. To make use of both hands–one of which had been occupied by holding a cookie she was enjoying–she held on to the cookie with her mouth instead. What a character!
I wish I had a picture that shows just how much she glowed with the radiance that only the Lord can do in a life. No matter what came her way, she had an outward gleam…and you could tell that while her feet may have been touching the pavement of this earth, her heart was in the presence of the Lord. It was obvious outwardly!
Likewise, God is after our personal spiritual formation and transformation! Often, this transformation results in outward physical changes. Definitely, when we allow him to have a hold of our hearts, it happens from within…and radiates outwardly. Sometimes it will affect our countenance. Sometimes, it may even affect our physical shape. But being with HIM is what makes the difference.
Try as we might to look a certain way–to look like Moses did after coming down from the Mountain–we can’t generate that on our own by outward constraints. The only way lasting transformation occurs is by walking/being with the Lord.
Likewise, the kind of physical changes that most of us want in our bodies…
So I guess this is the bad news. I may as well lay it out there right now! This is hard. In fact, it is likely harder than making changes to our bodies alone! For instance, how many of us know how to lose weight? If you are like me, you know how to do that really well. But what we haven’t quite gotten down is how to do this genuinely, authentically–without resentment or “feeling ripped off”…and in a way that lasts without obsession seeming to be necessary to keep it up.
This is what we are after. Or what I hope you are after with me.
God wants our hearts to belong to him (not to some “skinny” ideal or even to some vision of “health and wholeness!”). As we relinquish our hearts to him, we WILL change from the inside out.
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Thoughts for you to ponder:
1.) What is really your priority right now? Is it:
a.) “To get this weight off!” b.) “To do and be what I want.” c.) “To depend on the Lord and to grow in my dependence on Him”
Obviously, most of us want to answer “c.)” but what is our honest answer? What does our behavior say? Or put another way and perhaps something that will tell us the truth about what our priority really is…What do you think about the most? That is usually a clue as to what you really want the most…as to what your priority is. Am I thinking about food all the time? Am I focused on the body that I don’t have but want? Or do I long to be more like Jesus? Ouch! That is convicting. At least to me!
Don’t allow the Enemy to use this to beat you up and please don’t beat yourself up! On page xv of the introduction we are told we will put away our “club of condemnation.” So let’s not get it out now. We will learn instead “to walk in newness of a grace-filled life in the present moment.”
If you find yourself honestly answering a.) or b.), never fear. God can work wonders when we are honest with him. Read Psalm 51–especially verse 12 and make it your prayer to God, “Lord please grant me a willing spirit…”
2.) Are you willing to foster an awareness of Jesus’ presence in every moment of your life? You can do this in your heart even in the midst of a hustle bustle work schedule or being with your kids or running errands or whatever you do. Truthfully, there is no way to experience the kind of lasting, deep, penetrating transformation that we really need apart from developing an awareness of his constant care and presence with you. Truly, this can be quite simple, but it is NOT easy!
What is your plan for being sure you depend on the Lord through this journey? How can you set yourself up for “success?” What I mean by “success” is not about eating or food, but about the heart change we need in order for the outward changes to “take” and “stick.” Right now, we may care most about physical changes…we want to lose weight! We *have* to lose weight! Truthfully, that is not God’s priority. Heart change is. I can’t say this enough!
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In the introduction, we are reminded that we may have to “unlearn many things we have come to depend on over the years…” As we launch our study, many of us might slip into a “diet” mentality… You may not even realize it! These are things we will have to unlearn.
As we are reminded on page xv, “…our focus won’t be only on externals or appearances.”
I hope that message has come across loud and clear this morning as you have read through this entry. I know this is something I struggle with and that God yet is working with me on.
The prayer on page xv says it so well…and some of my prayer today for each of us is borrowed from there:
Lord, please open our eyes and release us from the chains that bind us. Help us to focus not on outward appearance or the changes that we want in our size or physical condition. Help us, instead, to focus on being willing to depend on you, lean on you, to need you…when something inside us lures us to food or drink or anythingapart from you, cause us to wait on you instead…may we develop such a dependence on you that we stay in your presence throughout the day and our countenances reflect the radiance of those who are in the presence of the Lord. Remake and change us from the inside out. In the name of Jesus, Amen.
Just a reminder: My blog entries may be daily, but please don’t feel like you have to visit the blog each day, read every word or answer every question. Be gentle with yourself! Ask God what level of participation he has in mind for you and then ask him to give you the strength to do what HE wants…no less, but also NO more! Ask for him to help you NOT to beat yourself up if you feel you haven’t “kept up!” He will use whatever time and heart you invest in this process! ======
Wow. I so enjoyed beginning my reading yesterday. Even as I read the acknowledgments pages and the About the Authors…I was touched that the Lord raised up the Hallidays to bring this material to the printed page.
