by Heidi Bylsma | Dec 9, 2008 | Blog
1 John 2:12-14 is the focus of this lesson. It points out that there are different levels of maturity or growth in our Christian lives.
Some of us are children in our faith. We may be children for a long season. And children are characterized by stumbling and falling a lot…but they keep getting up if they are in Christ, they prevail themselves upon the grace and forgiveness of God.
Many of us seem to live a long time in this place relative to our disordered eating. I know I did–and still sometimes revert to this place as well. But God’s grace is present and applicable. I can be forgiven each time I stumble.
However, His grace also is a provision to move me forward…to grow me up.
Last night, my kids and I watched the movie, The Water Horse. I was reminded of a couple of scenes of this movie during the lesson today. The story was about a baby Loch Ness “monster” that grew exponentially from being the size of a puppy to a huge brontosaurus-type (and size) creature in short order.
The Lord’s grace can grow us spiritually every bit as much as the food this creature ingested grew him. More so, in fact. This is GOD! 🙂 I need to feast on HIM and HIS Word as The Lord’s Table workbook has been saying. When I do, I will grow up in my faith.
1 Corinthians 13:11 makes reference that it may be time to put childish things behind. When I have a temper tantrum about wanting food even when I am not hungry, I get so childish and act like a baby! Can you relate? “But I WANT that!” I whine! Goodness. Maybe it is time to put this childish attitude behind and press on to know Him more. To allow Him to give me the grace to have victories more consistently…to grow up in the faith.
by Heidi Bylsma | Dec 8, 2008 | Blog
Genesis 1:1-2, 9, 11 is the primary text for the lesson today.
Mr. Cleveland does a masterful job in drawing out the parallels in the creation passage that apply to our lives as new creations in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17).
If you look at the creation passage, you can see the condition of the earth before the Lord spoke over it. It was formless, void, in darkness, and submerged underneath the water. The lesson has us analyze our former habits of overindulging in food. As I did this, this is what I came up with:
My life was chaotic. I knew what I was supposed to do, but didn’t do it, so I lived in constant tension…the “formless,” aimless, confused reference in the Genesis account applies. I was empty and looked to food to fill the “void,” but the emptiness remained or even grew. I was in darkness as my willingness to continue in sin knowingly was a very great darkness keeping my eyes from seeing the light of the glory of God so very often. I felt like I was drowning, submerged beneath my sin, shame, and hopelessness.
Can you relate? As you look at the Genesis passage, in what ways is your life of overeating (either formerly or now if it is applies) like the description of the earth before the Lord spoke over it?
God spoke over the earth and brought light through His Word.
So, we were indeed confused, empty, in darkness, and buried in sin. But the Holy Spirit was “hovering” over us and God said, “let there be light.” And the Word brought light into our hearts. (TLT, p. 90)
The earth was brought up out of the water and became fruitful, all because the presence of the Lord and His spoken Word! This is us, too, if we are in Christ. The Lord breathes His Word over us and we come up out of the darkness, up out of the submerged place we were in. He brings order to our chaos and floods us full so that our emptiness is filled with His presence. He makes us fruitful in Him as well!
God has made us new creations in Christ. Often we don’t live according to this truth. For me, that is one meaning of these words of Jesus’:
If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness! (Matthew 6:23b)
I KNEW the truth and I knew the way to be out of my bondage, out of the darkness, out of the chaos…but I refused to live according to that light. So the light within me was darkness…therefore the darkness was SO great!
I praise the Lord that I have burst up out of that place by HIS power…a resurrection of sorts! There IS hope for you, Dear One! Just as there is for me! If you feel like the earth before God spoke His Word over it…formless, void, darkened, and submerged…allow the Word to have it’s transformational affect. His grace speaks it over us each time we need it!
Take these words to heart from Soul Revolution by John Burke: “God could care less about how messed up you are, how far you’ve fallen, or how ‘good’ you’ve been. What he wants to know is, ‘How willing are you right now–in this moment?'” (p. 13)
by Heidi Bylsma | Dec 7, 2008 | Blog
This lesson focused on Galatians 5:16: But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh.
The desires of the flesh include gratifying our desire for food whenever we want without regard for godly boundaries. If we do not want to continue to live as those who gratify our flesh repeatedly through overeating (or whatever the struggle may be), then we must walk by the Spirit.
The question becomes, what does it mean to walk in, with, or by the Spirit, then? If that is the way to be free from indulging my flesh, then I want to do it! I need to know what it means!
The author provides a quote from Matthew Henry (a biblical commentator) to help with this as well as a deeper look at the context of Galatians 5:16.
To me, walking in the Spirit means that I am focusing more on what my soul needs as a constant theme in my life than I am on what the flesh demands. I am prayerful and practicing gratitude. I welcome the presence of God’s Word in my life and allow it to guide me through this life. That means I have to spend time reading, studying, and meditating on it prayerfully. Then, as I go through life, each moment I can choose to capture for the Lord or for the flesh. I don’t minimize my choices, but know that each one will add to the likelihood of my feeding my flesh or heeding the Spirit. I will indulge my flesh or I will feed my soul. I will build a closer connection to the Lord, or I will build a wall. I choose to capture the moment for hte Lord, I choose to heed the Spirit, I choose to feed my soul. I choose to build a closer connection to the Lord.
