My flesh machinery has really been riled up these past few days, with food loudly and persistently calling my name, like, all the time! Awaiting zero has been harder than usual.
We are taught in Thin Within that overeating – eating when we aren’t hungry – can cover raw, uncomfortable emotions, thus numbing us and keeping us from dealing with emotions that really need to be dealt with, not buried alive or smothered.
Doing things that I know I should be doing often helps me ignore the loud calling of my name by food.
My food is to do the will of Him who sent me, and to accomplish His work.” (John 4:34)
.
I’m fully aware this is Jesus talking, and that I’m not Jesus! Or diety! But I believe that this principle – that doing the will of God is food to us – is true for us, too, and Jesus lived it out first to show us how to do it.
But still… right now all I want to do is eat! EAT EAT EAT!!!! UUUUGH!!!! (This is as embarrassing to admit as it is frustrating to feel!)
But the Lord reminds me… I am not without help! He Himself helps us:
Apart from Me you can do nothing…
But He has also inspired His people to create resources that help us more clearly see – and accurately apply – these truths. And He has given us many wonderful resources in Thin Within, especially via Judy and Arthur Halliday, and Heidi Bylsma! I am currently going through Rebuilding God’s Temple, and in the Week 10, Day 4 lesson, we are asked to take note of specific emotions that are stirred up in us while awaiting zero, and then also journal about them. So that’s what I’m going to do right here – share with you my process… for better or worse…
1. Identify the emotion that’s surfacing while awaiting zero:
That’s easy! ANXIETY!
2. Journal about it:
I know scripture clearly tells us to not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, to let our requests be made known to God…
And I totally get that and agree with that! Well, I totally agree with that, but I’m not so sure I totally get it, or I wouldn’t still be dealing with this stuff, right? But nonetheless, I am anxious.
The wonderful thing is that God knows us, He knows we will be anxious, and He has made provision for this emotion in these verses:
Pour out your hearts to the Lord for He can help.” … “Make your needs known to Him.” … “Come and talk with Me, oh my people…”
So I will take Him up on his offer and start pouring… making my needs known to Him… and coming to and talking with Him…
Here are my current anxiety-causers: (They really boil down to two.)
One is that I have a busy few days coming up, and I am anxious about how I’m going to get everything done. How do I best prioritize, not get side-tracked, and use my time the most wisely?
The other is that we will be having company staying at our home for several days. I have a melancholic personality and I enjoy – and actually need – time to myself. Having company will entail interruption to my usual quiet days – quiet because we are empty-nesters and my husband is retired. So this will be challenging to my flesh, especially since hospitality does not come easily or naturally for me – probably because I am basically selfish, and hospitality is basically all about unselfishness. It will be rewarding, too, I enjoy people once they are here, but I am still anxious about this.
So identifying the emotion and journaling about it got everything out in the open, and definitely helped, but now I need to take it to the next level and “finish it up”; I need to…
3. Pray it all the way through.
Okay, Lord, here I am…
Lord, You know all about the anxiety that is having a hayday in me right now. And I’m sure this is part of what’s drawing me so strongly to want to eat right now, to try to mask it or smother it or avoid dealing with it, or D. ALL THE ABOVE.
Of course I know full well that none of those will work, but that doesn’t mean I won’t fall for it, again.
Lord, I want to be honoring to you in how I eat, and I know I have not been, and for that I ask your forgiveness.
I come to You with the weightiness of my emotions, my selfishness, my confusion, my frustrations, my anger, and my insecurities…
…in this case, about hosting and entertaining guests. And I give it ALL to You, Lord…
You know what You want to happen with our guests, and I ask You to lead me that way and give me Your heart, Your love for them.
Help me think less about myself and more about them and their needs, and to make them feel welcome, and to show them Your love.
I also ask You to help me use my time wisely and get done those things that You want done, and let the rest go!
I cast all of these cares on You, Lord! I can’t fix them or get rid of them anyway, so I bring them to – and leave them with – You.
