We often think of worship as singing songs on Sunday mornings, but the exciting truth is, we can do whatever we do for the glory of God, just as 1 Corinthians 10:31 says:
So whether you eat or drink or whateveryou do, do it allfor the glory of God.
Even eating and drinking can be an expression of worship! In fact, a careful study of Scripture might indicate to an astute observer of the text that God cares very much about this aspect of our lives. So let’s invite him to show us His will for our lives this summer!
Thin Within is the non-diet approach I used to release 100 pounds of weight between summer of 2006 and fall of 2007 and I continue to maintain a healthy size the same way. Not only is this an approach to managing weight, but it really is a discipleship program–focusing my heart and mind on being renewed by the Word of truth and submitting to the God of the Universe in *all* things…even things that seem mundane!
Thin Within is NOT a program where you will learn diet laws and rules. In fact, you will be encouraged to throw out your diet paraphernalia! You will even be challenged NOT to get on your bathroom scale. There are no “good foods” or “bad foods.” All is lawful! (1 Corinthians 6:12)
Instead, you will be encouraged to respond to your God-given signals of physical hunger and satisfaction. You will have the joy of allowing God to direct you personally in eating whatever foods you desire within the parameters of physical need. You can do this without guilt and with delight. Each time you are physically hungry you can select something to eat that thrills your taste buds! If you love summer squash, then great! Enjoy! If you hate it, don’t ever eat another bite of it again. 🙂 If you love cheese enchiladas, enjoy the freedom of having the mexican meal of your dreams when you are hungry and stopping when you are no longer hungry.
No weighing, measuring, counting, or preparing of special foods. You can eat out, go on vacation, eat what your family eats. I know it sounds too good to be true, but the key is in something that is hard for many of us–M-O-D-E-R-A-T-I-O-N. It works!
I believe that this is where our God-given freedom from tyranny of food, body images, and self-loathing is found. As I learn to ask the Lord to renew my mind and my thinking about food and my body, I see that He is the Creator! He created my body to be reliable if I will depend on HIM to help me through all those other times I may be drawn to food! I begin to trust him with this process. We *can* do this. And when we eat only what we *need* we will release the extra weight and discover our natural God-given size.
Because we eat each time we are hungry, we don’t have to worry about “shutting down” our metabolisms. The truth is, we are teaching our bodies that we are *NOT* in “starvation” mode. Quite to the contrary, in fact.
Additionally, because we will depend on the Lord to learn about our bodies and the way we think about food, to expose the lies we have believed, to replace these lies with truth, we will find our relationships with the Lord deepening.
I won’t lie to you…this process IS hard. There is a definite need to die to self–to be willing to say no to the additional portion when I am no longer hungry, but the joy that comes is bountiful!
Consider Colossians 2:20-21:
Since you died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world,
why, as though you still belonged to the world,
do you submit to its rules:
“Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”?
These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use,
are based on merely human commands and teachings.
Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom,
with their self-imposed worship,
their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body,
but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.
The above description sounds so much like a diet to me. I want to be DONE with that…I mean FOREVER. Do you? Aren’t you sick of the good food/bad food lists? Especially when you know down inside that you still REALLY love Häagen–Dazs ice cream and hate fat-free salad dressing? As we enjoy a modest amount of our favorite foods slowly and deliberately, we *are* satisfied. Partly because we go to GOD to have our heart needs met…instead of food! I can’t get my spiritual and emotional hungers fed by eating physical food. Nope. It won’t work! So Thin Within teaches that I go to God for that and then I am able to see the value of restraining indulging in extra portions of favorite foods! I end up joyful. I end up satisfied.
Please consider joining us for our study this summer. We will meet each week on Wednesdays from 4:30-5:30 PDT at http://www.thinwithin.org/chat/ to discuss what we have studied during the week. Be sure to get the workbook material so you can study during the week on your own! God will bless this! Give it 13 weeks and see if God doesn’t blow you away with the NEW THING He is doing!
