And we are OFF! Let this year be LIT up with the HOPE that comes from letting Jesus do what he does so well…redeem, transform, and love. Let’s let him redeem us and the years the locusts have eaten. Let’s let him transform us from the inside out and let him love on us. We will open ourselves to the whole kitten-kaboodle! Let’s RUN the RACE!
Yesterday we had our first webinar. Find the recording for the webinar here. If you are a group leader, here are the Orientation/Intro Webinar Group Questions. Thank you to Allison Mitchell for writing them for us this week!
Here are some thoughts I have about this upcoming study overall and the focus we will have. Also, I share some thoughts about this first lesson on HOPE:
Video Questions:
1. Do you have a desire for transformation like I mention in the video?
2. What are the three things that will saturate our study of the workbook together?
3. What unique experiences, wisdom, and support do you have this time as you go through the workbook?
4. What “Little t” truths do you need to TRUMP with God’s “Big T” truths?
5. What would you like to see God call into being into your life?
6. Take a few moments to pray and ask God to show you what lies you might be believing that are standing in the way of you experiencing the hope that he intends for you to experience.
Introductory Thoughts About Renewing of the Mind
What we think/believe will drive our choices or actions. Our actions will establish a pattern. Our patterns will reap fruit. What fruit do we see in our lives that we might like changed? Let’s trade lies for truth, so we will begin to believe differently. The truth we believe will affect our choices and behavior. Our new choices and behaviors will establish new patterns in our lives. And the new fruit we long for will become evident over time!
You can select the level of involvement that you can manage. As time goes on, if you have to pick just ONE thing to do each day, I would recommend that you invest time in journaling through one set of questions in Barb Raveling’s I Deserve a Donut book or app each day. I believe that time invested doing this will reap HUGE rewards!
Trade Book Assignment –to be completed by January 13th
If you are using the Thin Within book (paperback or hardcover) published 2002 or 2005, I have pulled out from the deep dark recesses of my hard drive(s) a draft of a Thin Within Book Study Guide that, as yet, is unpublished. I provide it to you with a caveat…please be kind! lol! It isn’t publishable… Use it at your own risk ;-), but know that it was created with love. I provide the TW Study Guide Intro and TW Study Guide Week 1 documents, but please know they don’t match what we will do with the workbook study. I think it will be good, anyhow! It has you doing 5 chapters each week, so you will be done sooner than the workbook if you go at that pace, but hang out with us. 🙂 Also, you might still want to do the assignment below, #s 4, 6-10. You don’t have to have a workbook to do those.
Workbook Assignment – to be completed by January 13th [[Note: I know that many of us struggle with perfectionism and a condemning spirit. This is a chance to break out of that. I give you WAY more to do in any given week than is reasonable to do. So, do NOT expect to do it all! That would be impossible! Extend grace. Practice godliness by releasing perfectionism…Do what you can and be ok with that. PROMISE me! :-)) Consider all the possibilities like a “buffet.” Choose what looks best to you and let the rest go this time. There is always another day to try another tool!
1. Read through the introductory material in the Thin Within workbook, pp. A5-A11.
2. Read, highlight, mark Lesson 1 on pages B3 – B8 or listen to the audio file of Lesson 1 at Sound Cloud. Discuss it here in the comments section below this post or at our Class Private Facebook Group Page.
3. Complete one section of “exercises” each day. For instance, today, Tuesday, you could complete Day One on page B9-B10. Tomorrow, Wednesday, you could complete Day Two on page B11. Thursday, complete B12…and so on. When you come to the optional exercises, use your discretion. You can catch up on one of the other days or do some of the other optional activities.
4. For extra power in this process…begin now to each day keep a running list of any of God’s attributes, his characteristics, how he relates to or treats people that you find in your reading of the workbook or Scriptures. I suggest keeping this running list in a section of your journal (or inside the cover of your workbook) as you will add to it over the course of weeks and months! It helps if you include the reference. Check out this post to learn more about what I call “The God List.” (If anyone comes up with a better name, please PLEASE tell me! LOL!) If you would rather have it electronically, I have found software like Evernote is a great place to keep my God List as it syncs between all my devices and I have it handy ANY time I want or need it. I suggest adding at least two or three (or more) to your God List each day. You will be glad you did as we get further on. The extra few minutes will be an investment. 🙂 Here is more information about the God List.