As I continue to reject Satan’s accusations when I DO blow it, as I continue to believe that the previous moment has passed and can’t be recaptured and quit condemning myself for past mistakes, as I grab a hold of THIS moment and ask “Lord, what will you have me be, do, say, think, feel (even, eat) in this moment?” I will have a direction and I can follow it. There will come peace. Joy…all the fruit of the Spirit listed there in Galatians 5. It will be in my life as it is the life of the Spirit that emmerges in and through me.
But it is a step by step heeding of His voice. One babystep at a time. One moment at a time. One thought at a time.
What can I do today to be sure that I am more likely to walk in the Spirit? If I walk in the Spirit I will not carry out the desires of the flesh.
by Heidi Bylsma | Dec 6, 2008 | Blog
Practical–this lesson is totally practical!
Mike Cleveland shows that an eating “accident” (outside of our God-given boundaries) happens when a series of mini-events, one upon another, results in the “wreck.” He shares about how his job as an airplane pilot causes him to read and analyze airplane wrecks in the past. His eye is on how to avoid the same pitfalls that resulted in the accidents. This has caused him to see that most airplane wrecks happen following a chain of events.
He asks the participant to then evaluate what are the links in the chain that lead to an eating “wreck” in their life. This is mine:
1. Usually there is an emotional trigger, disappointment, frustration of some kind.
2. Usually I am doing something without a focus–my mind is free to wander. This may be watching a movie with the family, or surfing the internet.
3. I begin to think about the food, what it would taste like, how good it will be, that “I deserve it,” and entertain thoughts of justifying why this wouldn’t really be outside of my boundaries.
4. Hardening of my heart to God by resisting thoughts of him.
5. Getting up and going into the kitchen.
6. Eating it.
Mr. Cleveland’s suggestion is that at any point in this chain, we can break the link…and this will derail the head-on collision with sinful eating.
For instance, in my own example, here are some ideas about how I could change things up:
1. When the emotional trigger hits, I can truth journal. This is something taught in Barb Raveling’s Freedom From Emotional Eating workbook. I have blogged about this process previously. Basically, truth journaling includes writing about how I feel about what is going on, what I want to do about it and then prayerfully evaluating what I have written and what of my thoughts are lies and which are truths…then writing out a corresponding truth for each lie to combat the lie and refuse to be duped by it.
2. There are a few ways of changing this one…If I am doing something mindless, I can be prayerful as I sit down to do it. Surely, a movie with my family isn’t something I need to *stop* doing necessarily, but I can do it *differently*–prayerfully aware of my vulnerability and seeking God with a humble heart!
I realized when I looked over a week’s worth of reports to my accountability partner that my violation of my 0 to 5 eating boundary was happening consistently while watching a movie with my family. While not watching movies could be one way of handling it, I don’t prefer to do that as time with my family is important to me. We do incorporate other things to do together into our lives and that is one way of handling this.
Another way of handling this is a recommitment to the boundary of not eating when the screen is on. If I eat, it must be at the table with nothing else happening (one of the keys to conscious eating from the Thin Within book). It isn’t likely that I will announce to the family “Turn off the show for 5 minutes while I eat” unless I am at a 0! 🙂
3. If I find myself beginning to think about food I want and other thoughts that are heading toward a “crash,” I will take what little strength I have and breathe a prayer, “Lord, change my want to!” I can also choose to take captive my thoughts and make them obedient to Christ. Applying what yesterday’s lesson was about, I can choose to take my focus OFF of the food and OFF of indulging my flesh, and put it ON Christ and HIS sacrifice…all HE has done for me to free me from the hold of sin. Of all of these ideas, this one is, perhaps, the toughest, so it is best if I can stop the chain before it gets to this third link.
4. If I can sense that I am hardening my heart to God by resisting thoughts of him, it is time to get on my knees! This is that tough moment…where my choice makes or breaks me. This little moment is where indiscretion or a godly choice are made. Last night, I felt it so clearly. It really was a single solitary moment when I chose to say NO to the temptation…and YES to God. Once the choice was made relief came! I was free from the hold of food (in that moment). My choice *softened* my heart further to the Lord instead of *hardened* my heart further. This is one reason why I believe so strongly that it isn’t about the food. It is about what happens in my heart at the moment I choose to eat or not. I am callusing my heart further to the tender voice of the Spirit OR I am tendering my heart to Him.
5. Going into the kitchen to get the food won’t be as rewarding or as easy to do if I don’t have my kitchen filled with foods that I find hard to resist…I have had to stop having ready-made chocolate chip cookie dough in the fridge, for instance. That is something I have an impossible time resisting (for now). Also, I can have an open bible on the counter…a reminder that God invites me to feast on Him instead of on food that I don’t need and that won’t fill the emptiness in my heart.