NOTE: I edited this to reflect a change in day of the week. We will be meeting in the chat room on Wednesdays instead of Thursdays. Hope you can make it!
I am leading an online Thin Within group this summer through the Thin Within workbook material. The first orientation meeting will be June 15th and we will meet at the chat room at the Thin Within website.We will meet for chatting together from 4:30-5:30 pm Pacific Daylight Time each Wednesday evening beginning June 15th continuing through the first week in September.
(If you are a visual person and prefer a video telling you about this material, below you will find one. It isn’t particularly exciting, but it does give the low-down about the workbook!)
Here are some details (which I have shared in the past) telling about the Rebuilding God’s Temple Workbook Kit #1. If you have done this workbook before, you can still join the weekly chats starting June 15th and work through *any* of the Thin Within workbooks as they are all designed so that they all have the same lesson topics each week!
The first kit is the most comprehensive and comes with three pieces:
Workbook #1
The Temple Toolkit
The Memory Challenge Cards (click on the image to see a large version and click again to see it magnified further):
The contents of Kit #1
First, the workbook itself, is a spiral bound volume that has material for 12 weeks of study. To download a sample of the material, visit this link. The download is an Adobe Reader (.pdf) file of Week One – “Hope.” After you download it, print it and take a week to try it out! 🙂
Each week consists of the following:
Lesson material – This is dense written material that you will read to glean the concepts that we are teaching or reviewing during the week. I usually recommend about an hour spent with this, highlighting, asterisking, and looking up the verses in my own bible. I may even write comments in the margin or, if I am leading a group, questions to be sure to ask participants.
Each of the reading portions of the lesson are divided into these segments:
Introduction – a brief overview of the week’s focus
Spiritual Information – the relationship this material has to the Scriptures
Physiological Information – the “mechanics” — what you can actually doto make additional changes in your eating to honor the Lord
Integration – How it all works together
Exercises – Don’t worry! These aren’t calisthenics! LOL! They are basically guided daily quiet times. 🙂 Each week includes “exercises” for each day of the week. Days six and seven are optional and a bit “lighter.” Days one through five include the following sections:
Going Deeper – This relates some aspect of the lesson you have read to your life
Bible Study – This shows how Scripture illustrates or illuminates the principles taught in the lesson
Knowing God By Heart – One of the best parts, this is a study of the attributes of God. We have found that the way a participant views God impacts how she will view food, herself, her body, as well as her willingness (or not) to surrender this aspect of her life to the Lord for His purposes.
Getting Practical – These are suggestions for putting some of the mechanics of the program into practice
Memory Challenge – Hiding God’s Word in our hearts will enable us to be reminded of our commitment to him when we are weak! Memorizing scripture is extremely helpful for renewing our mind and changing our thinking!
Review of the Week – This provides a space where you can summarize what God has shown you or questions and thoughts you have had. This section is especially helpful when you meet with others in a group setting. 🙂
In addition to these resources in the workbook, there is an extensive Introduction at the beginning and Appendices in the back, providing a great deal of material that will support you on your journey.
But wait! There’s more! 🙂 (Couldn’t resist saying that!) Not only do you get the Workbook, but when you purchase the first kit, you also get the Temple Toolkit. This is a resource that offers a place for you to log your own journey throughout each day during the full twelve weeks. As you progress through the material, the pages change to match what you have learned in the workbook. Let me show you what I mean.
The first image below shows Days 25-28. Click on the image to see a larger version and then click again to see FULL size what these pages look like in the temple toolkit:
Days 25, 26, 27, 28 in the Temple Toolkit
As you progress through the workbook and new material is introduced, the Temple Toolkit changes, too:
Days 49, 50, 51, and 52 in Temple Toolkit
Again, click on the image above and then click again on the bigger image to see it full size. You will see new tools have been added.
Of course all of the tools are optionalas you go through the 12-week workbook. If you have come out of a background of excessive charting and graphing, you may only want to use the journaling pages. Or, as time goes on, you may experience freedom with one tool and not another. The Lord will lead each of us individually. Some have freedom to use all the tools, charts and graphs.
