Revelation Within On the Go!

Journey to Freedom: Shifting Focus from Weight to Mind Renewal

Heidi Bylsma-Epperson and Christina Motley Season 1 Episode 116

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Navigating the tumultuous waters of weight obsession can be exhausting, as both we know all too well. We've journeyed through our own struggles and emerged with a powerful message: freedom is found not in numbers on a scale but in the renewal of the mind. 

Join us as we uncover the transformative power of mind renewal. With personal anecdotes and insights from our ministry, Revelation Within, we share how a shift from Thin Within's grace-oriented weight management to mind renewal has fostered profound spiritual and emotional growth.  We extend a heartfelt invitation to be part of the RevWithin team, where together, we can nurture our spiritual journeys and embrace the life-changing practice of mind renewal. Whether you're seeking encouragement or camaraderie, this episode is a gateway to discovering a more fulfilling connection with God and yourself.

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Speaker 1:

Hi and welcome to our podcast Revelation Within On the Go.

Speaker 2:

I'm Heidi Biles-Mafferson, one of your hosts and the owner and lead coach of the RevelationWithinorg ministry and I'm Christina Motley, your other host, also a Revelation Within coach and Heidi's partner in all things Revelation Within. We are so happy to invite you to join us for this episode of Revelation Within. We are so glad you're here with us today.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, definitely. And today we're going to talk about something. I don't know that we've hit on, definitely. And today we're going to talk about something. I don't know that we've hit on the head before, but we're going to talk about how did we go from our roots, way back when of Thin Within and the book was, you know, the subtitle is A Grace-Oriented Approach to Lasting Weight Loss, and that book was released in 2001. To Revelation Within in 2024. And what our focus is now versus what our focus has historically been, and you know, basically, from weight loss to mind renewal. That's what we're talking about. How did we?

Speaker 1:

go and why? From weight loss to mind renewal. Why did we shift gears so much?

Speaker 2:

I guess we could start by talking about what mind renewal is, because I don't think we've ever talked about that. No, I mean, obviously, heidi and I absolutely love this topic. We could talk about it all day long, for weeks at a time, because it has been so completely life-changing for both of us and we have enjoyed the last 10 years together, heidi and I, renewing our minds together, walking the walk, living the life you know as imperfectly as can be, and just enjoying every minute of God's grace and goodness as we renew our minds with his thoughts. So what is mind renewal? It's practicing thinking God's thoughts after him. Well, what in the world does that mean? How do I know what God is thinking? I'm not God, I'm not even close to being God. So what does that mean? Where do I find God's thoughts and how do I get them into my own?

Speaker 1:

brain In a nutshell God shows us his thoughts, he tells us his thoughts, his word, the Bible, is filled with his thoughts. And then, on top, of it anybody who's in Christ, who's professed Jesus as savior and Lord. They have the Holy spirit in them, and so those are two really great, reliable ways that we can know God's thoughts.

Speaker 1:

So, one of the things, though, that people have wondered is what happened to all of this stuff that would tell me how to eat differently. I want to know what happened to that part of your ministry, and really, here's we're just going to kind of tell you the answer the long way around. In my history, anyway, I've overeaten over anything and everything. I can be agitated, I'll overeat. I could be irritable, I'll overeat.

Speaker 1:

I could be uncertain, and I'll overeat, I could be depressed and sad and I'll overeat Situations like being in a health crisis or being sick, going through a divorce, or a friend is going through a divorce, or there's a death, or the empty nest or church split, et cetera, et cetera. These are all things, and they don't even have to be that extreme. I can overeat over anything. In fact, if something reminds me of something that happened years ago, I can overeat over that.

Speaker 2:

How about?

Speaker 1:

you. What kinds of things have made you overeat over the years?

