Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. Colossians 3:16
I was thinking back to a day when my children and I were driving in the car and we were listening to “80s on 8.” My son interrupted my constant singing by asking “Mommy, how do you know the words to every song?”. Play almost any song from the late 70s and 80s – Billy Joel, Madonna, Duran Duran, Journey, John Cougar, Indigo Girls, etc. – and it’s likely that I know most of the words and will sing along. Music gets stuck in our heads, defines time periods in our lives (I still tear up when a song that was sung at my wedding 16 years ago plays on the radio), stirs emotions and tells stories.
When I joined a new Bible study last year, I was apprehensive when I learned that the session opened and closed with all of us singing – sometimes without music to accompany us. See, I love to sing, but was not blessed with a good singing voice. But, when I experienced a room of 150 women singing hymns and current praise music, I was moved – God was present there. I was so moved that I rarely listen to the 80s station any longer, but mostly to Christian music. I download most of the songs from my Bible study onto my iphone (things have changed from the cassette player in the 80s!). And when Heidi suggested, months ago, to create a Renewing of the Mind playlist, I jumped on board!
I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you. Psalm 119:11
I believe that songs about the truth of God’s character, deeds and love not only “get stuck” in our heads, but in our hearts as well. Most Christian music is based on scripture. So, as we learn the words to a song we are singing, we are memorizing His Word. We are then able to meditate on it as it lives in our hearts. And we can recall the Truth during times of doubt or temptation. So, whether you enjoy praise music, gospel, Southern gospel, or hymns, think about making a Renewal of the Mind playlist.
When I am singing along with my playlist, in the car or in the kitchen or while working around the house, I am worshipping God. I am learning the Truth. I am reaffirming the Truth. I am renewing my mind. I am storing His Word in my heart. I am growing closer to Jesus.
How About You?
What are your favorite worship songs? How do they speak to you? How do you find yourself changed by listening to them? How has God used music while you have been on your Thin Within journey?
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses,
let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles,
and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.
– Hebrews 12:1
I used to train for marathons, logging many miles each week. I took whatever I needed with me for four or, even, six hours with me while I ran along the American River: quick energy “food,” water, bandages for blisters, sunblock, a towel to wipe my face, and identification in case of an emergency. Ibuprofen was a treasure as aches and pains could begin mid-run with ten miles yet to go!
With all of these “necessities” came extra weight. Increased weight meant increased effort to move forward. I was “hindered” by my many supplies. The benefits of being well-stocked came with a tradeoff.
On our Thin Within journey, we can carry baggage that will hinder us as well.
The Bible says we are to throw off everything that hinders. Shame that we have about our eating, our size, or our choices is included. Condemnation is not from God. It needs to be cast aside as a needless, destructive weight that will hinder our movement forward.
Godly conviction, however, that leads to sorrow and repentance—a change in our actions—is a welcome travel companion.
The way to cast off burdens that hinder comes by allowing God to renew our minds through His Word. We trade destructive thoughts, shame and condemnation with God’s thoughts, so that we can learn to think God’s thoughts after him about food, about weight, about ourselves. We trade lies for the truth found in the Bible. We cast off the sin that entangles us and the shame and condemnation that hinder us. We begin to see we are not hopeless to continue overeating forever!
Dear God, please replace the defective view I have of myself with your truth. I want to cast off the shame and condemnation that I seem to harbor—condemnation about my weight, my eating, about my choices. You are showing me a new way to live, though, Lord. Help me to spend time with you each day, allowing you to saturate my mind with your Word. The Bible tells me that I am precious in your sight. Help me to believe it and to run with perseverance the path you have presented before me. Amen.
Ok, so maybe I haven’t posted about truth cards 856 times. In fact, I think I have only posted a half a dozen times specific truths that are in my truth cards.
Do you find it helpful? I hope so!
It certainly helps ME to review them yet again and I hope it helps YOU to have some “ammo” so that you can take captive runaway thoughts and replace them with God’s truth! 🙂
In my years of being on this journey with Thin Within (since 1999), I have found that for me and many others I have spoken with Entitlementis perhaps one of the number one challenges leading us to eat outside of 0 and 5. I know I say that about everything, but this time I mean it! 🙂
Seriously, if we can recognize when an attitude of entitlement has reared it’s ugly head and stop it dead in its tracks, I think we will find that a lot of our eating outside of 0 and 5 STOPS.
Reviewing truth about entitlement is a great way of doing that.
1. When I feel entitled, I feel like eating *anything* I want because I *deserve* it. THIS IS A LIE.
2. I do NOT have a “right” to eat in that particular situation. God ALONE determines when it is time for me to eat.
3. God is DISHONORED by my attitude of entitlement. He wants me to approach all His blessings with humility.
4. When I live by my “rights” and feelings in the area of food and eating, I OVEREAT and GAIN WEIGHT. I AM MISERABLE PHYSICALLY, EMOTIONALLY, and SPIRITUALLY.
How About You?
Does an attitude of entitlement affect you at all? Does it cause you to reach for food out of the boundaries that you believe God has set for you?