5. This week, use Days 1-7 in the Temple Tool Kit. If you would rather, keep your notes in your journal. I like using a regular journal as there is more space to write.
6. Record any thoughts—LIES—that you discover pop into your head such as:
“Why bother doing this? It will never work.”
Or “You have done this before and you never keep the weight off.”
Or “This approach may work for everyone else, but it won’t for you.”
Or “I am SUCH a failure!”
And so on. When you discover a thought that contributes to thoughts of defeat, flush it out into the open and ask God to show you HIS thoughts about whatever it is. For instance, regarding the above:
“With the support and prayers of all the group members, with a new focus on this material, this WILL work!”
Or “God is doing a NEW thing and he will give me what I need to succeed AND to walk in victory.”
Or “God created my body reliably and he will show me that this way of releasing weight is effective for me, too. It is a God-sized work, true, but he is AT work doing it right now!”
Or “God will use this failure to teach me what doesn’t work and to give me strategies for victory!”
7. Make liberal use of the Sound Cloud files and You Tube videos. They are there for you to help you. Please enjoy. Download. Put them on your devices, carry them with you. God wants to saturate your thinking with the TRUTH about this journey!
8. Commit to relishing eating ANY food you desire once your stomach is empty…at a perfect “0.” Serve yourself less food. Start by halving your portions this week. If you sense physical satisfaction — a “5” coming before you are done eating, ask God to give you strength to stop eating. You get to eat again the very next time you are hungry! NO deprivation here!
9. Most of all…keep on praying! Pray that God will help you arrive at your natural God-given size, that you will break free from the stronghold that food has on you, that you will renew your mind so that you think differently about food, your body, eating, and the victory that God has won for you! Thinking differently will result in different actions resulting in different fruit! And maybe most of all…pray that you will have a wonderfully refreshing new intimacy with your Savior and Lord. 🙂
10. If you want to supercharge the transformation, renewing your mind will be paramount. I am personally making sure I do something twice each day to renew my mind. If you aren’t sure what that might look like, then journaling through a set of Barb’s questions in her I Deserve a Donut book or app is just the ticket. This is a great complement to our study of the Thin Within book!
How About You?
Check in! How are you feeling about beginning this journey? I would LOVE to hear from you here.
Note: If you have just stumbled upon this blog and this post and you like the idea of breaking free from dieting, fear-based exercise and the obsession that has so often been our practice to break free of extra weight, sign up for our Thin Within workbook study email list. It isn’t too late to dive on in! This page tells more about it.
I have struggled with my weight for as long as I can recall. I remember thinking I was bigger than all the kids in my elementary classes and equating that to being fat, although I was just taller than everyone else. My unhealthy self-image escalated and I began dieting the summer before 9th grade. I lost 10 pounds that summer and the exhilaration of dieting became a crutch that would follow me into adulthood.
By the time I found intuitive eating I had been on countless diets that always produced short-term results and lots of excessive baggage afterwards.
I had ballooned back up to 220 pounds and had finally decided to cry out to God for help with this stronghold.
Before
I found another Christian weight loss program that is based on intuitive eating in May of 2010, but the condemnation that they promoted caused me to seek another option. I had lost a bit of weight, but knew in my heart that their program wasn’t what the Holy Spirit wanted to show me. I found Thin Within just one month later.
I continued to embrace waiting for true hunger, but this time I allowed grace to cover me instead of guilt. I lost 18 more pounds—a total of 34 pounds—before I found myself pregnant with our 3rd child. This was a new challenge that I honestly wasn’t willing to face so I threw out the principles of intuitive eating and gained all my weight back, plus a few pounds during that pregnancy.
I reached my highest weight ever during that time and after having my beautiful daughter I delayed doing what I knew God wanted me to do to achieve my God-given size. When I finally got over myself and started eating intuitively again, God was able to really start the lasting changes on my heart.
Rachel with two of her precious little ones!
I was 228 pounds and a size 18 when I recommitted to eating God’s way.
I began to get active in the Thin Within ministry and lead a few groups. This is when the shift in my thinking really started to take place. This wasn’t just another diet for me. I wasn’t always perfect, though (not that God expects us to be) and I still had a lot to learn about how to become a naturally thin eater.