6. If I have gotten all the way to the point of eating it, I can still stop the wreck! Mid-bite, I can get up and throw it out! I have done this before…not often, I will admit. If I have allowed the chain of events to get this far, it is TOUGH for me to have the willingness to stop mid-sin. 🙁
I know that praying about all of this at other times of the day when I am not in the middle of it helps empower me when the temptation does come along. Praying that God will change my want to, or like David prayed in Psalm 51 that God would grant me a willing spirit to sustain me.
I do believe this…that 2 Chronicles 16:9 says that the eyes of the Lord look throughout the earth for those whose hearts are fully committed to him. Even in the moment, if I call out, “Lord! I want YOUR will!,” if I am “fully committed” in THIS moment, then this same verse says that he will see my heart and he will strengthen me in this moment. THIS MOMENT MATTERS. I don’t want to minimize the moment. Our enemy loves it when we diminish the value of a moment.
So those are my “links” in my chain leading to an eating “wreck.” And the subsequent plan for breaking the chain at any point in time.
How about you? What series of mini-events might lead you to an eating wreck? What can you do to break the chain at any point in the series?
by Heidi Bylsma | Dec 6, 2008 | Blog
Often I get asked what made the difference for me…what, after all the years I had played with eating this way, writing with the Hallidays and working for the Thin Within company…what finally made things “click” for me so that I began experiencing victory in my eating.
One of the most vital things was covered in this lesson in The Lord’s Table workbook.
Life is not all about my problems, my desires, my weight, me at all. It is ALL about the Lord God!
When someone has gone through all the Thin Within workbooks (there are currently four of them), read the Thin Within book, read Thin Again (or the current title of the same book, Get Thin Stay Thin), and still is wondering “What now? What will CHANGE me? What can I read that will make me different?” my answer has to be it isn’t WHAT, it is who.
Our focus is so very often on ourselves.
God wants THIS time to be DIFFERENT. And so a different focus is required.
I have encouraged people who ask me how to make *this* time through the Thin Within materials (or I would say the same thing for those who go through The Lord’s Table again, too), to *this* time, instead of making it be about you, do as much as you can to learn about the Lord. For instance, if you are going through the Thin Within workbook, keep a log of all the attributes, characteristics and behaviors of God. Take time to get to know him.
The last time I went through the TW workbook (for the umpteenth time), I did this and here is a partial list just in the first couple of lessons:
– God invites me
– God has a plan, purpose, hope, and future planned
– God is faithful
– God does the impossible
– God embraces me
– God is doing a new thing
– God FINISHED the work on the cross
– God’s grace is immeasurable and steadfast
– He transforms me through His Word
– He grounds me through His Word
– He supplies power through the Holy Spirit
etc! There are so many, space doesn’t allow!
As I get to know HIM more and focus MORE on HIM, my wants, my desires, my “rights,” fade in significance. As I get to know Him, I discover so much about HIM and it floods my vision and my heart full! There is no emptiness, no “woe is me,” just exaltation of HIM and a humbling of self with appropriate quietness before the Lord.
This lesson of TLT is about this very thing…about looking upon the Lord and His attributes.
Course Member Cindy writes: “My view of God has been too low, and my view of myself has been too high. I can see that now. I have been prideful, I have thought that whatever I want to eat I deserve to eat. I have thought that I was so important that I deserve whatever I am craving. I see now that all this stems from an inadequate view of God, and of my relationship to Him. HE alone is great. HE alone is deserving of praise. HE is the important One…” (TLT, p. 82)
Application: This just happened to me. I did this lesson this morning and had been meaning to post about it when I got a spare moment today. But one demand upon another took priority. As I was sitting watching Caspian with my family tonight, I got a thought of something I wanted to eat. I found myself thinking about the food…what it would taste like, how *I* wanted it…and how *I* could justify it. Fortunately, I realized it…and chose to whisper a prayer (by the grace of God!), “Lord, please change my want to!” like Beth Moore mentioned in the Breaking Free tapings.
Then I began to fix my eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of my faith. I suddenly realized that I could let the food I wanted go…I had no need for it. He *was* more than enough for me in the moment. I had to concentrate for a few moments on HIM, yes. If I had focused on “I can’t have that, I can’t have that…” I believe it would have backfired.
With the little strength I had, I breathed a prayer and God moved in! He made it happen! I focused on Him and the fact that He went to the cross so I wouldn’t be in bondage to sin. He was pierced for my sins…
I found that it is true…when I turn my eyes on Jesus and look full in his wonderful face, the things of earth really DO grow dim in the light of his glory and grace (just like I spouted off about the other day).
Thank you, Lord.
by Heidi Bylsma | Dec 5, 2008 | Blog
Today was a good eating day. I remained vigilant. The circumstances unfolded in a surprising way, but God wrapped his arms around me. Thank you for the prayers.
