Revelation Within On the Go!
Revelation Within equips people with life-giving, grace-infused mind renewal tools to deepen their intimacy with Jesus so that counterfeit comforts (like overeating) lose their allure, and the joy and hope of Jesus fills their lives, satisfying their souls.
In our podcast we talk about mind renewal, tips and tricks for getting and staying free from counterfeit comforts like overeating (over-scrolling, over-drinking, over-anythinging...)
We began as Thin Within in 1975, a pioneer in intuitive, mindful eating back when diets were in their hey day! Thin Within has taught people how to tune in to their body's natural signals of hunger and satisfaction, remaining present with their meals and delighting in tastes and textures--and the Lord!
In the 1980s, Thin Within became a Christian ministry, showing people that the emptiness that they have felt and often filled with food that their bodies don't require, was really placed in there to be filled full with God through Jesus. He wants to set us free from all strongholds!
We rebranded our ministry and our podcast in 2023 to Revelation Within.
Join us!
Visit us in our RevWithin.Team community as well! (https://revwithin.team)
Find our listing of classes at https://www.revelationwithin.org
Revelation Within On the Go!
Finding Peace Beyond the Scale
As we talk through this topic together, we name the tension we’ve both felt: wanting to lose weight while also craving real peace. We explore what we’ve believed weight loss would give us and what God actually says about those longings. Instead of rigid plans or giving up entirely, we look at how inviting God into our food choices, body image, and emotions brings a kind of freedom a number on the scale simply can’t. We share honestly about chasing thinness, the ache when affirmation fades, and the realization that even big changes in our bodies can’t fix the places only truth can heal. Romans 12:2 keeps us anchored in renewal, not performance.
We also talk about the two extremes we’ve seen in ourselves—obsession and apathy—and how the narrow road of stewardship brings clarity: caring for our bodies as God’s handiwork while letting identity rest securely in Christ. That shift changes everything, moving motivation from fear to love, from self-focus to worship, and from quick fixes to sustainable rhythms. We share simple mind-renewal tools we actually use: breath prayers that settle the body, prompts that expose unhelpful beliefs, and small daily check-ins that turn eating into an act of trust. We speak openly about programs, medications, and surgeries without shame, framing them as possible supports—but not substitutes—for a renewed mind. Our hope is to offer gentleness, clarity, and a path forward for anyone longing for food peace and kinder self-talk.
Class starts December 10th
https://teamlifeisgood.com/go
Learn more about our Revelation Within Community: https://www.revelationwithin.org
Hi, and welcome to our podcast, Revelation Within on the Go. I'm Claudia Everton, one of your hosts, and currently the host of the RevelationWithin.org.
SPEAKER_01:And I'm Christina Fuckley, your other host, also Revelation Within Good. And I'm partnering all things Revelation Within. We are so happy to invite you to join us for this episode of Revelation Within.
unknown:Yay!
SPEAKER_02:We're so glad you're here today. Yay. And today we want to talk about a very honest question that comes up well every so often at least. I think sometimes it comes up, but people don't articulate it. Yeah. And it's this question. Are you ready? Yes, ready, ready, go.
SPEAKER_01:What if I still want to lose weight? Yes, yes, let's put it out there. Let's talk about it.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:You know, we've been walking this journey, Heidi and I, for decades now. And many of you, most of you, is probably why you're here. And we get it. We understand. Absolutely. We know there's an ache that sits under this question. It's not a shallow question. You know, and it's not about vanity. I think some people think that it's about that. Maybe for some it is. I mean, let's be honest. Maybe for some it is. Okay. But I don't know. For the people that come to us at Revelation Within, I feel like they are looking at something much deeper. It's not a shallow question. It's layered. There's layers to this question. And sometimes it's physical, sometimes emotional, sometimes it's deeply spiritual.
SPEAKER_02:And sometimes it's all of the above and more.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. It is. It's complicated. It is complicated.