I referred in yesterday’s post to some wounds from my past. Some scars. While I did so with a humorous bent (or that was my intention), the truth is…there is pain in this world. It is a Genesis 3 world. As long as we are in this world, we will experience suffering. It is one of the ways God pries our fingers open from the things (even good things) we otherwise cling to so that he can fill them with himself.
This song is one of those that ministers to the deep places of my heart. On this journey to become all God calls me to become, to release my ungodly coping mechanisms to him, to overcome the strongholds that might otherwise bury me alive, I am called to know that He IS merciful. As Sheldon Vanauken refers to it as a “severe mercy.” Mercy nevertheless.
I hope this song touches you.
Heal the Wound
I used to wish that I could rewrite history
I used to dream that each mistake could be erased
Then I could just pretend
I never knew the me back then
I used to pray that You would take this shame away
Hide all the evidence of who I’ve been
But it’s the memory of
The place You brought me from
That keeps me on my knees
And even though I’m free
Heal the wound but leave the scar
A reminder of how merciful You are
I am broken, torn apart
Take the pieces of this heart
And heal the wound but leave the scar
I have not lived a life that boasts of anything
I don’t take pride in what I bring
But I’ll build an altar with
The rubble that You’ve found me in
And every stone will sing
Of what You can redeem
Heal the wound but leave the scar
A reminder of how merciful You are
I am broken, torn apart
Take the pieces of this heart
And heal the wound but leave the scar
Don’t let me forget
Everything You’ve done for me
Don’t let me forget
The beauty in the suffering
Heal the wound but leave the scar
A reminder of how merciful You are
I am broken, torn apart
Take the pieces of this heart
And heal the wound but leave the scar
A reminder of how merciful, how merciful you are
I am broken torn apart, take the pieces of this
heart, and heal the wound but leave the scar,
leave the scar
This song is available for purchase from iTunes here and from Amazon here.
When I get mad at a family member (maybe sometimes even when I get mad at a mean church lady), I want to eat to “get back at them.”
This is just silly.
Stupid.
Ridiculous!
But somehow it has fueled much of my eating outside of 0 and 5 for years.
I think it began when I was a kid and my parents would abuse me over food doing all kinds of desperate things to try to get me to eat foods they felt I needed to eat and NOT to eat others. As soon as the ordeal was over, I would sneak cookies. Or ride my bike to the liquor store to buy candy bars with money I stole from my dad’s change stash. (True confessions!) I would do other things, too, just to “get back at them.”
So I guess I brought this behavior into my adulthood!
I became aware of it when I was a mother of a relatively young, rebellious pre-adolescent (who shall remain nameless). Said pre-adolescent with special needs (no less) required a great deal of me and there were times when I just had a major melt-down tantrum of my own. In a huff, I would grab the container of frosting (bag of cookies, chips, ice cream carton…whatever…it made no difference what) a spoon (if needed) and shut myself into the bathroom where I would relish my “I can TOO do what I want–you are NOT the boss of me–get back at them” eating or “Bratty Eating” for short.
Can you relate?
If I am honest, although said child 🙂 no longer lives here…in fact, my “nest” is pretty empty…I still can find myself doing “Bratty Eating.”
In those moments, when I pull out my truth cards or rehearse in my mind the things that I know are true, I come up with quite the arsenal to defeat this “Bratty Eating” and the bratty attitude that fuels it, too!
When I look at the Lord I serve and what he was called to experience when he walked the dirt of this earth, I realize that he was called to suffer. How can I expect to be called to something different? A life of ease? Really? I think I deserve that? And when I bump up against someone who bugs me, I think I should eat? Hmm…. seems to me I need to grow up just a bit! I am so thankful that my God is in the business of doing that very thing—growing his children, including me. Funny thing is…he often uses trials to do it! But he provides everything I need for life and godliness if I call on Him.
How About You?
Do you ever engage in “Bratty Eating?” If so, do you know what situations or individuals typically set you off? What truths can you cling to so that you can defeat this tendency?
For when you did awesome things that we did not expect, you came down,
and the mountains trembled before you.
Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived,
no eye has seen any God besides you,
who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.
-Isaiah 64:3 ,4
Our God is unpredictable. Unchanging, yes, but tamed, no. He is wild and wonderful. The path we are on is filled with adventure. He does that which we don’t expect. His power is beyond imagining. From the very beginning, He has not “behaved” according to the expectations of man. Does it really surprise me so much that now as I seek to honor Him with my body, heart, mind, soul, and spirit that He would do that which is so much different than what I might expect?? As I wait on Him for physiological hunger and allow Him to meet the hungering of my heart and mind, this powerful, awesome, wild and untamed hero will act on my behalf. His desire for me is beyond my ability to fathom. His willingness to come to my rescue rivals any of the best fairy tales–except for the one wonderful Truth. THIS fairy tale is TRUE. He will act on my behalf as I wait on Him.
I eagerly wait, knowing that I will see the face of my Lord.
Lord, thank you that while you may not be predictable, you are reliable. You come to my rescue. I look to you for your rescue today. Your ways are so beyond my ways. Thank you! Amen.