Speaker 2:

I never have overeaten. Wouldn't it be amazing to be able to say that, Like, let me just think about that for a minute. No, just kidding. No, yeah, Food and eating has been my go-to since I was probably 14, probably 12, actually when I think about it. And so probably 12 actually when I think about it. And so, yeah, when anything causes me to feel at all uncomfortable, when any kind of emotion comes up, it could even be something really great like celebration, Any of those things for me, especially the emotions Situations yes, stressful situations.

Speaker 2:

But for me, during the stressful situation, I'm usually I don't know like I just kind of hold it together and I'm kind of cool, calm and collected. It's after or before where I go for the food to calm me down, to make me feel better, to, you know, bring an upgrade to my day or my week or my month. I can eat over things that are ongoing, like a chronic illness, and I have one of those. Or it can be in the moment something someone said that hurt my feelings in the moment. And, yeah, it can be very quick, it can be long, it can be all kinds of things, Really anything.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, exactly Right.

Speaker 2:

Really anything?

Speaker 1:

Yes, so what we kind of needed a solution for was all of those things that we would react to by overeating, and that's kind of where Mind Renewal began to impact me and I know you too, christina.

Speaker 1:

Basically, and when we say Mind Renewal, the reason why we started off with it's thinking God's thoughts after him as kind of our definition. It's not, by definition, opening your Bible or your Bible study workbook and filling in the blanks. We've got over a hundred ways you can get God's thoughts into your mind and heart, and not that you need that to renew your mind. But a lot of us think, yeah, I renew my mind. Every morning I get up and have a 15 minute quiet time and read my devotional or whatever, and the truth is, if we aren't seeing transformation, then we may not be renewing our minds. So we won't be giving a lot of details about how to renew your mind in this episode, but there are lots of episodes prior and probably our next one we will, and then come to our community revwithinteam, if you want to just plunge in to mind renewal with us and, yeah, dirtlet eating as well.

Speaker 2:

We are all about it, yeah.

Speaker 1:

So learning to renew my mind, as I mentioned, shifted a lot of things for me. It kind of began when I was born in 19 no, I'm kidding, it did begin a long time ago and I'm not exactly sure. I think some of these things happen concurrently with one another, but I think forgiveness was kind of the real beginning of it for me. Thinking God's thoughts about things that I took offense to over the course of my entire life. I know that some of that directly impacted how I responded to the Lord and his invitation to give my food and eating journey to him, and so he wanted me to first of all release those people to him and because really the only thing that lacking forgiveness was doing was killing me. My mom and dad were abusive.

Speaker 1:

You've heard me tell this story perhaps before, and all I'll say is it totally impacted my eating, and that and other things that had happened in my life kind of caused me to. I needed to lay down the offense that I felt and work through some forgiveness, and so I did that and it wasn't easy because really what I had to do was I had to walk through not just what they did to me, but I had to walk through and how it impacted me and so many decades later, to still be impacted so drastically by certain things that people had done to wrong me was a big deal. So please don't just slap up forgiven it's done. Label on it that it. To me that's like sanctified denial. It's almost like I'm saying it didn't happen by saying God just forgive everybody.

Speaker 1:

I forgive everybody for everything they ever did. That's not it. But then what really hit me following that was I did go to God and say I'm still not surrendering my eating to you. What is going on with me? And that's when he kind of convicted me in a very loving way. I have to say that I resented him.

Speaker 1:

And I'm sure that some of that was my childhood trauma, that I wondered why he would expect me to be able to do that. But it also was other things as well, and so I had to, kind of in a very real way, forgive God. No, god does no wrong. He does no wrong, no wrong. And I know that. But I felt like he had done me wrong.

Speaker 1:

I felt like he existed too much of me, and so I didn't want to give him my food. I think I related to him more like he was an imperfect, human, worldly authority figure, like a boss I didn't get along well with, or like a distant father who was disapproving. That's kind of how I related to him and that just wasn't cutting it. I wasn't willing to give him my eating. Well, the antidote for me had to be getting to know God as he reveals himself to be in scripture, not looking to somebody else's view of God or even what hymns say about God. Maybe, I mean sometimes those are wonderful sources of truth, but what does God say about who he is and what he's like? And that's found in his word. And so that's when I first began thinking God's thoughts about God, and it made a huge difference.

