by Heidi Bylsma | Dec 17, 2007 | Blog
A devotion written some years back, but I hope it encourages you today!
~ Wow! What a GOD! ~
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Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.
For he chose us in him before the creation of the world
to be holy and blameless in his sight.
In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ,
in accordance with his pleasure and will –
to the praise of his glorious grace,
which he has freely given us in the One he loves.
In him we have redemption through his blood,
the forgiveness of sins,
in accordance with the riches of God’s grace
that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.
And he made known to us the mystery of his will
according to his good pleasure,
which he purposed in Christ…
-Ephesians 1:3-9
He has blessed me in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing!
With how many blessings?
EVERY spiritual blessing in Christ!
He chose ME before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight!
What did He choose me for?
For hardship? For misery?
NO! – TO BE HOLY AND BLAMELESS! In *His* sight! (Even when I am not in my *own* sight!!)
He predestined ME!
He adopted ME!
And WHY did he do these things?
He did this according to HIS pleasure and will!
He did this for the praise of HIS glorious grace!
He has redeemed ME!
He has lavished the riches of His grace on ME!
He has made known to ME the mystery of His will!
And WHY did He do these things?
He has done this for HIS pleasure!
For some strange reason the God of this Universe, the One who brought the Heavens into existence with a single command, the One for whom the morning stars sang, the One who holds it all together…for some reason, this One, this great I AM has chosen ME.
For some strange reason it brings him pleasure to save ME, to adopt ME, to pour out *every* spiritual blessing on ME.
If these aren’t reasons to fall head over heels in love with this One, I don’t know what would be!!!!!
2007 © Heidi Bylsma
by Heidi Bylsma | Dec 8, 2007 | Blog
Do you feel like quitting?
Lots of us have moments (ok, years even!) when we feel like “quitting.” What are we talking about when we say that, I wonder?
Are we slipping back into the diet mentality?
The way I see it (in this sane moment!) is that I am on a journey with the Lord Jesus. I can’t quit the journey! That is like quitting life! I just can’t do that! 🙂
I think that what I …or maybe *we*… do is turn one corner or another. If our focus is on weight loss, it feels like we are “on” or “off” a diet…”successful” or a “failure” once again…that old dieting mentality is hard to shake. Maybe *that* is what we “feel like quitting.” Well, good!! 🙂 Let’s quit any and all diets!
BUT…let’s press on to know the Lord Jesus!
You see, this is a journey of walking with the Lord. It will last our lifetimes. It is about being conformed to the image of Christ–I don’t know about you, but it will take my entire life! LOL!
Just as he wants what I say, what I think, where I go, who I hang out with…and every single thing to be honoring to him, my attitude toward food, eating, my body is just one more aspect of my life I offer to Him.
Food isn’t what life is about.
Paul says:
For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. (Romans 14:17)
I think when we seek to live righteously, at peace with God, ourselves, and others, and allow joy in the Spirit to direct our choices, the food really becomes less of an issue…just like cussing like a sailor might not be a temptation or problem for me, I think that offering this aspect of our lives to the Lord also begins to be just an “incidental” in the “giving all of who I am” to Jesus!
That is my hope.
Of course, I think it becomes MORE of an issue, the more I focus on it being THE issue. Does that make sense?
So my theory is, if I keep asking God to give me a tender heart to heed his voice in all things, it affects how I talk to my kids, how fast I drive, how I spend my money *and* it sloshes over into my eating, too…same as with the other stuff.
Of all the emails I get asking me about Thin Within the #1 question asked is: “Why is this so hard for me now and it wasn’t before?”
I think the question points out that we keep comparing ourselves to ourselves…and not just that, but we keep fixating on our bodies…the WEIGHT!
What I think we have to do is cling to God…seek to become more like Jesus, denying ourselves, taking up our crosses DAILY (and moment by moment, too) and following him…over to talk to the lonely person at the back of the church, down to the Union Gospel Mission to serve for 2 hours, to the bible bookstore to buy a bible for a friend without one, to my mom’s house (in spite of the emotions I battle there), to offer forgiveness to my son…and to say no to __________ that I want to eat when I am not hungry.
If we look ONLY at this moment…not backwards at where we were or where we *think* we were 3 years ago (or whatever)…and not ahead at what we *hope* to be…but capture THIS moment for the Lord…I think it will revolutionize things!
Can you give THIS moment to the Lord??? Sure you can! 🙂
Delight and rejoice in the victory of this moment…and now another and another…truly…it is that simple and we miss it. We are so busy thinking in big blocks of time… But what about the miracle of this moment?
I really think this makes all the difference in the world…and beyond!
Let’s drop all comparisons and “time frames” and choose to live in this moment…
If you are like many (me included) and know that it could be a problem, how about surrendering even the scale to God. If we wonder if it holds us back (or know in our heart of hearts it *does) then let’s be done with it!
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free! Let’s spread our wings and fly…in THIS moment!
WHooo HOO! We CAN do it…right NOW! 🙂
Don’t think about tomorrow…it has enough problems of its own…and don’t look back…God wants us to quit camping on that mountain of victory from the past and establish a new victory in THIS moment!