SPEAKER_02:And one thing that is most likely to be true is it has been with us for decades. The question has been with us for decades. The effort, the energy, the mental bandwidth, uh, all of it has been with us for quite some time in many cases. Let's begin by acknowledging that the desire to lose weight is not something we have to be ashamed of, really. Not at all. No. I and I cringe to think that anything that we have taught or said or um written for that matter might have caused people to feel like they should be ashamed if that's their desire. No, we want to just clarify for sure. That's not where uh we want to take anybody. You know, God understands, he's not rolling his eyes at you. No, he's not. He invites you to bring that desire into his marvelous light, not to hide it or pretend it's not there. In fact, invite him in. It's interesting. Christina even said recently she talked to somebody who hadn't even thought of putting these two topics together, their faith and their food. It's like, oh great. I mean, not everybody has done that, like we have.
SPEAKER_01:Right, exactly. We're so used to talking about it. But really, it's one of the most important things. It is the most important thing that you can do in this journey is to invite God in. What we're learning to do here at Revelation Within is to take this desire, you know, Lord, I'm uncomfortable, Lord, I want to lose weight, Lord, I'm not sure. What are your thoughts on this? We are encouraging people to hold this up to God and ask him and definitely invite him into the whole thing, you know, all of it. Um, asking God, what are your thoughts about this desire? Did I learn it from the culture? Is this from you? What does it mean to seek first your kingdom even in this?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, speaking of that, that's Matthew 633, which reads, seek first his kingdom and his righteousness. And all these things will be given to you as well.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. So what are all these things? Um, I love that it says all these things, not just, and some things will be added, and maybe and you might. No, it's all these things, and that includes clothing, food, daily needs, but not at the expense of our relationship with the Lord, our intimacy with the Lord. So when weight loss becomes this powerful driving force, which many of us can relate to, you know, behind our spiritual practices, I mean, it's easy to use God instead of walk with him in relationship. It's kind of easy to say, yeah, that's a challenging thought, right? It's like, well, Lord, I have all these plans. Will you just bless them, please?
unknown:Please.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. And I I get that. I mean, I'm we're talking about ourselves as well.
SPEAKER_02:Right, right. And, you know, of course, we refer to Romans 12, too, all the time, but we want to refer to it here too. Scripture urges us do not conform to the pattern of this world, right, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. And we don't transform ourselves, that's just the reality of it. God does the transforming. Our part, our part really is to participate in renewing our minds. And let me just um add a lot of our podcasts give specific guidance in what that might look like for you. Come into our community at RevWithin.team to learn lots more ways or participate in our mind renewal mastery class where you will learn a bazillion trillion nine hundred million ways to your mind and a lot of good stuff about mind renewal because it's our favorite thing. It is, it is, and you know, Christina and I can both attest to this that mind renewal has not just impacted the way we think about food, eating, our emotions that often have led us to eating, etc., but also about trials in our lives and about what are your thoughts about this difficulty I'm facing? What are your thoughts about this diagnosis? What are your thoughts about that person that kind of hurt my feelings?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Mind renewal transforms us completely. God is doing it transforming. We just do the mind renewal. So if you're not sure what mind renewal looks like, join us and you know, ask us what does it actually look like? Or do a search through our archives of the podcast. And and here's the important thing to recognize if we treat mind renewal as sort of some sort of a transaction, like I do this so I can play, we're gonna miss the deeper reward and the deeper invitation. That's really not transformation, it's it's spiritual performance, which we're trying to get away from, right? Right, exactly. Yeah, we don't want to use God to get something from him instead of being transformed by him.
SPEAKER_01:That's important. That's really, really important. Well, and so much of our old patterns, especially for those who've come out of dieting culture, and so many of us have. I mean, it's all performance-based. You know, we're chasing approval, acceptance, and love. And I'm just gonna throw out there, I mean, even in the last couple of years, we've seen this huge change in our culture. We were for a while, and and of course, this is what culture does, right? It swings back and forth from the extremes. I remember when my kids were younger, there was this whole movement about accepting our bodies and right, and curvy this and curvy that. And and, you know, I would walk into a Target store and there were, you know, mannequins of all sizes, and there was a change going on that was kind of exciting to me, you know, because it felt like it was pulling away from that dieting culture that just said thin, thin, thin. But now it's gone back, and we are at the extreme. And of course, you know, you can look at all the movie stars and see what they're doing because that's kind of what's what our culture looks at so often, and it's completely gone the other way, completely. And so we can't depend on our culture at all. And of course, that's what Romans 12, 2 is talking about. The culture will change, society, you know, trends, Instagram, social media, it's gonna change every week, every month, every year. What's our source? What are we chasing after that's gonna last? Um there's only one thing, really. Yeah, there's only one thing. We we have our one source. God is our one true source, and that's a good place to be because he loves us more than we can imagine, and he has so much wisdom for us, so much insight. God doesn't withhold his love until we shrink in size. No way. He's already given us all of himself in Christ, and our identity is in him. So no matter what you're going through, our identity is solid and secure. It's in Christ no matter what, it's a done deal.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, that's so true. Thanks for pointing that out, Christina. Let's just name something super plainly here. I mean, we want to just plain speak today. I'm every day. Every day. Let's do it. Okay, it is okay to want to lose weight. Here's what the question maybe should be or is what do I believe weight loss will do for me? Or maybe what do I believe not losing weight does too?
