Heal me, O Lord, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for you are the one I praise.
– Jeremiah 17:14
In Mark chapter 5, Jesus is surrounded by a mob of people. In the midst of the crowd is a woman “who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years” (verse 25). She had tried just about everything and everyone.
In Mark 5:26 we see “She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse.”
In her ailment, she had looked for healing everywhere that she could think of. She had spent all of her money and yet, ironically, she had suffered more and actually gotten worse.
Have you ever felt this way? The more you sought help and freedom from overweight and overeating, the more diets you experienced, and the more you knew, maybe even the more doctors you went to about this, the more found yourself actually in bondage to food, the thoughts of food, the lust for food and the inhaling of food when you weren’t hungry?
I have. After a year in the 1990s with a popular weight loss program, losing 100 pounds with a very strict diet and obsessive exercise, training for three marathons, studying to become a certified personal exercise trainer, I found myself with a worsened “heart condition.” Like the bleeding woman, I had looked to anyone and everything for healing *other* than the One who could truly offer it. My heart was attached to—obsessed with—food.
The incredible thing is, God can take these “failures” and our desperation and actually use it all. This bleeding woman had become so convinced that the only source for healing left for her was Jesus, that she knew that if she just *touched* his clothing, she could be healed! Now that is faith! Jesus sought her out. He wanted to see this woman face to face—not because he didn’t know who she was. He knew. He was God, after all. But he wanted to speak to her personally. In Mark 5:34, we are told what he says to this woman after she was healed: “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”
What marvelous words. These words He longs to speak to us! This very healing he longs to impart to us. Yet the LORD longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. For the LORD is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him! – Isaiah 30:18
But who are we looking to for our healing from this tendency to eat more than we need to sustain our bodies? Are we looking to Him? Truly? Are we seeking His healing? Or are we seeking the healing through any number of other methods? Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress. He sent forth his word and healed them; he rescued them from the grave. – Ps. 107:19-20
If He heals us, it isn’t at the expense of our souls. When the Lord saves us, we truly are saved. Let us turn to Him, focus on Him, praise Him with our lives. In that place we, too, will experience the rush of power into our lives that sets us free from our suffering!
Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. – Hebrews 12:2
Lord, I choose to come to you today for the healing I need. I need to be healed of my tendency to turn to food to process my emotions. Conversely, I know sometimes I replace overeating with restricting and I turn to dieting to “save” me—as a functional Messiah of sorts. I choose to reject this tendency, Lord. Instead of either unhealthy approach, I want to view food as fuel and be set free from extra weight and over-eating. I want to be set free from needless restricting. I know you alone can work these changes in me. I come to you, Jesus. Amen.
“Abundant Life” – The phrase brings to mind many things for each of us. For some, it might mean material wealth. For others, being surrounded by friends and family. For still others, it means good health and the freedom to serve others without restraint. Certainly, for as many different people there are on the planet, there would likely be definitions of “Abundant Life.”
The real question, though, is what did Jesus mean when he used the term? He said he came that we might have life and have it abundantly. If he came to give it to us, if we don’t know what it looks like, perhaps we won’t know if we have it. What if, for many of us, this is an untapped resource?
This week we look at a couple of facets of the “Abundant Life Gemstone.” To do this, we will evaluate our lives a bit inviting God, once again, to search us and know us and show us what we need to adjust. He provides the strength to do it. There is a great deal of joy in following his lead!
In the past, many of us were consumed with dieting, calorie counting, weighing, measuring, researching. The countless hours that we invested in the pursuit of “Thin,” actually may have diminished our ability to be sensitive to what God was calling us to do. We may have magnified our longing for thin so much that God became small in our eyes. Can you relate to this?
If so, we don’t need to condemn ourselves. We can, however, be intentional to be sure this no longer happens.
We want to invite God to show us what “Abundant Living” is for us. This will be individual. What it looks like for me, it may not look like for you. But one thing is certain…it will cause us to look more and more like Jesus and he was definitely “others oriented.” He was God focused and driven by a desire to serve people. This isn’t something we want to fabricate, but as we fix our eyes on Him, he will form a heart in us that cares about what He cares about. There is great joy in that place as we welcome his work in our lives, making us less and less myopic and expanding our vision outwardly.
One of the great things about the Thin Within (or HEAL) approach to eating and body image changes is that, while it may take some time and attention to have it be second nature, it will ultimately become second nature. It won’t require our constant attention the way counting, weighing, measuring did. It ultimately frees us to be consumed LESS with ourselves and more with the things that God intends for us!
Psalm 37:4 says Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desire of your heart.
We are made by God for a life that is filled with so much more than we often settle for. We think we are happiest when we cater to ourselves, but the truth is, we were wired for community, for service, to have a heart for others. We are going to experience a sense of purpose and joy when we live as God intends! THIS is abundant living!
What is the call of God on our lives based on this passage?
What are the promises offered to us when we pursue His will, His way?