By the time you are closer to the end of the first twelve weeks, you will have been introduced to all of the tools. Note how the material in the toolkit has evolved:
Days 77, 78, 79 and 80 in Temple Toolkit
Again, “Wait! There’s more!” 🙂 When you order the first kit, you get not only the Workbook, the Temple Toolkit that changes as you go through the material, but you also get the Memory Challenge and Temptation Buster Cards:
Memory Challenge and Temptation Buster Cards
Again, click on the image above and the larger image, to get a full size view of what these include. You cut them up and can carry them with you so that Thin Within isn’t just a bible study that you begin in the morning and leave behind the rest of the day. These resources are very supportive in helping you to keep the principles that God is leading you to embrace and apply with you throughout the day.
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves.
Do what it says.
Anyone who listens to the word
but does not do what it says
is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and,
after looking at himself,
goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.
~ James 1:22-24
We don’t want to just accumulate head knowledge, but then leave it behind for the rest of the day! We want to ACT on what we learn in our times of study and in God’s Word!
I realize that $45 is not a “bargain price” for a workbook alone, but I trust you will feel like it is worth it. This material includes three months of workbook material and exercises, as well as the Temple Toolkit which would probably cost $20 for something like that (if you could find such a thing!) separately. (It isn’t sold separately at Thin Within, so this is hypothetical!) Truthfully, with the money you save by eating less food :-), you will be able to afford a kit for yourself and a best friend, too! (Ok, so now I am taking my infomercial over the top…hope you are bearing with me! LOL! But it IS true!)
Thin Within isn’t a big company. No one has a salary. The proceeds from sales of the workbook go to cover the costs of producing these materials, keeping the Thin Within website functioning, other expenses (like the phone!), and small stipends for some of the Thin Within team members. So while the cost of $45 may seem steep, it isn’t padding anyone’s pocket. I am sure you will be pleased with the quality of the materials you receive. (Boy, do I ever sound like an advertisement today. Sorry about that! I just really believe in this material and am eager for the word to spread!)
One additional piece of information that many are unaware of is that there are 3 additional workbooks, each covering 12 weeks. The material is designed so that people who have gone through workbook #1 before, can do workbook #2 or #3 or #4, even while most in the group use workbook #1. Each of the workbooks are presented in 12 weekly themes that parallel each other. These are the themes for all four of the workbooks:
Hope
My Body–God’s Temple
Identity in Christ
Celebration of God’s Grace, Part One
Restoration
Counting the Cost
The Fight of Faith
Celebration of God’s Grace, Part Two
Building Godly Boundaries
Forgiveness
Prayer
Celebration of God’s Grace, Part Three
When the group is on week five, everyone will be studying, reviewing, learning about the theme of Restoration. This helps prevent the material from becoming stale! It is a great system that allows people of all experience levels to enjoy a group together, studying and reviewing together.
To order materials, call Thin Within 1-877-729-8932 (9:00am-5:00pm Eastern).
The group I will be leading starting June 16th is an “open” group. You can join the chat at any time. There will be more details to come here and at the Thin Within website. Hope you can join us, even if you will be traveling a lot this summer! You can still join us at your convenience! 🙂
Because of my involvement with the Thin Within company in the past and my participation in writing the book and workbook material, I have received emails and phone calls over the years asking for input, help, and advice.
One of the most common struggles that people face is with consistency. I often am asked “How can I stop failing at this? I start the day committed to giving God my eating within 0-5, but by the time dinner is over, I seem to always give in to eating constantly for the rest of the evening. What is wrong with me? How can I be successful?”
The questions vary in how they are worded, but this is the upshot.
Here I share some thoughts about this:
It sounds like you are defining failure according to the dieting mentality. How does God define failure, though?
Many of us think failure is not losing weight, not sticking to a meal plan, etc.