SPEAKER_01:Right.
SPEAKER_02:Does weight loss make me feel more worthy? Or am I more worthy when I lose weight? Am I more seen? Am I more loved? Will I finally be good enough? What do I make it mean? Now, I have to be honest with you, over the many years that I've been an adult, many, many years, like the last 45 years. Um anyway, um, I have been all shapes, all sizes, all fitness levels, and I can recall instances, very distinct exchanges, verbal exchanges, where people validated what they saw or demonstrated disdain for what they saw in my physical being, if you will. I mean, I remember the UPS guy who looked at me and I was super fit, and he said, Wow, what do you do to stay so fit? I mean, that was really nice. I like that feedback for sure. And then there have been times when there has been disdain and contempt. I mean, I don't know if that's what every person's experience is if they're wearing a you know more body on their frame or less. I don't know if it's everybody or if I just invite comments. I don't know, I don't mean to, but um, it's it's really hard in our society to not feel like they're demonstrating that I have value if I look a certain way, or I don't have value if I look another way. That's really tricky.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, absolutely. Well, and I can remember so many times when I had gone on some kind of a diet or some kind of an extreme exercise plan or something, and all of a sudden I was getting all this attention. You know, people are like, oh, look at you. Wow, this is you're amazing. You must be really self-disciplined. And um, how do we do it? What program are you following? Send me the link, you know, the the whole thing. And then the minute it falls short, because it always falls short, when it's not something that goes deeper, and that happened to me a thousand times, all of a sudden everyone gets very silent. Um, and the attention is gone, it's just over with. Um, and people are, you know, in their silence, you feel very judged, and it's an awful, awful place to be.
SPEAKER_02:Sometimes they're not silent about that judgment. I had one being church lady approach me and tell me that the glory of God was being hindered. Oh my gosh. It was not as visible now that I was carrying extra weight. This was a lot of years ago, and I just that that's tough.
SPEAKER_01:That's tough. That's horrible. I'm so sorry, Heidi. That is awful, awful, awful. I'm gonna go after it.
SPEAKER_02:No, it was a mean church lady. Don't be a mean church lady, y'all.
SPEAKER_01:Oh no, no, no, no. So, I mean, the danger isn't in the desire itself to want to lose weight, it's what we attach to it. That's what this is really about. Um, and that's why mind renewal, it's not a free pass to eat with abandon, it's really a slow rewiring of what we believe about ourselves, about food, about God. That's what it is. What are we thinking about? What are we thinking about? What are our thoughts about all those things? What are we believing? And then that leads to our actions. You know, we have so many people come to us with this request. I just want to find peace. I just want to find peace and food and eating in my body. Um, and I get that. I hoped for that, desired that, you know, um, pined after it for years and years and years um until I learned how to renew my mind. And thank God for that. Thank God that there's a way for us to rewire. It's not us doing it, God's really doing the transformation, but we can practice his thoughts and it will change us. It will change us. We've seen it thousands of times at Revelation Within, which used to be Thin Within.
SPEAKER_02:And we participate in it every day as well.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, we do every single day.
