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I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Wonderful are your works;

my soul knows it very well.

– Psalm 139:14

How would it transform your life if you were to believe God…I didn’t say “Believe IN God.” I really did mean: “How would it transform your life if you were to believe God?” What if you were to believe what he says about you in His Word? What if you were to believe that you are

fearfully and wonderfully

made?

Take a moment right now to imagine that.

Close your eyes and stop reading for a moment. And imagine…

I AM fearfully and wonderfully made. It is TRUE.

Are your eyes open again? šŸ™‚ That’s ok. Now close them again and imagine knowing to the depths of your heart …

…I AM aĀ demonstration of God’s creative and amazing power and love.

Can you rest in these thoughts for a moment? Can you allow the truth–what HE says is true–saturate your body, soul, and mind? Sit for a moment in this truth.

How would believing God that you are fearfully and wonderfully made affect other thoughts you have? How would it affect your actions? How would it affect the way you relate to your own body? To the food you eat? To the “failures” in your life?

What if what God says…really is…absolutely…

TRUE?

I believe that a lot of the difficulty we have with our eating, our obsessing about our weight, and other similar struggles is due in large part to what we believe about ourselves. If we really believed what God says about us, thoughts like these would evaporate:

– I am a failure and never will beat this.
– I will always be overweight and miserable.
– I deserve to be miserable.
– I am too undisciplined to ever lose weight.
– Even if I do manage to lose all the weight, I will never keep it all off
– etc…add your own.

If we believed what God says is true about us in His Word, this is what we might think, instead:

– I struggle with saying no to myself about eating when I am not hungry, but God says I am more than a conqueror. I know if HE says it, I can do it.
– I have everything I need for life and godliness, so somewhere here I must be able to beat my tendency to overeat.
– God promises that he has given me a spirit of love, power and self-discipline.
– God says that he has called things that are not as though they are.
– What is impossible with man is possible with God.
– I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.
– etc…add your own.

What is the difference between these two lists? The focus of the first is ME and my performance.

The focus of the second is GOD and HIS “performance.”

When we focus on The Lord…HIS provision, HIS power, HIS character, HIS promises, HIS performance, HIS declaration of what is true, then we know that we are in good hands. It may seem like we have to do this all on our own and that we are the failure or success, but the honest truth is GOD wants to do it in me.

In fact he says His grace is sufficient and that we can boast all the more gladly in our weaknesses, because when we are weak his power–HIS strength–rests all the more on us. Perhaps the reason we struggle so much with our eating is so that we can learn that we are NOT enough, but HE is.

How can I go from the mindset where it is about me and what *I* can do and turn it around, believe what God says…that this is about HIM and what HE can do in and through me?

Renewing my mind. Barb Raveling has taught us a lot about that through her study (see the “Weight Loss Bible Study” page link in the menu bar above the blog posts). It really is as simple as that. LikeĀ Romans 12:2 says:

Be not conformed to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Journaling activity:

  1. Write down what you believe and ask God to show you what is TRUE and what is LIE.
  2. Whatever is a LIE, scratch out–put a line through it. Scrawl the word, “LIE” over it!
  3. Then write next to each the TRUTH that you KNOW is from the LORD.
  4. Finish the activity by asking God to help you reject lies–even familiar ones–and to replace with HIS truth–even if the truth is, at times, uncomfortable.
  5. Practice saying the truth daily! Again, I suggest using thisĀ Who I Am in ChristĀ file. This stuff is all in God’s Word and is an excellent way to bathe your mind (“brain wash”) with truth.

How will believing God and what He says about you–that you are fearfully and wonderfully made (and all the other great truths he says about you in his word)–affect you relative to eating, food, and body image?