But what if God’s view of failure is radically different–if it has more to do with our hearts? What if it has nothing to do with our weight and is simply: Not seeking Christ with all our hearts?
Think about it. Do you desire to give God your eating? Are you growing in your awareness and taking babysteps of faith and action to surrender your eating to Him. This is seeking Christ! This is far from the “failure” that you claim!
Let’s not forget that life is a journey–it is progressive. Sanctification is a process!
Maybe we need to extend ourselves the grace that God certainly does–He demonstrated His love for us in this, that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Even when we had NOT A SINGLE Godward thought, he reached out to bridge the chasm between us.
God has given us a very precious gift that he intends for us to embrace that might help us to delight in Him and his goodness, rather than fixate on ourselves.
Let’s invite God to help us to redefine failure and success the way HE does. Right now, he is working on your heart. You are seeing your weakness, I bet! He says in his Word that when you are weak, he is strong. That is progress, too! If you can rest in that, it might help. Look at all the many moments in the day that you are honoring him. If it is just at night that you struggle with godly choices, I would say that probably over 20 hours out of every 24 are spent honoring God with your choices! That is far from failure!
While we DO want to repent of sin, maybe we should also declare His praises in the work He is doing in us and celebrate our good choices.
I believe that these things are CRUCIAL–to welcome the renewing of our minds and to let go of the dieting mentality that says failure is when I don’t lose weight or stick to an eating plan 100% of the time.
Nevertheless, here are some practical tips for offsetting the temptation to eat in the evening when many of us are most vulnerable. See if some of these may help you!
1.) After dinner, put up a “Kitchen Closed” sign and abide by it.
2.) Chew sugarless gum. Anything you put in your mouth when you are chewing gum will be sorta gross. 🙂
3.) (My favorite as I believe it gets to the heart…) Since you know you struggle in the evening, plan for some quiet time with the Lord immediately after dinner. This will be time to devote yourself afresh to him, to feast on his presence, to ask him to come into your weakness and to be strong in it.
4.) Plan a new activity after dinner other than computer or tv or reading (or whatever is your typical MO…). Change things up, get out of the house, go for a walk or a drive or…whatever. Break out of the rut! 🙂
I hope these help, but most of all, our THINKING is where we need the transformation to begin. I think that is one reason why this approach is called Thin WITHIN. The changes begin in our hearts and in our thinking. Let’s be sure we address this. It is hard work, certainly, but our God is faithful. Let’s invite God to renew our minds and to transform us. Let’s spend time immersed in His Word during the time of day when we are most tempted!
When it is tempting to get my eyes on people or circumstances, I am learning that I can either “go with the flow” (NOT a good idea) or “romance” a heart tender to the Lord–setting my sights on restoration, nurturing whatever it will take in my life to be at that place where I want the Lord…desperately, even if I don’t feel that way now.
Practically, this means I don’t let just anything have access to my affections. I am more prone to wander so far from the Lord. Some who know me may think mistakenly that daily quiet times are my habit because I am “so godly.” Or that I set my timer on my watch to check in with God hourly (or more often) because I “love the Lord” so much. The truth is, I am so NOT godly. The truth is, I am so prone to love the things of this world that I have to do these things to survive without sinking into a horrific pit of sin and despair.
Knowing that about myself causes me to guard myself…even to the point that movies, books, magazines, music, and the company I choose to keep during this time simply must contribute to a godly mindset.
For example, while there may be nothing wrong with secular music for most people, *I* know where words bathing my mind can take me. Do I really want “Poor Poor Pitiful Me” (Linda Ronstadt in the 1970s) to be going through my head again and again, even during the night when my mind is idle? Or would I rather have something going through my head like what I woke up to this morning: “God has a perfect timing, God has a perfect plan, He’s asking you to trust him, even when you don’t understand. Our God is faithful, what he promises he will do, Our God is able, his truth will see us through…” (Thank you, Michele Wagner!)