Speaker 1:

I wanted, my desires began to change and rather than my eating is mine. You know it's the final frontier. I've laid everything else down. Instead it was Lord. I really want to be open completely to you and your will. It was a beautiful place to be, yeah.

Speaker 1:

Oh I love that as my resentment toward God began to erode and as I kind of began to see him as he is in scripture, thinking his thoughts about him, my desires changed and I wanted to give him my perspective on food and eating and it all kind of came together and I'll be telling you more about that in a minute together and I'll be telling you more about that in a minute.

Speaker 2:

So for me, I went through a period of time when I was trying to do thin within and I was trying to follow kind of the rules. I was trying to check off the boxes of the eight keys to conscious eating. I was very excited. I love the Bible study, absolutely love the workbooks. I mean I went through quite a few years of just doing Thin Within the way it was, and it was beautiful. The trouble was I wasn't changing, there was no transformation, nothing was happening different. For a while I thought, well, I'm going to do it on my own, I can do this, I'm going to get all these workbooks and I'm going to get my favorite pens and markers and I'm just going to do this. And it was great. But again, no change in my life. Really. I mean my relationship with the Lord deepened. I loved, like I said, the Bible study was beautiful, it was just wonderful.

Speaker 2:

And the grace part. I thought, oh, this is what I need, I need grace. But again, nothing was happening and so I thought I need to do this with somebody. That's going to be the key. I need accountability, I need somebody who's going to do this with walk alongside me. That's the key. I need accountability, I need somebody who's going to do this with walk alongside me. That's the ticket. And so I asked a friend of mine this is when I lived up North up in Greeley and she said sure, I'd love to. And so every week we met and ate pie and did the.

Speaker 1:

Bible study.

Speaker 2:

There's nothing wrong with pie, but if that's part of your thin within needing that, yeah, in this case it just feels kind of ridiculous because, anyway, neither of us got anywhere. In fact, I think I gained weight during that time, because that's what I was all about. I thought that was. My issue was weight, and it was because it's what you could see on the outside. You could see the weight and the rest of it. I thought I have no idea what's wrong. If there's something on the inside, I don't get it. And so I thought I know what I need. I need a group. That's what I need. I need a group of live people who I'm going to sit with. We're going to talk this out, we're going to figure it out. So I did.

Speaker 2:

I joined this wonderful group of ladies and none of us could get anywhere. Really, it was like the blind leading the blind. Not one person had any idea how to get to the next step, not even the next step, but like the only step you know to be free of this incredibly powerful stronghold. It's like all of us would come to the group and just talk about the stories of how much we were drawn to food and the Bible study was great, we loved thin within, but we just weren't moving forward. So then I quit for a while and I was like, well, oh my gosh, I'm going to have babies, I'm going to focus on my career as a teacher and I'm going to drop dieting, because I hated it. So I kind of went up and down with my weight, depending on whether I was exercising or not or whatever I was doing, but I was discouraged, very discouraged, and then I got to a point where I was completely hopeless because I had gained so much and I thought that was what it was all about, and so I very much felt like a failure. I didn't understand that this journey is not about what's on the outside or what you can see. It's about what you can't see on the inside and it's about God's transformation inside, and then things change in our lives after that. I didn't get that. I didn't understand that. So I thought, if I follow the keys to conscious eating, if I sit down when I eat, if I slow down, if I wait for hunger and then I do this wonderful Bible study, well I should be good to go. But nothing again was happening on the inside of me. Well, I shouldn't say that. I know God doesn't waste anything and I know that he was preparing me.