SPEAKER_02:This is where things get really beautiful. You know, when I first began this journey umpteen years ago, yeah, I did. I wanted food peace. I want and well, we have a class now, discovering peaceful eating, and and it's because we know people want to be at peace with food eating in their bodies. Back in those days when I first wanted, I was like, I just I want to relate to food as though God didn't put it on this planet to torment me because you know what he didn't. Right, he put it on the planet to bless us, and somehow something had gotten really warped as I practiced renewing my mind, and sometimes, y'all, this is daily, not just daily, sometimes it's hourly. Sometimes, I mean, multiple times each day. I check in with God, I have to ask him, What are your thoughts about what I'm thinking? Because what I'm thinking might not be in alignment with what he says is true. But as I practice renewing my mind multiple times each day, you know, just it's not opening my Bible and having a big long Bible study, it's just checking in with God through prayer. What do you have to say about this thought I'm having? And I started to see massive changes, my beliefs changed, and then my actions followed suit. I didn't just want peace with food in my body anymore. I wanted to love what God loves, and I want to be faithful with what He has entrusted to me, including my body. And that was the really cool thing. The motivation shifted from okay, do I have enough motivation about this trip I'm going on and getting thin by then or whatever? No, no, no. The motivation shifted from me to him, and and that's just the word too. Yeah, 1 Corinthians 10 31 says, So whether you eat or drink, whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. Our God gets glory in the way we relate to some of these mundane things like food and eating.
SPEAKER_01:I love that. Well, and we had I love this too. We had somebody just recently in one of our groups um say, you know, I remember when eating was fun. Right? I mean, we have gotten into this mindset in our culture that eating is complicated. And well, you should try this, but no, how about this? Oh, it's all changed now. Uh yes, it's only been an hour, but it's all changed now. Now you have to have, oh, but don't have it at this time of day. And if you have, I mean, it is so complicated. I feel like every day it's more complicated. And what is that about? Like you said, Heidi, you know, God made food in abundance for us. I mean, it's beautiful, it's colorful, it's flavorful, we don't all like the same things. That's okay. But he made it to fuel our bodies well. And it's like, what happened? What have we done? You know? And I just want to add, I was the same way um that you just described, Heidi, with that kind of that longing. When I first brought God into this issue, really, it's like, Lord, um, are you sure this is something you want me to invite you into? Because it just feels too, it feels kind of in a way, it feels kind of like minimal. Like, is this really important at all? And then in another way, it feels like I should be the one to get this together, you know, and then we'll talk about it, and then you'll be pleased and everything will be fine. But no, he wants so much to be involved in this, especially if it's causing us sorrow and pain and angst and hopelessness and all those things. I remember when Heidi, when I first came to you for coaching, and it's been 11 and a half years, I said, I remember saying this out loud, I'm overweight, yes, and uh honestly, I don't even care anymore about my size because I am so desperate, I am so hopeless, I just want peace with food and eating in my body. And I want to know what what God has to do with any of this. I mean, I was in a very desperate place, and it was that took a lot of courage to say because I was adorable anyway.
SPEAKER_02:I just have to say that.
SPEAKER_01:Well, I was I felt very much ashamed over that. Yeah, you know, I felt so much shame, and the whole thing was kind of my my big secret and my secretary. You let the cat out of the back. I did because I trusted you and you were so encouraging, and you were also the first person I had ever met that really, really understood. Like you got it. You got it, and I felt like, okay, let's go. So I'm so grateful, Heidi. Thank you. All these years later, I'm so grateful for what you've taught me all these years. So let's get into some of these um kind of pitfalls, ditches that we can fall into with this mindset. Um, the first one we're gonna call the obsession ditch. Okay. How many of you have experienced this? And certainly I have many times. We chase weight loss like it's salvation. Oh boy, how it's yeah, we chase it like if I could just lose this much, everything else in my life, my relationships, my work, my career, church life, whatever you wanted, every life, you know, my social life, it's all gonna fall into place. It's it's an obsession.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I mean, I remember being that way, and this is uh, yeah, this is I want a thought I wanted to be sure to share. Is we can sacrifice so much emotionally and spiritually and even physically pursuing weight loss. And is that an approach that God wants for us? I mean, I remember when um somebody commented about a post on my blog, this was years ago. I was kind of chronicling my journey through thin within again, releasing weight as I went, and somebody said, I don't think you look healthy, you look anorexic. Oh, and that was full stop for me. It was like, oh and I realized they were right, they were right. I mean, I had kind of acted like it was a badge of courage, a badge of honor, something amazing that I had so little body fat, but it was really kind of scary when I think about it. And and I pursued it all of these activities and working out and doing more and working out again, strength training and working out again and running and all of this stuff because I was so scared that I would gain one ounce back, and I was attached to my scale, it owned me, it owned me, and that is not going to lead to godliness at all. I mean, it might lead to super thinness, but is that I mean, at what expense? And another thought that hit me at that time was how long can I really maintain this? This thinness that I had. It's like, is this from God for me? Because if it is, it's not gonna feel like toil and challenge on and on to maintain it. I knew I wouldn't be able to eat anything to maintain the size I was. Right. Anyway, yeah. So you don't want to be in the obsession ditch.