I was also reminded about the blessing that God gave me…when I was so deep in my own struggles, that he invited me to participate with the Hallidays as the collaborator with them on the book. I bring this up not to elevate myself to you. NO! Please don’t put me on any kind of pedestal. I just want you to know that, given where I was when I was invited to participate, that there was NO merit in me–not writing ability, not a “successful” track record…nothing–it floors me how gracious and merciful our God is. He is with EACH of us. Every time I think of how I had the privilege of participating in the Thin Within book project and it was so clearly ALL about God and not at all about me, I am reminded that he calls the things that are not as though they are (Romans 4:17 – read the context, too…it is amazing!).
He loves to take what we think we “know” and surprise us in a huge way with just how awesome he is.
I hope you will take this as encouragement on this journey. Whatever you may think you “know” about yourself…forget it. 🙂 God knows better. He is calling the things that are not in your life as though they are, because in him, he can speak it into existence! THIS is the God we serve!
In the acknowledgments pages, I underlined things like these: “gratitude,” “faithfulness of our sovereign God,” “His message of freedom and hope,” “freedom in Christ,” and “inerrant Word of God.” As I mentioned previously, these kinds of things in the opening pages allow a reader to sort of “get to know” the authors.
In the “Meet Judy Halliday” section Judy says that she has joy, peace, and contentment relative to food, weight and her body. In recent months, when I have spoken with Judy on the phone about my own struggles to accept my body as it has changed without the help of tons of caffeine each day, she has encouraged me so much…She reminded me first that perhaps this IS my GOD-given size. What grace she expresses. I needed the reminder…
I share all of this because the very grace this author teaches in her book, she expresses and offers. That says a lot.
This time, as I read Judy’s testimony, something hit me that has never hit me before. I share this with you all here in keeping with my commitment to be honest on this journey…She speaks on page x about Thin Within becoming her identity. She says:
“It was my family and my passion, which I served seven days a week. Thin Within had become my god. I deified it just as I had deified food and exercise. I was without a weight problem, but I was not really free. I had simply changed addictions!”
I believe this is what happened to me relatively recently! I had allowed being a “poster child” for Thin Within to become my identity…and in many ways, I had deified that role…YIKES! Reading the words on the page yesterday, my heart testified as to the truth of this in my life!
I want to maintain a godly perspective…a deep awareness of the blessing that God has called me to participate in His ministry to people through Thin Within, without elevating Thin Within or the Hallidays improperly. Balance in all things…an appropriate focus.
Judy says on page xi:
“…my performance had nothing to do with my identity; it was about Him giving me a new heart.”
This little statement hiding in the About the Authors section is powerful! So often we bash ourselves about our performance. When I gained some weight after giving up my caffeine addiction, I did this very thing. I allowed myself to be obsessed with my “failed performance” and all I thought it said about me…If you had asked me, I would have told you that of course this isn’t all about the physical body. And yet, somehow I had made it be about that so that when my physical body changed, I felt like a failure.
God is at work doing a heart transplant in each of us. I have found that he is perfectly willing to allow me to come to the end of myself in order for me to see that my focus is wrong…that I have clung to something that is out of his will for me. Even GOOD things can steal our heart if we allow it!
In Dr. Halliday’s biography section, he closes with something that ties in perfectly to these thoughts and I just have to challenge each of us with these words…
“God loves us and accepts us as we are and where we are right now. He will gladly enter the life that is surrendered. He doesn’t wait for us to get it all together first.”
God chose to give us Jesus while we were yet sinners. Why do we act like he disapproves of us when we sin? He disapproves of the sin, yes…but he totally loves and accepts us! Oh, that we would ALL believe GOD about what HE says to be true of us!
Thoughts for you to ponder (this is optional!):
1.) Is there anything that you have “deified” like I did Thin Within? It may even be a good thing that has too elevated a value in your life. Prayerfully take this to God.
2.) How likely are you to get a sense of your identity from your performance, be it performance trying to lose weight, or any other thing that you may strive to do well? What do you think you should be aware of about yourself and this tendency as you begin this journey?
3.) Do you believe God? Not believe IN God, but believe God–believe what he says about you? Do you believe that, if you have come to Him through Jesus, that you are now 100% acceptable to him? How might this impact you as you begin this journey?
4.) What does God say about you in these verses? Romans 3:19-28, Romans 5:1-11, 2 Corinthians 5:21, Colossians 1:22; 3:12, Hebrews 10:14, Titus 3:7, Galatians 2:16, Galatians 3:24, Hebrews 9:22. Do you believe God and what he says in these verses?
Lord, I pray that each of us will experience freedom, peace, and joy relative to our bodies, food, and weight. You are after something so much deeper than a physical change. I pray that we would believe what you have to say about us and to us. Change us, Lord. I pray for my sisters here (and any brothers if they are along!) that we would just surrender ourselves to you to do with as you please. The thought is frightening, Lord…we want to maintain our illusion of control. But you are good and wise and loving…and you have a new thing in mind for each of us. You are doing it right now. I pray we might perceive it! Lord, some of us have gone through this material so many times and it feels tired to us. I pray that you will infuse us with a new perspective. You have called us to this place again for a reason. Truly, we have never been quite where we are today with the life experiences that we have now, the insight, the thoughts…so that alone shows that this isn’t the same old same old. You have been working on us. Help us to believe you that you will continue to work in and through us. Help us to believe you that…what you have begun, you WILL complete. Help us to cooperate with you in it today! Renew our minds by your word, Lord! In the powerful name of Jesus, Amen.