How could we even *think* of quitting? We have barely just gotten started!
by Heidi Bylsma | Dec 4, 2007 | Blog
There is a honeymoon period for many of us with Thin Within. Are you in the honeymoon phase? If so, rejoice! But prepare for what is ahead!
Others of us know what I am talking about….WE HAVE HIT THE WALL! YIKES!
I think one reason for the wall is because as we seek to submit our heart to the Lord, he begins to make it clear he is going to get into our business…he wants full complete surrender. When we sense that this is the case, sometimes we begin to rebel again. Then the Lord begins to purify…like a refiner’s fire. Oooooh…it can really hurt quite a bit as we see just how proud and arrogant we have been.
But as we submit to this process we begin to once again submit our eating and our choices within 0 to 5 to him…we begin to desire to honor him with the choices in all of the things in our lives. We no longer compartmentalize things…but allow him to truly invade our lives completely…
The process IS hard. Harder than it is in the beginning…but it is effective. It is a heart change…a thinking transformation as he renews our hearts and minds. We have to allow him to change the way we think about food, our bodies, eating…and ultimately everything.
He will show us how forgiveness will unlock some of the things that hold us captive to eating when we aren’t hungry…but we have to walk through the valley of the shadow of death…It WILL get hard…but it works.
I am a slooooow learner…well, no…I am rebellious and allowed my rebellion to go on quite a long time. (Even now I struggle with it…) God began the Thin Within phase of my journey SEVEN years ago!!!! But it wasn’t until 13 months ago that it really began to “work”…I see now that all the time that came “before,” He was working on many things that weren’t physical…but boy…if I had given up because of not seeing the physical results, so many other things He has accomplished would never have happened.
Anyhow…if it has gotten hard…HANG IN THERE! This IS a new thing, too! Cling to Him and ask Him to work complete surrender in your life…He will do it…I believe that.
by Heidi Bylsma | Oct 22, 2007 | Uncategorized
Hi, everyone. The video below may take a while to load. It is a little over 7 minutes long. It is a clip of a friend of mine sharing some thoughts about her body as the temple of God as well as another section on God’s forgiveness. I got permission from Thin Within (and my friend) to share this. Some of the thoughts about the temple may be challenging for some of us to hear, but hang in there–I think it dovetails beautifully with her testimony of God’s forgiveness that follows. I hope you can take the time to view the video. It is powerful. I would love to hear from you about it.
Jan Tabrizi–a God-given friend:
Photo Sharing – Video Sharing – Share Photos – Free Video Hosting
by Heidi Bylsma | May 10, 2007 | Blog
So, no sooner do I post that Anatomy of a Backslide than I get news from my vet that my 10 year old wolfdog rescue needs to get to the vet clinic and be hospitalized as his white blood count is up…he is terrified of going anywhere and I have the vets come *here* to vaccinate him or, like yesterday, take his blood. He is the only connection I have to the most wonderful Samson who passed away on July 3 2006…Bo was Sammy’s best friend. I just will not be able to handle leaving Bo at a vet clinic for tests…and overnight! Oh my goodness…
So I got that news on the phone and then ate brownies…
I ignored God’s voice.
I totally turned my back.
So here you have it…it is all unraveling…
All I need to do is fix my eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of my faith. All I need to do is pray, to cling to Him. All I need to do is hide myself in Him as my Rock…and yet that seems beyond me now…
Nothing like a dog returning to her vomit.
Observe and correct. Confess and Repent.
Lord, with an act of my will, I turn to you right now. I know that you want me to cling to you, to reach out to you, to hold on to you. EVERYTHING else is shifting sand. No human can do for me what you can. No animal, no matter how precious…No answers, no thing…only you. You alone have what my heart longs for. I have a God-shaped void within me, planted there by you and oh how great is that void right now, Lord. I confess that I have turned my back, shut my ear to your sweet voice. I confess that I have gone my own way…a way that I know leads to misery. I seek your forgiveness, your restoration, your solution. I want your will, your way in my life. NOTHING will have power over me except your Holy Spirit. I choose you, Lord. I choose only you. I confess that I have walked far afield of your will for me and I want to return. I choose to return to the path of God’s provision instead of my own performance. I know that you forgive. I know that you have promised in your word that you cleanse us of all unrighteousness when we confess our sin to you. I receive that cleansing now, Lord. Thank you for it.
You ARE doing a new thing right now. In the past, this turn back the way I have done this in the past week or so would spell disaster…but it WILL NOT MEAN THAT NOW. You are showing me freedom and I know you are showing me that now…even in the mistakes, even in the times when I choose my own way, you are LORD. You are sovereign. You are king. You are my Savior, my Shepherd. I welcome you to restore me now, Lord. I need that. Thank you. Take me, Lord…I want to be wholly yours. In Christ’s name and for His sake…oh and Lord…would you please heal my Bo-man, too? Please, Jesus. I entrust him to your care. He is so precious to me and I know you placed him in our lives…
Amen
