By: Hanny Lynn Stearns
Fish N
Loaves Ministries, Inc.
“Multiplying
God’s Word Around the Globe”
November 2, 2016
Be Not Conformed
Romans 12:2
And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by
the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable,
and perfect, will of God.
Today was yet another level of victory for me and
I am so excited to share it with you. As one who was almost 100 pounds
overweight and certainly weighed down with all of that in spiritual baggage,
today I reached a new milestone – glory to God. I have reached a weight I have
not seen since my early teen years. How did I get here? God is the one who gave
me the word to follow – His perfect will for the situation. Then, when I
stepped up to the plate (pun intended!) and did what He told me, the miraculous
happened. People seem to think that it is all up to God. But it isn’t. We have
to do the work, plain and simple.
How did I do my part? Well, to begin with, I had
to be conformed to doing things God’s way – not the world’s way. To be
conformed is to…
Made to
resemble; reduced to a likeness of; made agreeable to; suited.
If I had
continued to do things the way the world does them, I cannot even imagine how
much I would weigh today, if I were even still alive. I was digging for myself
an early grave, and I was using my fork to do it. That’s how the world is doing
it. They are trying to find relief from their inner pain at the end of a fork,
or a needle, or at the bottom of a bottle. When they get to the bottom and the
stuff or the food is all gone, they still have the pain, the hurts, and a new
set of problems to deal with on top of what they already had.
It doesn’t
take long for a hurting person to find a “partner in crime” who is handling
their difficulties the way the world does. But with faith, every Christian can
be transformed – changed into handling things the way God tells us to. This is
His perfect will for us, all detailed out in His word. This goes along
perfectly with Psalm 91 that we studied today in our main Bible study. Doing
things the God kind of way brings winning results.
What does it really mean to renew our minds? It is to change
the way we think about things according to the word of God. For a person who
has had addiction issues, the word gets right to the point and shows us exactly
how we should be responding to the desires of our flesh…
Romans 13:14
But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not
provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.
The world is all about the flesh. They are looking to satisfy their
fleshy desires every chance they can get. They will invite anyone they can to
join in. How did I get to the weight goal I am at now? I had to put on Jesus
mind, His ways – think like He does, focus on what He focuses on – heavenly things,
not the things of this earth. The more I thought about my Savior and His words
to me, and the less I focused on food, the greater my victory became. Hallelujah!
Has it been hard on my flesh? At times, yes – very much so. But those
were the times I was focusing too much on what I couldn’t have, (a lot like Eve
in the garden) rather than on what I already did have in Jesus. Just this week
as I am breaking the decaf coffee habit, and cutting out salt from my diet
which I happen to enjoy a lot on my food, I have had to keep reminding myself
not to think about it. I cannot afford to make provision for even the thought
of it to linger in my mind.
I have had to be changed by changing the way I think about food – or not.
Thinking about the thing we got hooked on is what will keep our flesh screaming
out for it. To renew one’s mind is simply that – changing how we think about
things. God’s promises that we can have our minds – the way we think, changed
by meditating on His word and how He says to approach the situations we face.
His word is all inclusive. It hits on every cylinder that we need to run on in
this life – leaving nothing out. When the thought comes that says, “Gee, I
really miss having salt with my meal” I just have to toss it out and remember that
food is only a tool used to keep my body alive and functioning at maximum
capacity. This is just like a toothbrush for the teeth or a razor to shave
with. These are all tools we need in our everyday life. Food is the same. Other
addictions are in a different category because none other than food is needed
to sustain life.
Making a provision for the flesh all starts in the mind. The desire
comes up and we have a choice right then and there. What am I going to think
about right now? What will I say about this right now? And the best question
is, “what does God’s word say about this?” Friends, as always I encourage you
to work the word of God by renewing the way you think as you spend more time in
it. Saying it out loud over your life will bring results. I am telling you the
truth about this. I never saw the kind of success I am seeing now until I
really started to focus more heavily on the word and decree it out loud over my
life. Once I did that, my thinking really did get renewed – glory to God.
Be encouraged. Don’t let your flesh tell you what you are going to do.
You have the power and the authority to tell it what it is going to do. Work
the word friends because it really does work when we work it.
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