Have you ever died a piece of cloth? It is so important to be sure that the entire thing is completed saturated. If it isn’t, the change will be inconsistent or mottled, at best.
I want my heart, mind and life to be “dyed” with truth–totally 100% SATURATED.
I was struck–even in the middle of my tizzy fit–by how many times verses from Romans 8 are quoted to me. I have to admit…there are times when it makes me roll my eyes. Really? Someone is going to quote “God works all things together for good”…aGAIN? Or “We are more than conquerors!” “Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ!” or ” There is no condemnation for those of us who are in Christ.”
Really, when you think about it, Romans 8 may be one of the most quoted chapters in all of Scripture.
So, even with an attitude, I wondered with my journal and bible open to Romans 8, what TRUTH would I believe if I believed ONLY what Romans 8 has to say? This is the list I came up with:
I am not condemned (v. 1)
I am free from the law of sin and death (v.1)
The righteous requirements of the law have been fully met in me (v. 4)
I have my mind set on what the Spirit desires (v. 5)
I have life and peace (v. 6) <–an important one for me since I tend to make peace and idol if left to my own devices!
I am controlled by the Spirit (v. 9)
I belong to Christ (v. 9)
Christ is in me (v. 10)
I am led by the Spirit of God (v.14)
I am a child of God (v. 14)
I received a Spirit of sonship (v. 15)
I am God’s child. He is my Abba Daddy (vs. 15, 16)
I am an heir of God (v. 17)
I share in his suffering (v. 17) <— This made me wonder how much of my suffering in my current trials are my own doing and not about suffering with Christ at all?
I will share in His glory (v. 17)
There is a glory ahead that far outweighs my present suffering (v. 18)
The Spirit helps me in my weakness (v. 16)
The Spirit prays for me when I don’t know how/what to pray (v. 26)
The Spirit prays according to God’s will (v. 27)
God works all things for good for me (v. 28)
I love God (v. 28)
I have been called according to God’s purpose (v. 28)
He has predestined me (v. 30)
He has called me (v. 30)
He has justified me (v. 30)
He has glorified me (v. 30)
God is FOR me (v. 31)
God gave His son for me (v. 32)
God graciously gives me all things! (v. 32)
Jesus prays for me (v. 34)
Nothing can separate me from God’s love (vs. 35, 39)
I am more than a conqueror! (v. 37)
What, then, shall I say in response to this? (v. 31)
Truly… what would happen for me…for you…if we believed even one third of this list? How might it affect our eating? I know it would affect mine. I didn’t get to carry 100 extra pounds on my frame twice just by eating foods that sounded good. I ate because I was resentful and bitter, because I wanted to celebrate, commiserate. I ate for holidays, I ate for vacations, I ate after vacations and after holidays. I ate because of nice things said to me and mean things said to me. In short, I ate for a million lies that I believed…that somehow food was going to make whatever it was better. LIE.
So, any one of those statements above, could be like a sword (of the Spirit, the Word of God) challenging the right of the lie to exist in my life.
How About You?
Might some of these truths in the list above make good material for truth cards? 🙂
What impact would it have on your eating if you believed Romans 8?
What is TRUE about you and about your body? It isn’t what the world says, what the media says about it. Not at all!
Here is a sound file that I hope will encourage you today. Feel free to download it and listen to it when you have a chance. You can even put it on your iPod if you want. Whatever works!
What do you think? Are you beginning to know that you have an amazing body? Not only are you God’s incredible creation, but you are also His dwelling place if you are in Christ! How might believing that–REALLY believing that–change how you view yourself and how you act?
Note: Much of the material in this audio was modified/adapted from Lesson 4 in Healthy Eating and Abundant Living by Allie Marie Smith and Judy Halliday and Thin Within (chapter 5) by Arthur and Judy Halliday.
NOTE: When I share a sound file like this, I feel a little weird. I know that my way of relating to God is probably different than most. I feel like I have let you into my secret prayer closet when I share files like this. I have prayed about sharing this and feel like God is in it, so I will step out in faith and trust that if you think I am weird, a nutcase or a Jesus Freak that someone somewhere is going to be ministered to, encouraged, or something…to make it totally worth whatever it might cost me. LOL! 😀
So, with that disclaimer aside…
God never intended food to torment us. When the thought of eating scares us because we know how we are, let’s take a proactive, intentional stand. Let’s renew our minds. Let’s trade the lies we have believed…including the lies we believe about ourselves when we do mess up. Let’s make a plan to do things differently. Let’s re-establish a boundary and then stick with it in the strength God gives. And let’s pray!