I did manage to lose 42 pounds and get into size 10 jeans, but that is when I discovered I was pregnant again with our 4th child. Knowing that I didn’t adhere to any Thin Within principles during my last pregnancy I was afraid of just how much time would be wasted. That is when I took my fear and apprehension to the Lord. He assured me that even during this season He could work on my heart and that’s just what He did. I gained weight, but He really chiseled the stoney places of my heart that have held me back for so many years.
I had my son on August 21st weighing in at 226 pounds and only 7 weeks later I am already down to 198 pounds. I have never lost 28 pounds this quickly after any of my pregnancies and I know that this coming year will be my best yet.
Rachel Now — In Process! Looking Good, Rachel!
God has healed so many of my heart issues and I am beginning to reap the benefits of having a healthy relationship with food. I’m still a work in progress, but I know that God will indeed complete what He’s doing in my life. I’m only about 12 pounds from my lowest weight with Thin Within, but I know I’ll be breezing past that with God’s help. He’s going to do the work in me that produces long-lasting permanent results. I will be at my God-given weight and size sooner than I could have ever imagined. I’ve definitely learned more than I can express, but the biggest thing has been that no season in our life is wasted when we honestly turn it over to our Lord! We can do this because He is the victor and He’s alive in us!
Rachel L. Taylor
Way to Go, Rachel!
It is so exciting to see Rachel making such wonderful headway. Watch this space for a follow up to share with you Rachel’s continued experience using Thin Within. If you are interested in the Facebook accountability group that Rachel administrates, please visit this page and request to be added. Let Rachel’s enthusiasm and success ignite hope for you! 🙂
For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. (2 Cor. 4:17-18)
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. (Hebrews 12:1-4)
In what ways have you focused your previous attempts to “fix yourself” on what is seen and temporary?
What is the better approach? What are we called to focus on now? (See the above verses for ideas.)
Right now, let’s choose to throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. The way to do this is to focus our hearts, minds, gaze on our Redeemer, our King, our Salvation. Instead of focusing on how much we need to “control” unwanted behavior, we will concentrate on the greatness of God, HIS ability, HIS power, HIS provision, HIS love for you, HIS grace!
What About You?
What do you think about this challenge? Are you ready? Ready againI? There is nothing wrong with another new beginning!
Let’s rejoice that we won’t need to use numbers on a bathroom scale to define who we are! In fact, let’s lock our bathroom scales in a closet or put them in the garage. Likewise, we no longer need to allow our ability to fit into a pair of jeans determine whether we have a good day or not. Life is about so much more.
Our King redeems all the years that we have been less than we hoped to be, the insinuations of others (or ourselves) that we have been inadequate, all the moments in the past when we have been controlled by our appetites and the meals that are yet ahead where we hope not to overeat or under-eat, binge or purge. He will use these moments when we are drawn to food to remind us of His love for us. As he does this, we have a choice. To wait in the moment for His love to satisfy us and be enough or to give in to the temptation to fill the empty well of our hearts with the stagnant water of the counterfeit. Life-giving water—Jesus our King, or the life-draining effect of whatever it is we may tend to turn to instead?
Bible Study
Let’s have a look at the past and the present. You will want a journal for this or to print out this part of the blog!
At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. 4But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, 5he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, 6whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. Titus 3:3-7
In the above passage circle or underline every reference to the past. For instance “were.” Circle that. Any action word (verb) ending with –ed you will want to circle as well.
List the words you circled.
What phrase in the passage above marks the turning point? (If you want a hint, see verse 4.) Do you see those wonderful words, “But when…?” Note the way the story changes.
Do you see a promise for the future in verse 7? What is it?
Read Ephesians 2:1-7:
1As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature[a] and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. 4But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
Do the same exercise for this passage, circle every reference to the past.
What is the turning point in this passage?
WHO is the hero? Who rescues whom?
Does the rescue depend on you at all?
Journal your response.
Aren’t these wonderful promises? We are encouraged to realize that the past is the past. We USED to live these ways. BUT…and here is where the story gets really good…BUT!!! While it is true we were in captivity, we were enslaved, we were without hope. “But…He saved us!” The daring rescue has happened!
How does this contrast with the notion that you can “let God down?”
When we have this sense that we let God down, what does that say about God’s need for me? If God is the one doing the rescuing, the carrying, the holding, the helping, how can I “let God down?”