Speaker 2:

So I got to a point where my kids were school age, I was teaching. I had a wonderful life. I was busy, busy, busy at church, just enjoying all kinds of things, but feeling this incredible heaviness in my heart and my soul and it got worse and worse and worse. Nobody knew it was just me, all by myself. I didn't really share this with God. I would go to God and say I'm feeling hopeless. Forgive me, I'm such an awful sinner, I'm such a mess Again and again and again, but we never got anywhere. I know that he was just longing to draw me in to his heart through his own thoughts, but I wasn't there yet. I didn't understand.

Speaker 2:

And so I started coaching with Heidi and this was 10 and a half years ago and she was just a total breath of fresh air for me. I had never met anyone like her I really hadn't, and I love the way she talked. I love the way she talked about God and I love the way she talked. I love the way she talked about God and I love the way she talked about her relationship with him and I thought I want to see what's going to happen if I coach with her. I was very excited. I felt like God was leading me into something deeper, much deeper, and something brand new.

Speaker 2:

And I thought all right, let's do it. And Heidi, of course you know she knew that I had read all the books, I had done the workbooks, I'd been in the group and the partnership and I tried everything. I'd given up and tried a million times and so we jumped right into mind renewal. Right away. She taught me how to renew my mind and I never looked back. I mean, I, I was so busy. I was so busy.

Speaker 2:

My mother-in-law was living here in our home. She was in hospice care. I was working, I had the kids, I had my parents across town. We were busy and I jumped in with both feet and I remember just saying to Heidi how do you do it? How do you do it Like, teach me, teach me what you do.

Speaker 2:

We only had a few tools at the time. We had like three or four, that was it. And I could tell a difference within a few hours. But then a few days and then a few weeks, and all of a sudden a few months had passed and I could see that my actions were changing.

Speaker 2:

Things were happening for me and I couldn't wait to get together with the Lord. It was like a little honeymoon for he and I. You know how many of us have wonderful stories about when we first meet the Lord and we first get into the word. And it was, it was like a honeymoon, it was like going back to that first love for me. Oh yeah, it was incredible. I kind of wish sometimes that I could go back to that, I mean, and I love what I have with him now, but that newness, it was so exciting.

Speaker 2:

Heidi and I became very close very fast. We became prayer partners and so we began to do mind renewal together, not just fill in the blanks, not just trying to, you know, check off the boxes and do this and do that, but actually thinking God's thoughts after him through audios, through being in person, you know, on the phone, together. Of course we didn't live in the same state, but it changed me and I wanted more and more and more. And then after that, we started coaching groups together and working together and we realized over time that this was about something very different than we thought it was at the beginning.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

And so, over time, we shared the Thin Within materials with hundreds of women and it was wonderful. But over time, and when Thin Within was finally gifted to Heidi by Judy Halliday, we started talking about making the main thing. The main thing we started talking about you know what? Why are we seeing transformation in these, in these ladies? What's really happening here? And of course, we knew the answer because we had seen it in ourselves.

Speaker 1:

Right. So my mind renewal journey was just in its earliest stages. Before I met Christina. I became familiar with Barb Raveling, who many of you also listen to her podcast or visit her website. She had at her website at that time all of the things that she then compiled and put into both the app or the book called I Deserve a Donut and Other Lies that Make you Eat, and that took me in a wonderful direction, seeing how these emotions or these situations, each one of them, I could invite God to show me his thoughts about. And there were all things that made me eat if I just left myself to my own devices.

Speaker 1:

But if I went, to him and asked him Lord, what are your thoughts about this? I found that, thinking his thoughts, I began to think my own thoughts less, and my desires began to change, like Christina, just testified.

