Starting the TW Workbook 1

Cindy and I are doing workbook #1 so we decided to start a thread each week to record our progress. I hope EVERYONE that wants to will comment, encourage, and mentor us on our journey. Today I began again reading the introduction. I was just so blessed by this paragraph:

"Our God is amazing! He who set the stars in the heavens and measured all of the waters of the earth in the palm of His hand desires intimacy with you (Isaiah 40:12). You are His beloved and He draws you with loving-kindness (Jer. 31:3). All the heavens declare His glory yet He esteems you (Ps. 8:3-8). It is this God who provides the grace, mercy, and strength needed for you to persevere as you trust and obey."

That God is so patient with me amazes me to the core of my being. I mess up again and again, and He forgives me. I ask Him to help me lose weight, and He shows me how and then I don't obey. This is the key: obedience. Help me, Lord, to be obedient today.I know that in me dwelleth no good thing. Rom. 3:10 says "As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none tht seeketh after God." The legalist has no hope; our righteousness is as filthy rags. I must trust the grace of my Savior. When Paul sought God about his thorn, he told us in 2 Cor. 12 "And he said unto me, My grace is suffiecient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me." I have known this power as God led me through the dark hour of my life when I lost my daughter. As long as I leaned on HIM, I could make it. When I got in the flesh, I thought I would die! Another paragraph in the workbook, p B-3 says
"The work of the cross of Christ is our stabilizing force. We rest in the fact that the grace of God is immeasurable and steadfast, which transforms and grounds us through His Word. When we stumble and fall, we rely on God's amazing grace and the power of the Holy Spirit as He gently leads us back onto the path of His provision (Is. 40:11)."

I included this drawing of my granddaughter and me. We were having our picture made at one of those machines; the first time I wasted money trying to figure out how to do it (it drew a picture of my sweater sleeve). The second time I realized what was happening, that the machine was drawing our picture and if we didn't hold still the picture would be distorted. I didn't get the picture I wanted (preferably centered), but I did get a better picture than the one of my sweater sleeve. We are both staring at the machine as it draws the finished product. What will our finished product look like? Do we sometimes try to help God not to let us look "distorted" to the world. I have learned He isn't worried about his reputation. He is worried about me: the end product. He is still working on me, and I must not "freeze" in a position to look pretty, but I must simply let HIM finish the work.
Last edited by Merry Browning : Today at 03:16 PM.

idolatry

God sets us free; we are promised that in the word. Why is the battle with food so difficult? Perhaps because we have to eat every day, and so anytime our flesh is acting up, we have to battle. Will we ever overcome it, or will this be a continuous battle? I do not know.
Eating is not a sin; gluttony is a sin.

Beth Moore helps me understand my battle in her book Breaking Free

"To travel forward on the road to freedom we must move the obstacle of idolatry. We begin by recognizing the obstacle as idol worship, but we may find removing it difficult. The first two obstacles to freedom (unbelief and pride) can be removed effectively by a matter of choice: we can choose to believe God, and we can choose to humble ourselves before God. I am not minimizing the difficulty, but I am suggesting the obstacles can be removed by volition. Some of the idols in our lives (things or people we have put in God's place) can take much longer to remove. Some of them have been in those places for years, and only the power of God can make them budge. We must begin to remove idols by choosing to recognize their existence and admitting their inability to keep us satisfied."

So if I can let God's power work through me, I can overcome this obstacle of eating for satisfaction that should only come from my relationship with God. Paul said when we are weak then we can be made strong because God's power can work in us. Even he said the well-known phrase "Oh, wretched man that I am. Who can deliver me. . .?" The battle is raging, but I am not giving up, and I believe by faith that Christ is working in me, and that I will not listen to the flesh nor walk carnally.

five benefits and five obstacles

The last few days I have rested in His presence; the struggle is gone for now though I know I will have to deal with it as the Lord wills.
I have been reviewing Beth Moore's book Breaking Free.
She lists 5 benefits in knowing God, and they are very important.
To know God and believe Him, to glorify God, to find satisfaction in God, to experience God's peace, and to enjoy God's presence. The obstacles she lists are unbelief (which hinders knowing God), pride (which prevents us from glorifying God), idolatry (which keeps us from being satisfied with God, prayerlessness (which blocks our experience of God's peace), and legalism (which stops our enjoyment of God's presence).

As I look at these I can relate it so much to Thinwithin. The more I know God, the more I want to glorify Him, and the more I glorify Him, the more satisfaction I have in God and the more I experience His peace. The more I enjoy His presence, the more I find satisfaction in Him, and desire nothing else at all. The more I desire nothing else at all, the more I obey God, then in turn going back to glorify Him and thank Him for all the help He has given me with my problem.
Pride could become an obstacle if I lose weight and keep my focus on that. I have done that in the past, but right now my weight loss is so small that God keeps me justifiably humble.
Prayerlessness is no longer an obstacle, and just as sure as I go without it I am back to square one. However, I don't want to get into legalism and think I am earning the right to lose weight.
God surely has His ways of keeping me close to Him; I have shared the loss of my daughter 4 years ago. As I keep my eyes on God, I am free from pain, but if I start drifting away then God releases His hand and the grief is overwhelming.
So any problem we have God can use it to keep us close to Him, whether it is the battle with food, the battle with grief, or any other problem we face daily. We can thank Him constantly that He works to keep us in His presence.
Hopefully tomorrow I will talk about idolatry.

dealing with anger

In the Bible study Freedom from Emotional Eating, my lessons have been on anger. I wasn't feeling anger about anything; as a matter of fact, God just let me have a season of rest.
So I set that aside and told myself, I will use this when anger comes. And it did. And it was justified. I used the method of truth journaling, and ask myself why I was angry. I was hurt because someone actually told a lie on me. I didn't perceive it as a lie, it was a lie. And then the person embarrassed me in front of about 50 people. I am not exaggerating. I am telling this story not to get sympathy, but to express great delight in how God is teaching me to deal with life. For this is life; people are going to make us angry. Sometimes I get angry for selfish reasons, but such was not the case this time. I went before the Lord, and I refused to do anything but seek HIM. I told no one, and I took the Word and prayed it,and then asked Him for help. OF COURSE, He is always faithful. Why do I not do this more often??

A lady on TW told me about a devotional. I want to get it, but I was reading an excerpt that I just have to share today:

Because I am your constant companion; there should be a lightness in your step that is observable to others. Do not be weighed down with problems and unresolved issues, for I am your burden-bearer. In the world you have trials and distress, but don't let them get you down. I have conquered the world and deprived it of its power to harm you.In me you may have confident Peace.
(Jesus Calling: Enjoying Peace in His Presence—Devotions for Every Day of the Year By: Sarah Young)

seated in heavenly places

Sometimes I am so busy working on pleasing the Lord, and I find myself genuinely surprised that God leads me to rest in Him.
Ephesians 2:6-7: And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness towar us through Christ Jesus.

Paul prayed for us to understand the love of God in Ephesians 3:16-19: That he would grant you according to his riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly aboe all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us.

When I am tired of thinking about it all, and I am simply trying to seek God, He blesses me to just bask in His love and His grace, and everything else grows "faintly dim, in the light of his marvelous grace." (I am quoting a song here, that I cannot place as of yet, I will footnote it when I find it)