And I trust You with them, and to get me over any hurdles, and through any tough times that come up today and once our company is here. Please give me the words, the heart, the direction, and the wisdom I need in each moment.
Thank you, Lord, for everything You are doing and are going to do! Aaaaaaamen!
Christmas is upon us, followed by New Years, which brings parties, potlucks, family dinners, buffets of sweets, candy, etc. In my Gearing Up for the Holidays post I shared about ways to be proactive before the holiday celebrations begin. This time, I would like to share what took place before Thanksgiving in order for me to prepare for the big feast.
For several months now, since participating in the Renewing of the Mind study, I have been reading through my truth cards each day. I’ve stated before how important it has been to be in the Word and reading those truths each day: it’s literally CHANGED my life! The Lord has done an amazing work. He gets all of the praise, honor, and glory! So knowing how powerful His word is in renewing my mind and transforming my life, I knew how important it was to have those truths before my eyes before Thanksgiving.
This is what I did to plan ahead:
1. I wrote in my journal, which is ultimately a prayer journal. I asked the Lord to help me in the days ahead to stay within my boundaries.
2. I looked at Barb Raveling’s app ‘I Deserve a Donut’ about social eating, which suggested I read the parts about Justification Eating and Entitlement Eating.
3. In my journal, I wrote out the Justification Eating questions and answered them. I mentally saw myself on Thanksgiving day and the days surrounding Thanksgiving, knowing that I may be tempted to be a social eater or to make excuses to eat beyond what my body needs.
4. I wrote down notes from the app that really spoke to me so I could look back at them if needed.
5. I wrote out a plan of what I wanted Thanksgiving day to look like. I knew that we would be eating with dinner-size plates (I usually use a small plate), so I visually planned to load up my plate as if it was a small plate. I decided that I would eat slowly, savoring each bite, leaving one bite of food on my plate. I decided I would not take seconds. And then later I would enjoy a small serving of dessert, even if I wasn’t fully at a “0” (I felt that this was pleasing to the Lord and acceptable in His sight).
6. I wrote out a plan for when we would be going to a restaurant one of the days surrounding Thanksgiving. Since we were out of town, we wanted to visit our favorite restaurant in the area. I knew what I wanted for an appetizer and the entrée, so I planned ahead for what I felt would help me stay within my 0-5 boundary.
7. I wrote the victories I had already experienced that week, praising God for what He has done. I needed to remember those victories and remember that God is my strength!
How did it all turn out? The Lord gets all of the glory! I was amazed at how smooth Thanksgiving went. I ate according to the plan and I felt completely satisfied. While there were others who said they were stuffed and needed to nap, I felt energized. And a few hours after our meal, I was hungry and ate again. I am so thankful for what the Lord did that day and the days surrounding Thanksgiving. I was faithful to keep my eyes on Him and His truth and He was faithful to watch over His word to perform it. Praise God!
And He wants to do the same for you!
How about you?
Do you have a journal you can write out a plan in? How do you want to visualize yourself for the upcoming holiday celebrations? What can you do to prepare?
Do not conform to the pattern of this world,
but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—
his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Romans 12:2
We all have beliefs that subtly erode our values, boundaries, and godly goals. Sometimes these beliefs are about ourselves. Sometimes they are about God and his care about us. Whatever it is that you need to renew your mind about, it is totally worth the time and effort it will take to do it. If we don’t, we might find that something we value, rely upon, that is foundational in our life, slips off and out of our lives. We don’t want to experience the depth of this sort of loss. We want to guard against it! Wisdom would require that we be proactive. Romans 12:2 says we don’t want to do as the world does and just let whatever happens happen. We want to allow God to transform us and he will do this by renewing our minds.
Relative to our Thin Within journeys, the sorts of thoughts we may have might be:
I won’t ever get this weight off…and even if I do, I won’t keep it off.
I am such a failure. I never can string together two good days of 0 to 5 eating.