Which do I want washing over my mind as I sleep (or don’t), as I go through the day, as I interact with others, as I am faced with sadness or surprises or disappointments? It is clear that “Poor Poor Pitiful Me” is likely to resonate with me more, but what is TRUTH? I am a daughter of the King! I have an amazing inheritance kept for me in heaven! I am NOT poor or pitiful. God IS faithful!
I have to choose truth right now, even if it feels like a reach for me.
This is a time when even if I don’t FEEL the truth of a song, I make it a prayer: “Lord, I want to see Your faithfulness afresh today. Help me to see with new eyes.” Music is either an expression of praise for me or a prayer beseeching God to meet me and flood all my empty places. For me, music that can’t be used this way is often detrimental to fixing my mind on truth–at least during a season like the one in which I currently find myself. This may not always be the case–and this is just a season right now, where I must be exceptionally cautious.
Further, right now I need to guard my heart from people who, in an effort to be supportive knowing my situation, will encourage an attitude of entitlement or “you have a *reason* to be mad!” I don’t need help digging in my heels, “donkey-legging” or being prideful.
This is also a really good time for me to get to know God afresh. Who is He according to His Word? If I allow my *feelings* to define my God, I am, in effect, creating God in my own image. This is a temptation right now more than ever. Instead, I want an accurate view of God. I have to approach the Word *assuming* that I have a warped view of Him and invite His Spirit to give me fresh clarity–a view of what is *truth*.
It is so clear to me that my mind is the battlefield and if I don’t guard it zealously and jealously, the enemy *will* invade it and/or my flesh will take command. So being paranoid, if anything, about what accesses my mind is vital to me. I would rather err on the side of caution than walk on in arrogance and in error.
It has also been helping me to pray verses that God has used to encourage me, putting many on a spiral bound set of index cards.
Even if God “disappoints me,” I have to nurture an awareness of His presence. I *have* to because it is my life line. If I don’t have Him to cling to, I may as well flush my life down the toilet. There, simply, is nothing I want to live for apart from God. No, not even my kids. They are human, too, and that means they can wound and disappoint. But when God is my all, when He is the only one that I pin my hope to, I have a better view of the things that people do that would otherwise disappoint or wound me. In other words, by fixing my eyes on God and allowing Him to orient my entire life, the rest is put in a better place, too.
Oh, goodness! Do you see what I mean? I have to romance the tenderness. I have to DO the things that will cause me to WANT the Lord and not my own way.
I have seen tangible benefits of doing this…enough so that it keeps me hanging in there. For instance, I have been surprisingly filled with gratitude for people in my life who God wants to use to refine me–the very same people who wound and disappoint! Apart from romancing the tender heart I *know* where I would go, instead–toward bitterness and resentment. If I let down my guard for even a moment, that is where I end up. Resentful. Filled with bitterness and maybe even hate. By romancing the tenderness, I have been able to see my own mistakes and foolishness and to ask others to forgive me for the things that have contributed to conflict. God is sanctifying…making holy through this process, but apart from romancing the tender heart, I would be in a very different place–defensive, much more arrogant, angry, totally depressed. Who wants to go there? I certainly don’t. That is a pit that is hard to get out of.
This isn’t easy, certainly. But God’s Spirit enables. I personally would rather go the path of least resistance. But I refuse to stop fighting for what I know is truth. I refuse to give in. In fact, I am in all out rebellion against my flesh and my culture that says “If it feels good, do it.” This does NOT “feel good.” This is hard. But if I let go, if I allow the hardness to have its way with me, I will stop living–or I may as well.
How about you? Do you need to romance a tender heart? What would help you to practically do this?
Therefore we do not lose heart.
Though outwardly we are wasting away,
yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.
For our light and momentary troubles
are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.
they make it a place of springs; the autumn rains also cover it with pools.
They go from strength to strength, till each appears before God in Zion.
Psalm 84:5-7
Typically, when someone comes to this blog, it is because they want encouragement with regard to their desire to change physically. Many (most?) visit this blog unhappy with the size or shape of their physical bodies. And this is the way it often begins. God gets our attention with our food or eating…and then the journey begins and sooner or later we discover that it really isn’t about food, eating, or body size/shape.
