If you are having trouble keeping up with us, don’t pull out the club of condemnation! Instead, just keep pressing on.
Something that I am learning more and more in my life and thanks to a wonderfully wise new pastor at our church is that God looks at faithfulness. He doesn’t hold us responsible to be perfect. So often, we allow perfectionism to defeat us. That isn’t from God!
We assume that perfectionism is some sort of godly attribute. NO! God is perfect, but he knows we aren’t.
I think I will be blogging on this more later this week, as I really believe that our insistence on maintaining perfectionism gets in the way of walking that path that Jesus calls us to walk! We bail because we aren’t doing it perfectly! So we MISS being FAITHFUL!
This week, I will make this assignment simpler (I hope).
Chapters 21-30 move into “Mastery,” where we broaden our view somewhat to see that God is sanctifying not just our eating, not just our view of ourselves and our bodies, but also other aspects of our lives! This is an exciting part of the book, so even if you aren’t following along *now*, don’t worry. Keep hanging in.
Be Faithful!
1.) Continue to keep your gratitude list, attributes of God list and also keep writing forgiveness phrases. If you choose, respond here about how any of these things are affecting your life!
2.) Take time to carefully read and complete chapters 21, 22, and 23.
3.) In chapter 21, you have a chance to survey what God has been doing in your life. I urge you–no matter how you THINK you have been doing, generate a list of the things you have seen God do in your life. Complete the chart on page 226 and use it as a praise-fest time to God! Even if you have not released the weight you hoped to, God is doing a NEW thing! How many times have you lost weight only to “find” it again? You see, God is doing a deeper work. Don’t minimize the work of the Almighty in your life! 🙂
4.) Chapters 22 and 23 may be time intensive. Not in the same way as chapters 19 and 20–which take a lot of time to hash over emotionally. But chapters 22 and 23 sort of walk you through some sample “quiet times.” Or at least that is how I think of them. If you need, take a couple of days to prayerfully work through each.
5.) On page 246, there is a chart. You may want to copy this on to another piece of paper in your journal and expand it. It is a great activity! You may need more space than the book offers.
6.) Respond here answering the question: How did God speak to you personally through the activities in these chapters? What “new thing” is He doing this week? 🙂
7.) Join us for our chat this week. We will only be having one this week. It is Friday, from 5-6pm Pacific time! I hope you can make it. Visit http://www.thinwithin.org/forums/showthread.php?t=2256 to find out how to join us.
8.) Keep praying for yourself, for me, for others in our study.
Press on! Be faithful! 🙂