I simply MUST have ice cream each day! If not ice cream, then cookies or brownies or…something to “treat” myself!
I MUST be a size 6. If I can’t get down to a 6, then I am a failure.
God doesn’t care about my weight/size. If he did, he would remove this struggle from my life.
I keep letting God down. He is so disappointed with me.
NONE of these are truths! NONE of these reflect the way GOD thinks!
Here are 10 ways you can renew your mind so that He can transform you from the inside out!
4. Go through a favorite book of the bible–for me it is Ephesians–and pull out all the truths that are there that can refute the lies you tend to tell yourself. Make index cards, type up a document, make a graphic image, write out post-it notes…so that the verses and the thoughts that go with the notes are EVERYWHERE that you may struggle. If you struggle in the kitchen, post them there. If the dining table, post them there. If with the scale, tape them on the scale. If the mirror, tape them on the mirror. If in the car, tape them on the mirror. You get the idea!
5. Create a God List. That is explained here and in this video:
6. Use the God List to have a praise-fest or Praise FEAST! That is explained here.
7. Memorize Scripture. You can use this iPod, iPad, or iPhone app to do that–or just the good old fashioned way of index cards and practicing going through them!
8. Start and update a gratitude blog. Mine is here if you want to have a look (it needs updating).
9. Create a “Renewing My Mind” play list on your mp3 player or iPod. I have suggestions at my other blog here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
10. Ask a friend to hold you accountable for your thinking. I recently asked Barb, who is my accountability partner, to hold me accountable for something I clearly need to renew my mind about. It doesn’t have to do with eating so I won’t bog you down with the whole story here, but I will be posting about it at my other blog sooner or later.
The point is, we don’t want to let whatever happens happen to our thinking. When our thoughts and feelings are given free rein, they take us into crazy places! Places where lies seem like truth!
Instead, we want to allow GOD’s thoughts to be our own thoughts. In His Word, he tells us what he thinks. The more we bathe our minds with Scripture and truth from Scripture, the more we will think like he does. That is what we WANT! 😀
Which of these will you try…today? If you are already routinely renewing your mind is there a new approach you can take to doing so? Is there a new thought that God might perhaps want you to renew your mind about?
I feel like the Lord wants me to show you…a friend with whom I feel some strange connection…my journals. Granted, not every single word of every single page…and probably not in order or with sense…but, well, there is something that the Lord wants someone to see.
I posted earlier today with joviality. Then I did a lesson that is wonderfully compatible with Thin Within–The Lord’s Table. Today’s lesson was on repentance. Oh…it was well-written and powerful and while the teaching is not new to me, the Lord used it to convict me powerfully afresh.
I can’t pretend I understand the connection with that and the journals. but here are two pages…you will have to go off the blog site to see them large enough to read…I hope that this vulnerability isn’t for naught. If God can take these tattered, shattered, broken pieces of my life from the past and use them to draw others…oh, Lord…so be it! The first is from Feb. 9, 1999. Click on it to see the page full size from Photo Bucket. The second is the facing page of the journal, written a couple of weeks later.
One friend asked me…what message do I share NOW. Is it the SAME as the one in the journal? Goodness. I hope it is clear from even a casual browsing in my blog here, that the message I share NOW, almost 10 years after these were written…THERE IS HOPE! GOD IS DOING A NEW THING…in YOU, reader…EVEN NOW! I share these journal pages because they show that I have been there. In fact, I was there for years. We don’t have to stay there.
What is the way out? I believe it is moment by moment, surrendering to the Lord. In the moment, taking captive our thoughts, our actions, our beliefs…and asking HIM to BE Lord in our minds that he will be Lord in what we CHOOSE to do NOW.
As Christians, we have the freedom to choose to say no to sin in the moment. When I wrote the journal pages that you see, I didn’t believe the significance of the moment. I was bogged down in all or nothing…and nothing was all I had…
What a weary traveler I was…for years.
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