Speaker 1:

So by 2006, mind renewal began to make a huge difference for me. I thought of food differently. It had given me mind renewal had given me the ability to process all those emotions and situations that I struggled with that would previously have taken me to food Instead of gritting my teeth to eat less. I dealt so much more effectively with those emotions and circumstances by renewing my mind and as a result of that, between 2006 and 2007, I did release a lot of weight a hundred pounds and I stayed a really healthy size and you know, for seven years until everything went into a health crisis and spiraling. And all of that and, of course, I renewed my mind about that to endure that with, hopefully, some grace and poise. How about for you, christina? What were the results, or what results have you seen and are you seeing from renewing your mind? We're going to talk more about how it impacts us today but, did you see any kind of impact that you couldn't get before?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so much. I mean, I thought this was the one area of my life that I would never see change in. I really did. I really just had a very small amount of hope. Also, when I got so excited and things started happening, there was this thought that kept coming up Christina, this isn't going to last.

Speaker 2:

It's not going to last, you know, because nothing ever had lasted, and so I was hesitant really to hope for something that would last. I thought, well, this will be fun for a few months. I don't know, you know, but it wasn't that way. It wasn't because it was touching my heart. It was changing me from the inside. One of the things that happened right away is that I did not care so much about the weight anymore. That was one of the first things that happened. Was I just wanted more of God?

Speaker 1:

And this is what our participants had began to say to us too.

Speaker 2:

Yes.

Speaker 1:

Later on, as Christina joined me in the group coaching, we have heard this consistently.

Speaker 2:

The whole weight issue had been all consuming for me. I had been consumed by that for years and really one of the first things I noticed was that started to fall away. I was no longer consumed by that. My mind was consumed by what really matters, by what God is interested in, by what his you know, what he wants to do in me has to do with my faith. It has to do with my character. It has to do with who I am. It has to do with my surrender, not how many pounds. You know I am up or down and what that number says. That number's going to change the rest of my life? You know it's not.

Speaker 2:

I was consumed completely by the wrong thing, the very wrong thing, and so that was one of the first things. And boy did that feel freeing. Oh my God, that was amazing. I actually this is kind of funny, but I know it wasn't a coincidence my scale actually broke when I started renewing my mind. I had been given that scale as a wedding gift, which is horrifying, brutal, brutal, brutal. I mean it was a friend of mine, it was her mom and she was a nurse and I know she was just trying to be helpful, but for me that was mortifying at the time, especially since I had to have my wedding dress actually let out because I had overeaten so much before the wedding that it didn't fit. Okay, that's another story, but anyway, and so it was so freeing to just let go of that little by little. I did not know how much I weighed anymore. I did not have a scale, I did not buy another scale at the time Not that using a scale is completely unhelpful but for me at the time, god was saying but for me at the time God was saying you need to look to me, not to these numbers. And so letting go of that and just going to God more and more and asking him what is true from your perspective about my body, about food, about relationships, about everything. At first it was all about food. At first it was all about my body image. At first it was all about food. At first it was all about my body image. At first it was all about that.

Speaker 2:

But very quickly I realized that mind renewal was something that brought new life to every area of my life my work, relationships, challenges, absolutely everything. And that was very exciting to me because I realized that it was going to touch every area of my life and it did. And so results some of the results for example, I started renewing my mind about my marriage. I mean, wow, mind blown, rather than going to my girlfriends and saying, well, david did this and David did that and I don't know, and what do you think? Well, he shouldn't do and this and that? Instead of that, I was going and I love my girlfriends, but I was going to God and asking him what are your thoughts about the marriage and the way I interact with my husband? And wow, I mean conviction, yes, but also so much joy and so much my trust in God began to build because I could see that things were changing in the way I was acting, responding to people.

Speaker 2:

My conversation started to change. What I talked about all the time because we talk about what we think about right, so if I'm consumed with food and eating in my body and weight loss, that's all I'm going to talk about. My conversation changed and I began talking about Christ and him in my life and things of the heart. And I don't know it'd be fun to go back and say, see, if any of my friends noticed the change at the time I mean some of them, I know they noticed it and didn't know what to do with me. Some of them, you know, they just wanted to gossip and they just wanted to talk like we always had, and I was like I'm experiencing this amazing shift and they're just like what.