SPEAKER_01:No, and it's it doesn't, it doesn't really matter which extreme it is, you know, whatever extreme that we're obsessed. I mean, it's kind of all the same thing, really. I remember when I first jumped into mind renewal and I was really, really, you know, excited. It was all brand new to me. It felt like a second honeymoon with the Lord, really. My first one being when I was, you know, made the decision for him in my heart. Um, but I remember thinking, oh my gosh, like every spare moment, every little piece of margin in my life is filled with this obsession. I was kind of studying my thoughts. I was like, I want to know, I want to be aware. What am I thinking about all day long? I want to know because I want to change it. And I was so excited about changing it. And then once I started changing it and using the mind renewal tools, I thought, oh my gosh, like I have so much time to think about other things now. Um, because every like if a relationship was going sour, I went right to my weight and food and eating. If I was stressed at work, I went right to right to that again. I mean, it was my go-to, and I really did believe that if I were a certain size and I could somehow find peace with that and keep it and all those things, that the rest of my life would fall into a place. I really believe that. Um, and that was a huge aha moment for me. It's like this is an awful way to live. This is an awful way to live. I want to be obsessed with God's word. I want to be obsessed with his truth, I want to be obsessed with what is true from his perspective. That's the only obsession that is life-giving. The only one.
SPEAKER_02:Can I insert uh something like kind of a personal anecdote here? I was see, I don't know how long had we been married. Um, my first husband, who I was crazy about. Let's just be clear on that. We didn't have babies yet, so it was probably the first five, ten years of our marriage. And I was convinced that the reason he was not interested in certain activities as much as I was, if you get me, wink wink, um, was because of my weight. And so I pursued there's an example. I thought my marriage was, I mean, it wasn't like we were the best of friends, but there was something missing. Again, wink wink. And I thought, okay, I'm gonna lose the weight, and then that'll be fixed. And you know what? I did, I lost a hundred pounds, and it wasn't fixed. So then I was left, I was left with a very real, sad realization that there's something else going on here, and and so that's the thing, is I think we do we chase that weight loss like it's salvation. We pursue it as though it's gonna solve all the problems, it's gonna be the panacea that solves all the world's problems or at least mine, right? Right, yeah, that obsession ditch, it's a deep ditch and long because we can land in it and stay there for quite a while. And you know what? We get all these accolades from people for looking thinner while we are obsessing. And okay, is that is that a good choice?
SPEAKER_01:And I feel like I was there for a really, really, really long time. Um, oh yeah, I'm so glad I'm not there anymore. So that's the first ditch. What's our second ditch? Okay, the second ditch is the ditch of apathy, where we say, you know what? I guess it doesn't matter at all. It doesn't matter, I don't really care. I have to admit though, that for me, when I say those words, um, I'm in a desperate place and I'm putting up my defenses, and I'm saying, okay, fine, you know, I'm a failure, I can't do this, I don't know what to do. Like I keep messing this up again and again and again. Um, I guess it doesn't really matter.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and neither of those, of course, are God's heart. And no, really, that's probably not like you just said, Christina, that's probably not what I'm really feeling. It's like I get tired of failing. And so, because I have, you know, here's the thing, many of us do get tired of quote failing.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:If we can learn to think God's thoughts, renew our minds about failure. Yes. And think of failure the way God does. Lord, what are your thoughts about failure? Are my thoughts about failure the same as your thoughts? What do I need to do to think differently? He wants us to learn from our failures, our slips, stumbles, flies, falls, failures. Yeah. And so that's where that's another place where it gets really good when we go to him in our failures, our supposed failures, he reminds us that is not who you are.
SPEAKER_01:Right. It's not our identity, it's not our worth, it's not our value, that's not who who we are. And I love that. I love that truth. And that's one of our favorite truths to talk about at Revelation Within, because so many of us have been there for so long. It's like, oh my gosh, this is who I am. No, it's not. That's not God's perspective, not at all.