This is a sound file (if you are a subscriber, you may need to visit the blog site to access the sound file) that shows an example of how I renew my mind about how I think about food. This is intended to be an example, but you can also pray silently along with this. I hope that you will join me in continuing to renew your mind with truth. If this idea is a bit foreign to you, it comes out of Romans 12:2 and our bible study of Barb Raveling’s material (if you missed it, please find the list here).
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? 🙂 That’s ok. Now close them again and imagine knowing to the depths of your heart …
…I AM a 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. Like Romans 12:2 says:
Be not conformed to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Journaling activity:
Write down what you believe and ask God to show you what is TRUE and what is LIE.
Whatever is a LIE, scratch out–put a line through it. Scrawl the word, “LIE” over it!
Then write next to each the TRUTH that you KNOW is from the LORD.
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.
Practice saying the truth daily! Again, I suggest using this Who I Am in Christ 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?
I was just thinking about what I posted earlier about my son while I was doing horse chores this evening. The Lord spoke to my heart about my final statements in the blog entry. That if I was going to pray that God would do a work in me, I should act like I believe he would…like Daniel did when he made the effort and moved the hay after praying for rain.
I heard the voice of the Spirit whisper to my heart: “But do you *want* to be made whole?”
This surprised me.
I was then reminded of John 5:5-7, which says:
One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.
When Jesus saw him lying there
and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time,
he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”
This man had been disabled for THIRTY-EIGHT years! He was there waiting for a way to get well. His presence in that place, his condition…it all seemed to indicate that he, of course, wanted to get well! So, why did Jesus ask him the question?
As I was pondering the way my son had prayed in faith for rain and taken action based on that faith, I considered…he really WANTED the rain. In fact, he wanted it enough that he planned for it, to welcome it. He put effort into receiving the rain. He DID something in preparation for the rain–the answer to his prayers. He anticipated the rain. When he prayed for rain, had Jesus asked him, “Do you want it to rain?” Daniel’s prayer *and* his actions would have indicated “YES! You BET I do!”
What about me? When I pray that God would take away my desire for food beyond what I need…well, do I *want* to get well? Do I *really* **want** the answer to my prayer to be yes? Or is there some way in which I continue to cherish sin in my heart?
Psalm 66:17-19 says:
I cried out to him with my mouth;
his praise was on my tongue. If I had cherished sin in my heart,
the Lord would not have listened; but God has surely listened
and heard my voice in prayer.
If I am to be like Daniel when I pray, if I am to believe that God will bring it about, if I am going to act like it is going to happen…what kind of actions will that illicit in my life? Jesus asks me, “Do you want to get well? Do you really want to be free? Or are you comfortable with this ‘issue’ in your life? Does it ‘work’ for you?”
Ouch.
Am I making provision for the flesh? Or am I making provision for Him answering my prayer?
n the New American Standard Bible, Romans 13:14 says this:
But put on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and make no provision for the flesh
in regard to its lusts.
If I think about Daniel, what would it have looked like if he hadn’t believed his prayer for rain would have been answered? He would have left the hay alone, but he might have gotten on sun screen and gone to the lake to go swimming. He would have left my bible out on the back deck instead of bringing it in. He might have even turned on the air conditioning or opened the windows in the house…he would have made provision for anticipating that the Lord wasn’t going to answer his prayer for rain.
Instead, he was convinced…he believed, he asked, he wanted what he asked for enough to DO. Could this be, in part, what James means when he said:
In the same way, faith by itself,
if it is not accompanied by action,
is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”
Show me your faith without deeds,
and I will show you my faith by what I do.
– James 2:17-18
Daniel’s faith caused him not just to pray, but also to act, to do…a “deed” or two. Not to win God’s “yes,” but to anticipate it!
If I pray in faith for God to forever remove an unhealthy attachment to food in my life, if I anticipate that His answer will be yes, what DEEDS will I DO that show that I anticipate God acting in response to my prayer? Will I make provision for the flesh, expecting that I will never be free from an ungodly attachment…or will I expect not to feel the compulsion to eat to excess any more and choose to act, to DO something(s) that demonstrates to God and to myself that I know God is at work doing a new thing, changing my lusts, passions and desires? Am I making provision, if you will, for His affirmative answer to my prayer? Or am I making provision for my flesh, demonstrating a lack of faith *and* the answer to Jesus’ question “Do you want to be well?” that says, “No…no thanks…not really. Silly me…I didn’t MEAN to ask you to heal me…”
Hmmm….
As I sit here editing this blog entry, I am smiling. God has such a sense of humor. Can you believe it? I actually, literally hear rain outside…the windows are open (my doing…). Maybe I better shut them.