Speaker 2:

So I know that some of that was going on as well. But I also noticed that my angst about things was coming down, my worry, and I had always told myself I'm not like my mom, I'm not a worrier, but I did worry about things because I didn't really trust that what God was allowing and bringing me was good. I didn't trust it and I didn't trust that anything would last, that he would do in me. I just didn't trust it. But over time I did, and I can't imagine I mean so many trials hit in the last few years and it's hard for me to even imagine how I would have survived without the renewing of the mind, without having a mind that was continually washed by God's thoughts. You know what I mean, like trading out the old and putting in the new, and you have to do that all the time. It's not a one and done several times a day.

Speaker 1:

What happened with the food and eating and body image? Yes, did it impact that too?

Speaker 2:

Yes, it did so in the first few months. So it was summer, I was wearing loose clothing. You know cotton elastic skirts I love wearing skirts so I didn't really notice that I was releasing weight, which that sounds ridiculous to me to even say, but it was true, I didn't really notice. In fact I wasn't really thinking about it at that point. I knew that God was calling me to jump into the renewing of the mind with both feet and that's what I did, that was my focus, and so things were starting to loosen up, but I didn't really notice or think about it.

Speaker 2:

And then you know I've told that story before of that crazy water slide story where our family was at a water park and there was a scale at the top of a water slide, in front of everybody. In front of everybody. I had to weigh. So months had passed. I started with you, heidi, in March, and this was like late summer, that we were at that water park. Anyway, you know, months had passed and I didn't know and I got on that scale to go down the slide and I was mortified and embarrassed and all of those things, and I realized that I had released quite a bit of weight. And that was amazing because it was like a surprise. And that was amazing because it was like a surprise. Right, I was not focused on it, I really wasn't, and you know a lot of us, I think, have experienced this maybe someone listening you still feel like you're the same size physically, sometimes even while you're releasing, because you have kind of a distorted image of yourself. And so I was feeling that way. So that was amazing, and I didn't buy a scale. I felt like God gave me a huge wink and a smile at that point at the top of that water slide, but I didn't buy a scale and I just thought, okay, I'm going to keep going, I'm just going to keep going.

Speaker 2:

And so my thoughts, my beliefs about food began to change. For the first time in my life, I was looking at food more and more the way God looks at food, that food is fuel. I realized that food was not to be overindulged in, that it was a beautiful, generous gift from God. The textures, the flavors, that it was good, food was actually good. This was the first time in my life that I didn't think food was just a torture tool in my life. And why? Why did my beliefs change? Because I was renewing my mind all the time, telling myself the truth. I was writing truth lists about everything, truth cards. I was renewing my mind several times every day about food, about eating, about my body, and so, yeah, things really did change in what I believed.

Speaker 2:

It wasn't quick, as far as like, yeah, two days later I had different beliefs. It takes time because we've been thinking the same thoughts for so long, but over time those beliefs changed and I saw it in my actions. I saw the changes there and that was absolutely amazing, mind-blowing to me. Again, it took me a while to believe that it would stay. I thought maybe this was like other things that I had been doing, where it would last for a short time and I'd get all excited and then it would kind of fade away. But it wasn't fading, it was the opposite. I felt like my intimacy with the Lord was increasing, increasing, increasing, and I just wanted more and more of him and his peace, his joy, his hope, his provision. I just loved what I was experiencing.

Speaker 1:

Beautiful and you know, a lot of us feel like this isn't going to stick. We've, you know, we've struggled with that in the past, where any attempts to get healthier, or whatever you want to call it, have been thwarted. Just given enough time We've fallen off the wagon and we have to renew our minds about that too, don't we?

Speaker 2:

Yes, we do yes.