Well, like I said, it sure isn’t Lifeway or Beth Moore…but I just want to sit down with ya all and talk with you! I picture you when I talk out loud to you…so…here ya go. Under 2 minutes. YAY!
The text I use for this little video “Hurrah!” is Hebrews 12:1-3. I urge you to meditate on it as you begin this journey. Prayerfully ponder what is entangling you or burdening you down? What would keep you from being “successful” in “hiking” forward with the Lord?
Most of all, PLEASE…FIX YOUR EYES ON HIM! Every time we focus on our past failures (or current ones) or our past “track record,” we lose momentum…Fix your eyes on what is AHEAD. Jesus has gone before us. He suffered and kept at it all. We want HIM to fill our vision!!!
I think I have posted three entries for today! That is way over quota and I don’t want anyone discouraged! So I will shut my yap now! 🙂
Some of us are studying Thin Within, by Arthur and Judy Halliday this summer.
If you have already seen the assignment for this week in my previous blog entry, I have just modified it to include chapter 2. These are goals only…so don’t worry if you don’t get it done. I may not. I scheduled out tentative goals for each week so we could finish by the end of August, but, again, this is only tentative.
If you do not keep the pace I suggest or even the pace I keep (which may be slower still), please do not beat yourself up…just hang in there. It sometimes takes longer to digest the more nutritious aspects of a meal, right? Likewise, to really assimilate the important teachings that the Lord has for us.
So here is the assignment for June 1-7 again in case I have made this utterly confusing already!
Please read from the title page through page 26, highlight, make notes, answer the questions in the book, etc! Cover your experience with prayer and keep referring to your bible whenever possible. That is the most important guidebook for this process!
Hi, folks. If I had my act together, I would have prepared tomorrow’s blog entry today. I tried, but didn’t get it together. I am in California, so I am behind you all anyhow…(or probably!). So, tomorrow’s entry will be a bit later than many of you are starting your day.
So, I am pre–empting myself by posting an assignment tonight!
But first, let me share with you what my plan is…
Mondays: Once each week, I will post an assignment–or what my intention is to accomplish that week in the book. It isn’t in concrete…I want to bend and flex with what the Lord leads, but I also want to honor those of you who like to have ducks in a row…so once each week – Monday morning, I will post a written assignment. You are welcome to respond to that entry as you do the assignment or later in the week–whatever the Lord leads you to do.
Mondays: Additionally, I hope to post a short (like 2 minutes) video. I am a visual person. I love having this sense that I can see you and talk to you. Mind you, I am NOT trying to be Beth Moore as much as I admire her! In fact, my first “takes” of what I had hoped to share with you tomorrow morning, leave the Lifeway folks with NOTHING to fear…I am trying only to be who God has made me…With that in mind, I am a bit of a ham, admittedly, but what I have is a passion for the Lord and His Word and this material and what he has done in my life…and IS doing! OH MY! I get excited just thinking about it! I want so desperately to communicate these things to you any way I can. I hope that if I miss doing that in writing here at the blog, God can use short video clips to encourage you or exhort you–especially if you are visual too!
Tuesday – Sundays: I will likely post daily or almost daily, what God is showing me (I hope to keep these short) or things that are triggered by my reading and studying in the Thin Within book and God’s Word. Sometimes this will include questions that you may want to consider in your own journey. Sometimes it will just be my thoughts…and prayers. These will be posted on and off throughout the week. Some weeks I may have 8 entries! Some weeks two…
Ok…so that said, tomorrow morning, I will be running a day late and a dollar short. So here is my goal for the first week, from Monday June 1 to Sunday, June 7 so…officially your tentative assignment:
Please read the Acknowledgments, About the Authors, Introduction, and complete the Before You Begin section. Please please please, write in your book! Highlight, make notes, write out prayers and have your journal close at hand if you are choosing to keep one. Of course, your bible should be next to you and you may want to look up verses in context.
As you read these pages, please notice how the authors feel about the Lord, what their focus is…I like to feel like I am getting to know the authors of the books that I choose to study. If a person isn’t sold out to the Lord, I don’t want to give myself to studying a book they have written. Or not typically.
The Introduction and Before You Begin sections are REALLY important. Please don’t skip them! You will see immediately why you will want to write in your book and never lend it to someone else! 🙂
Please cover your time with the Lord and this book and HIS book–the bible–in prayer. When you are stumped by a question in the Before You Begin section, ask him for wisdom and wait on him to impress your heart with the answer.
Before the week is over, I hope to also read through Day One on pages 3-14 and Day Two on pages 15-26, so feel free to go into that material as well.
Summary of Assignment for June 1 – June 7:
Read and complete everything in the book from the title page 🙂 through page 26. 😀 Highlight, write your answers down, take notes…and feel free to pop in here at the blog and see what is going on daily or however frequently your schedule allows!
I hope to post the little video tomorrow afternoon.
