March 19, 2008 at 4:10 pm (Identity)
A couple of Sundays ago while getting ready for church, I excitedly put on a new outfit I had just received for my birthday. I had gone shopping with my mom about a month prior, tried on the pants, my mom bought them and saved them for my birthday. Now the time had come to wear my new outfit. But, to my dismay, the pants didn’t fit. “WHAT!?! They fit just fine a month ago! What happened?” They didn’t just feel tight, they looked too tight–inappropriate to wear out of the house too tight. “Have I gained that much weight in one month?,” I thought. “I look awful! I feel so fat! I just keep getting bigger and bigger!” I felt quite discouraged and down on myself.
I believe this is a very common feeling. It usually leads to trying one diet plan after another. Sometimes we find success, but often not. Often we try to change our behavior or change the way we appear on the outside without fixing the real problem on the inside–our thoughts & beliefs. That may work for a little while, but if we don’t address the root cause, the problem’s going to reappear in one form or another. It’s like smoke coming from a fire. You could spray some air freshener or open a window to try and get rid of the smoke smell, or you could go find the fire and put it out. As a friend of mine says, “Follow the smoke trail.”
Well, that’s just what I did on that Sunday afternoon. As I weeded through my thoughts and emotions, I discoved a few beliefs that were incorrect. I found the fire: (1) My outward appearance makes me acceptable and valuable, (2) I can get a good measure of my personal worth/value by comparing myself to others, and (3) I can increase my personal worth/value by losing weight. These are the false beliefs that led me to get down on myself, cry, compare myself to more people to try to make me feel better, and try even harder to lose weight.
In taking this time with God to identify my feeling, thoughts, and false beliefs, He revealed His Truth to me, and that made all the difference in the world. My value is not based on my appearance–it is based on being God’s creation and His child! Psalm 139 says, “I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” God values me so much that He planned for His only Son to die so that He could have me back. Because of Christ, I am “accepted in the Beloved.” (Eph 1:6) When I compare myself to others to see how I measure up, it’s like giving them permission to determine my personal worth. The truth it that only God can assign value to His creation. He says I’m already acceptable and valuable, so there’s no need for me to prove myself WOW! That’s freeing! Knowing the truth frees me up to take care of my body because I know I’m valuable.
Rebecca:-)
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March 11, 2008 at 6:18 pm (Prayer & Praise)
Prayer Team,
“Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come”. 2 Corinthians 5:17
Thank you so much for your continued efforts in praying for New Life Design. God has been so faithful to us and here we are with 7 months under our belts. All our needs have been supplied and even in abundance! We are paying rent on our facilities, keeping the lights on, heating and cooling paid for, buying office supplies as needed, supplying the resources for our clients, paying insurance and taxes and we even have an emergency fund! Yes….even Dave Ramsey would be proud!! You bless us with your prayers. Here are a few updates on things and some specific prayer requests that you can bring before Father this week:
1. Pray for our clients’ eyes to be opened to the truth that will set them free. Pray that God will heal the broken places in their souls and that they would completely surrender those things that are holding them back to Him. John 8:32, Prov. 14:30a, Ps. 23:3, Matt. 16:24
2. NLD is hosting our very first “Marriage! The Journey” Conference on May 16-17 here at our offices. We only have room for 8 couples so pray that God will bring the couples that he wants to come and hear this message on God’s design for marriage. We hope in the future to be able to do this conference in many different churches and have enough room for many more to attend. Pray that God will open the right doors at the right time for this. On April 11-12 Tony and I will be doing what we call a “trial run” of the “Marriage! The Journey” Conference in our home with some of our family and friends that have graciously volunteered of their time to let us “practice” on them. So pray for us as we prepare and that this weekend would be helpful for us. Eph. 5:1-2, I John 4:18-19
3. Pray for God to put a hedge of protection around NLD and that the enemy would be completely blocked from attacking us. This is very important as we are still in our infancy. We battle not against flesh and blood but against powers, principalities and spiritual forces of this present world. Eph. 4:12
4. Pray that God would continue to meet all our budget needs and that God would continue to speak to people about supporting our ministry financially. It is our prayer that one day we would grow to a place where Rebecca and I can draw a small salary but that is in Father’s hands and we are completely dependent on Him by faith. If He does not desire that for us we are ok with that. Phi. 4:19
5. We seem to be adding new clients each week! This past week was one of the busiest weeks so far. Pray that God would continue to send those people who are ready for this process and that He would give them the courage to call us. I Peter 5:6-7
Dana
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