This is because (I guess) most of us realize that the physical condition in which we find ourselves is typically just an outward manifestation–a barometer, if you will–of something that is going on at a deeper level. “Within.”
We know almost intuitively that there is some inner churning or unworkable beliefs that have brought us to this place–this place of dissatisfaction with where we are.
So I ask you…are you ready for pilgrimage? Are you ready to move forward with the Lord? At some level, you must be! I don’t think you would be here at this blog if that wasn’t the case. So welcome! Let’s link arms together.
Question #1: Take a minute and answer in your journal or even here in the comments if you like–Describe that place from which you wish to “depart.” What are you hoping to leave behind as you move forward in your walk with the Lord?”
I am at an unusual place. I have found myself in a similar place only one time in my life–and that was over ten years ago. I struggle a great deal feeling like I am here, again, now…when I should be ten years farther down the road. It is my hope that I will understand God’s view of this “do over.” I want to leave this place in the dust–permanently. This is a place of uncertainty. It is also a place where old habits and mind sets with regard to food…things that I thought were ancient history…are again in my face! Emotions are raging and with that has come an ancient, yet somehow strangely familiar, feeling–that of being drawn to food for comfort.
This time, I have boundaries and I am not throwing these safeguards aside–at least not entirely. I know to do that would be to court disaster physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Nevertheless, I really hope that I will leave this “place” … and SOON.
My heart is SET on pilgrimage. Is yours? 🙂 Dictionary.com defines “pilgrimage” this way: ajourney,esp.alongone,madetosomesacredplaceasanactofreligiousdevotion…
So, “journey” implies a starting place, a place I LEAVE, and a destination…that place to which I go.
I am ready! Get me OUT OF HERE! 🙂 Beam me up, Scotty!
Question #2: Based on Psalm 84:5-7 (the verses above), what does God’s Word say about the person who sets their heart on moving forward with Him—on pilgrimage?
What do you see in this passage about that? If you set your heart on pilgrimage, what does this passage seem to promise?
In the past, you may have focused on garnering up self-control or self-discipline to get your weight under control. However, according to Psalm 84:5-7, the one who is truly blessed finds strength where?
How does this promise make you feel?
Question #3: What have you done in the past to get your “weight” under control? What are tactics and techniques to which you have resorted?
If you are like most of us, this doesn’t just include dieting and exercising, but it also includes some pretty physically unhealthy behaviors…maybe purging, using laxatives, throwing up, or not eating at all! If you feel so led, share with us what techniques, tactics, and dieting strategies you have relied upon. What were the consequences of resorting to these things?
If you are like me, you may have been enticed by the promise of freedom that obsessive counting, exercising, weighing and measuring offered, but freedom was *NOT* the result–even if you lost weight. I will never forget how thrilled I was to be thin after a year with a popular weight loss program…but my heart was ensnared more than ever before. After a year of fixating my attention on food and weight, that was all I could think about. This was NOT freedom!
Thin Within throws all of the “wisdom” of the world out. Everything that “makes sense” to us…well…God may have us toss aside and do something entirely different. I dieted for years and years. I was “good” at it, too! It wasn’t until I gave up all my dieting “wisdom” and exercising knowledge and began to listen to the Lord and what he was leading me to do that I could begin to be at peace and become healthy physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
So, is your heart set on pilgrimage? Are you ready to leave everything you thought you knew behind and allow God to transform you inside and out by the renewing of your mind?
Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world,
why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules:
“Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”?
These are all destined to perish with use,
because they are based on human commands and teachings.
Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom,
with their self-imposed worship,
their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body,
but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.
Colossians 2:20-23
We are heading on a journey where God will teach us more about ourselves and about Him than we may expect. It will be a wonderful, wild, and terrifying journey. I can’t lie to you. But he provides us the strength we need. Let’s depend on Him.