In Isaiah 41:10, GOD says:
So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
GOD is the one who does the carrying, the strengthening, the helping, the holding, the rescuing! He is the dashing warrior upon whom the story turns. He has done it. Jesus Christ has won the victory for you. He comes for you…right now. The gallant hero reaches for you from astride his noble steed. Will you allow him to lift you safely out of the kingdom of darkness?
He carries you. He lifts you.
Respond to the Truth
What do you think? How can believing this, that HE is the focus, that HE is the where our strength comes from, radically transform our experience? How might that affect you…TODAY? 🙂
Listen, O daughter, consider and give ear:
Forget your people and your father’s house.
The king is enthralled by your beauty;
honor him, for he is your lord.
Do you feel like you enthrall the King of Kings with your beauty? He speaks this truth on the pages of His eternal Word—but do you, like many of us, have difficulty believing it?
Many of us have come to Thin Within or to this blog because of something external we want to change—our eating habits, our weight due to our eating habits, or something similar. We may not feel beautiful at all.
Some of us may be visiting this website because we have heard that Thin Within isn’t merely about externals–and that there is some new content and you want to experience the newness, freshness and freedom! You may even be fed up with focusing on externals and long for something that will encourage your *heart*.
Maybe you are just sick of the dieting treadmill!
Let me be frank. My goal at this blog and in my coaching ministry isn’t that you be a gorgeous, thin, creature that commands the attention and envy of every man and woman on the planet! It isn’t even that you be physically healthy, though that is a wonderful goal.
Frankly, my goal is to support you as you continue to grow in beauty from the inside out. I love seeing a life turned upside down with the power of praising our God and I KNOW that this has a direct impact on how we view food, our bodies and our eating!
No matter why you are here or what your expectations may be, you can rest assured that our God and King is a God of surprises—he can meet you and far exceed your hopes and dreams. The story he desires to live out with you can be a glorious testimony of this fact.
You may have your sights set on something extremely concrete or a very tangible goal, “I must gain enough weight to be 110 pounds,” or “I simply have to weigh less than 200 pounds!” or “I need to fit into that size 7 dress by my 20 year high-school reunion!” We have all kinds of folks that visit this blog.
You may know that at the heart of your struggle is an addiction that has its coils wrapped around you like a snake constricting its prey prior to devouring it. You may feel devoured…constricted, captured and snared. (Please know that a #1 truth is that Jesus has paid for our freedom. He HAS done it. He HAS won it. We get to walk it out!)
Regardless of your thoughts about where you currently find yourself, there is One who comes to rescue you from the dominion of darkness. He may lead you on a more circuitous route than what you have in mind. You can trust that He will only lead you where you need to go. Nothing will be wasted. His ways are beyond fathoming. He has in mind much discovery for you as you get to know Him better, get to know yourself better, and participate as the tale is penned, as the dance commences, as the journey unfolds.
You can rest assured this will be exactly what you need—no more, no less.
You may feel like you have been in this position before. If you have had enough of Mondays, “fresh starts,” new beginnings, and “this-time-it-will-be-different”s, then you are right where you need to be!
What About You?
Can you take an inventory? What do you DREAM of? What do you hope to become? Dare you write it on a page? Dare you bring it before the King of Kings, the Creator of the Universe, who gives birth to our dreams? While it is true that he sometimes allows a dream to die even as he ignites a new dream within us—HIS dream in us—we are safe with Him, sharing with Him what we long for.
Why not take some time today and write down what you long for? Hope for? Dream of? No one needs to see it.
Once you do this, sit with the Lord with the page open before Him and offer it to him. Invite him to see your dreams. Welcome him to either make them come true or replace them with his wonderful desire for you so that you can dare to dream God-shaped dreams for your future.
If you would like, you can share with us here how you feel about this exercise.
Here are some thoughts about hope and hopelessness and how it affects our eating. If you are an email subscriber, please be sure to visit the blog site, as the emails don’t include the videos.
It is important when we are struggling with a sense of hopelessness to take our thoughts captive and replace them with truth. I strongly recommend truth journaling. It is a powerful means of learning to think differently.
What will you do today to conquer the subtle (or bold) influence of hopelessness that the enemy tries to settle on your life? What will you do to respect your boundaries when hope wanes?
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