He lifted me out of the slimy pit,
out of the mud and mire;
he set my feet on a rock
and gave me a firm place to stand.

He put a new song in my mouth,
a hymn of praise to our God.

– Psalm 40:1-3a

I continue my side trip through the theme of The Present, Not the Past, in keeping with the focus of chapter 7 of Get Thin Stay Thin.

The excerpts below are from The Search for Significance by Robert S. McGee. This book is being used by God to continue His transforming work…the “new thing”…from the inside out. It is flooring me how much God is at work changing the way I think.

…nothing forces us to remain in the mold of the past! By the grace and power of God, we can change! We can persevere and overcome! No one forces us to keep shifting our feet in the muck of old failures. TSFS, page 95.

Right now, I CHOOSE to get my feet (and face) out of the muck of old failures! I CHOOSE to step my feet on SOLID ground–the ground where You define me through all you have done for me and in me in Christ Jesus. These aren’t empty words. You have done amazing things. Which will I value more? Place more emphasis on, focus on the most? MY behavior and performance (which is, of course, flawed?) or all YOU HAVE DONE? Jesus’ “performance” on the cross and His resurrection? Oh! It seems so amazing! So ridiculous that I would struggle at all with this! It is so clear to me in this moment!

From page 97 in The Search for Significance (not really a quote, but not really all my own words…sort of a paraphrase application…):

I am deeply loved, fully pleasing, totally accepted by the God of the universe. I anticipate that, as I continue to study God’s Word, experience loving relationships with other believers, I will gain a better understanding of the way God values me. This will improve my sense of self-worth, as my sense of who I am will be based on TRUTH–God’s Truth!

I want what the author has–past memories may be painful, but through Christ my present attitude about myself will continually change. I see how this will lead to life-long transformation relative to my struggle with eating and my body! It is a HUGE factor in all of this!

I know in my head I HAVE NO REASON TO BE ASHAMED and that covers a gamut of compulsive moments… Sure, I will continue to experience “failure” and “success” as I step out into new things (and try to improve upon “old” things I have done for years…). God will use these instances of failure and success to teach me that DESPITE MY CIRCUMSTANCES MY WORTH IS SECURE IN HIM!

Change is possible, but it is a process. TSFS, p. 98

Sometimes people get in a big hurry with the process of “losing weight.” Whether it be on the forums at the Thin Within website, at church bible study, at the gym–wherever!–there is an urgency to LOSE WEIGHT! But God is after a transformation in our thinking. If thinking differently, believing differently, and depending on HIM differently aren’t at the core of the physical changes, we have only reverted to yet another diet–even if it may not seem like it. The changes will be temporary.

Truly changing permanently is a lifelong process. P-R-O-C-E-S-S — Gosh, even typing it that way is too slow for me! LOL!

So let’s get out of the muck of our past and believe God for the new today and the future he has planned for all of us. We have heard and reheard Jeremiah 29:11 and it IS true.

See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the desert
and streams in the wasteland.

Isaiah 43:18-19

It IS true that God IS doing a new thing…right NOW. This moment! Toss off the muck of past failures and defeats…and yes, even past SUCCESSES! Sometimes those beat us up more than past failures. It doesn’t matter if you lost 390 pounds with Weigh Down or Weight Watchers…God wants to free you from weight beyond imagining RIGHT NOW! Me, too! He IS doing it! He promises that which he began he will complete! Let’s cooperate with him. Are you with me?