Where, according to this passage, is our healing going to be found?
With the Lord, so much of life is sort of the opposite of what “makes sense” to us. Who would have ever imagined that by giving ourselves away, we would actually experience wholeness.
If we haven’t been living this way, now is a great time to make a shift! There is no condemnation for the past. We may have regrets, but God calls us forward! Let’s move forward into our future with him!
This week’s material encourages you to have a look at your friendships. Do you have supportive, loving, encouraging friends in your life and people that you can love and encourage to pursue Christ? Are there any toxic relationships or people in your life who are like that shouting voice in last Friday’s video–spurning you, criticizing you, mocking you for your faith or your approach to eating and weight? Maybe it is time to ask God to show you his will for these relationships. Are they a hindrance to abundant living? Are boundaries needed?
If you still are without an accountability partner, this website exists to support your journey and there are people who posted as recently as last week that they still would like to be partnered up. Remember this is how it works to get an accountability partner:
1. Visit the Accountability Page
2. Post a bit about yourself–how long you have been involved in Thin Within, your current life situation (kids, empty nest, single, etc.), what your availability is for a partner (daily, email only, etc.)
3. Look at the postings there and see if one sounds like a fit for you based on the bit of information that others have posted.
4. Send me a note to heidi bylsma at gmail dot com (no spaces) and let me know the name of the person you want me to send your email address to and that you are interested in partnering up with her.
There is no reason that, if you want an accountability partner, you shouldn’t have one at this point! If not here online, then get a friend in real life to join you for your journey! We are pressing on and in to know Christ more and to be more like him.
In the activities for this week is a challenge to be still in God’s presence. I highly recommend this activity. It is difficult for us to truly be still. But it is well worth working at it. Share with us what God does!
Let’s welcome what God wants to do in us so that we might experience the abundant life that Jesus came to give us. He gave his precious life so that we might experience it. We were made for so much more than what we often settle for!
Assignment This Week:
Complete the personal study portion of Lesson 6 in your HEAL book.
Post your thoughts, insights, questions, comments here so we can share in the experience together!
If you haven’t gotten an accountability partner yet, DO!
If you have an accountability partner, now might be a good time to connect with one another and evaluate how it is going, should you continue, in what ways you should tweak your partnership. Be honest with one another. If you are looking for more accountability, just share with your partner this is so. If your availability has changed, tell your partner that.
Evaluate your friendships, using the suggestions in the lesson.
Complete the “Be Still Before God” activity. Share with us what happened!
Come back here on Friday for the final “Group Session”
You DO have “Body Beautiful!” I hope you are beginning to see that. You have arms to give hugs; a mouth to offer affirmation; a smile that warms a heart or gives courage to another; legs that have carried you throughout life, enabling you to experience adventure, to work, to play, to live! You have shoulders that are strong and arms that have carried groceries and moved furniture. You have served, used your hands to write notes of encouragement and your bottom has sat beside a friend in need! 🙂
Are you beginning to know fullwellthat you are fearfully and wonderfully made? Is the truth, reality, validity, accuracy, actuality, authenticity, certainty, correctness, exactitude, genuineness, infallibility, legitimacy, precision, rightness, veracity of this fact beginning to come home to you? Continue to invite God to show you this truth that you might know full well that ALL of his works are WONDERFUL (including you).
Looking at this week’s material in Lesson 4, what resonated for you? What did God show you, perhaps for the first time, or remind you of? I would love to hear!
On page 76 of the HEAL book, we have an activity: Praise and Reflection. If you were in my living room with me, we would do this activity together, so I have included a part of the video for it! I hope you are able to view the entire video. If you are short on time, fast forward the video to 6:26 and take about two minutes and thirty seconds to participate in the activity with the video running. Welcome God to show you what you can praise Him for because of your body. If the Psalm says “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made,” then we want to invite God to show us what specifically we can praise Him for relative to the amazing creation that is our bodies!
God, you have shown me ________.
God, thank you for _____________.
Additionally, will you please share with us what some of the things you have added to your Body Beautiful checklist on page 73 to keep your body in the most God-glorifying condition possible? I have so enjoyed your comments this week on the blog posts. Now let’s welcome the “rubber hitting the road” with how do we DO this? How do we work this out? God will lead each of us uniquely, to be sure. Whatever he shows you, another person can prayerfully consider. Who knows? Maybe God will use what you share–what you have added to your Body Beautiful checklist, for instance–to encourage her to do something similar!
On page 74, we were issued a challenge to renew our minds about our body. What are some truths about your body that you can continue to tell yourself so that you can relish and praise God for the body he has given to you? Again, if you share here, someone else is going to be encouraged by what you post!
Did you memorize 1 Corinthians 6:19-20? How has God used that in your life this week?
How can we be praying for you?
Is your routine changing right now? I know that when weekends come and when summer comes, many of us experience a shift in our routine and this challenges us! Let us know how we can pray for you!