Speaker 1:

Well, mind renewal continues to impact both of us today, not just Christina but me as well. When I renew my mind, things are on target so much more. When I'm thinking God's thoughts, there's a lot of peace that comes to me. That doesn't come to me when I don't renew my mind and likewise my desires are more surrendered to the Lord when I'm renewing my mind, when I'm reminding myself of his character, his provision, the and who he calls me to be. But in difficult circumstances I also renew my mind. You know whether it be something like having to do with a person that I'm getting along with or not getting along so well with right now in my real life, I renew my mind. I can do that Um, even on the fly, while I'm driving to go see that person, or whatever.

Speaker 1:

Mind renewal makes a world of difference in my life in an ongoing way as well. The more I renew my mind, the more surrendered I live and act. My desires change, my actions change. It's a really beautiful place to be. It brings me to a place of peace with food, eating and body image. I have to think differently if I'm going to go there, if I'm going to come to a place of being at peace with food, eating and my body image. If I'm going to really live a victorious Christian life, I've got to renew my mind. I really do. You know, the world says that we have a food, eating and body problem, and so there's solutions that are offered by the world diet, exercise, self-discipline, deprivation, whatever, whatever, whatever. Those are solutions for that problem. But what if our problem is different? What if our problem, from God's perspective, is the way we're thinking, is a stronghold in our thought life and it would then require a different solution and he certainly gives us one.

Speaker 1:

Romans 12, one and two says Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world that may tell you it's all about your food and your eating and your body. That may tell you it's all about your food and your eating and your body. But instead, be transformed by not another plan or not another exercise program or gym membership. The scriptures here says but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you'll be able to test and approve what God's will is his good, pleasing and perfect will. We don't want to put the cart before the horse. We want to deal with what is in here. We want to come to a place of being at peace with food, eating in our body and anything else in our lives. We want to invite God to help us renew our minds and give us the willingness to do that.

Speaker 2:

So one of the ways that I do this in my day to day life is I kind of watch what's going on with the way I'm reacting to things. I watch my actions and sometimes I'm not watching very well and that's kind of a problem too. But I get to a point where I'm feeling like you know what, I've got this behavior going on and I'm uncomfortable with it, like this doesn't feel right. Maybe I'm being very prickly with one of my kids or very impatient, or maybe I'm turning to a different comfort, like I want to numb out all the time, or maybe it's food and eating. Maybe I'm feeling very drawn to food, and so at that point I back up and it's like what am I believing right now? What's going on?

Speaker 2:

Am I believing a lie about a certain circumstance or a person or something that's going on in my life? Am I believing something that's causing me a lot of fear and anxiety? What is it? And there's something there, there's something behind it. I don't just act the way I do for no reason. There's something there, there's something behind it. And so then I can back up to my thoughts and that's where I can make changes, because if I'm struggling with fear and anxiety about something.

Speaker 2:

Well, I need to be asking God what are your thoughts, what is true about this from your perspective, starting with my behavior and then backing up to what I believe and then backing up again to what I'm thinking about all the time. That makes a huge difference in my life, and then I can go to God, I can think his thoughts after him about whatever that was, and again my desires begin to line up with God's desires for me, with his will, and then my actions begin to change. So it's not like a one and done. It happens all the time. Every day, I'm dealing with different challenges, different things that come my way, and I am going to God with them and renewing my mind. It's a beautiful, life-giving process. Once you try it, you're drawn to it because it feels so good and it feels so much better than the cycle of shame and guilt that I was in for so many years.

Speaker 1:

So come on by RevWithinteam if you want to have a community of people who love to build intimacy with God, renew their minds about anything and everything, and we would love to welcome you.

Speaker 2:

Oh, we love our community. We love them so much. They are just an amazing group of encouraging Jesus-loving people. Yeah, come on by. We'd love to see you and we hope that something that we have shared today has really resonated with you, touched your heart, and we hope that you'll be back for our next podcast of Revelation Within On the go. See you next time. Bye for now. Bye for now.

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