SPEAKER_02:The narrow road is, of course, one of spirit-led surrender. We don't want to be obsessed, we don't want to be apathetic, but we do want to be spirit-led and we want to be surrendered. Not letting food or weight define us, but not pretending that our choices don't matter. God wants to lead us in this journey. Let's invite him in, and then let's invite him in again, and then let's invite him in again. Yes, we might say, My body is not my own, it belongs to the Lord. See, that's the thing, is so very often the apathy. Um, we can make that sound like godliness. Like, I am not obsessed with my weight anymore. I'm amazing. I mean, that's fine. Well, okay, yeah. What is God's way of thinking about this? You know, sometimes we say, you know, my body is mine to do it as I please, or that's what our actions are saying. But what if rather than thinking of my body is not my own, it belongs to the Lord as a weight loss mantra, mantra, as a weight loss mantra, we look at it as a stewardship posture. Maybe God wants us to behave towards our bodies like it's the precious treasure and masterpiece. That he says in his word, his eternal word, that it is. And taking that perspective can change everything.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it sure can. We want to mention too, you know, maybe you've chosen a different approach, like a specific diet or a medication or a surgery. And we just we've said it before, we want to say it again. We are not here to judge anyone. Certainly not your choices, your decisions. Everybody has their own journey. We're here to walk beside you as you bring these tools to the Lord, as you bring your heart and mind to the Lord as well.
SPEAKER_02:I that makes me think of over the course of time that we've been involved in this ministry. We've had, I won't say a lot of people, but uh a solid handful of people, maybe two handfuls of people, who came to us after they had some sort of procedure done and found themselves struggling with either losing the weight that their doctors promised them or that they thought they would lose, or keeping it off, and they felt so full of shame. We just want to say, you know, any place where shame is kind of telling you what to feel about yourself or your life, tell that's the enemy to me. That's the enemy. He needs to take the height. Shame is not from God. No, no, invite God to show you what are your thoughts about my struggle with maintaining the weight loss or main or even losing the weight after this procedure or with this medication. Shame is not from the Lord, and we want to invite you to yeah, join us and speak your truth to us. What has happened? And we want to encourage you and just validate you and what God's thoughts are about his beloved, and you are his beloved. Yes, you are, and we are yes. So here's something we said it before, and we'll say it again a million times. When you have a tool that you're using for weight loss, let's say you decide you're gonna do Z-Bound or whatever, you know, Mindanol isn't replaced by that choice. Absolutely. You know, it's not mind is in the category of weight loss tool. That's not what it is. No, no. Mindanol is essential even as you choose the other tools that you may choose, whether you choose to use an intuitive eating approach, which is kind of what we do, um, or if you choose something else entirely, you can be taking a medication, you can be using a program and still be daily transformed by the truth. Absolutely, absolutely. So, for me, anyway, in summary, it wasn't until I began to invite God to say to him, help me think your thoughts about my body and about my eating and about food and about emotions and circumstances that sometimes drive my decisions to eat when I'm not hungry. It wasn't until I did that that I found something more stable, more really eternal, something eternal.
SPEAKER_01:Gratitude, stewardship, joy. It's true. Peace. Yeah. Well, and that's really the shift that we pray for each of you. And that's the journey that Heidi and I are on every single day, that you would find the peace that doesn't depend on the scale, but on the savior. And again, if you're not sure what mind renewal is, you know, if you're thinking, well, I read my Bible every day and I'm still struggling. I was just talking with someone the other day one-on-one about this. And she said, I am, you don't even know how many Bible reading plans I'm doing. She's like, I have so many plans, I'm a part of it. And I go to this Bible study and I go to church regularly and I pray every morning. I have a quiet time. Why am I not seeing any changes? Because mind renewal is all about that targeted truth. What are we believing? What is not true that we're believing? And what are God's thoughts on that? And if you're not sure how to do it, we would love, love, love to share that with you. We have so many amazing tools. They're not rocket science, they're simple, they're easy, but they're life-giving and they're life-changing. And basically you're you're corralling all those thoughts, you know, and you're replacing them with thoughts that line up with God. And wow, there's so much freedom in that. There's so much joy in that. And it will touch every area of your life. The food and eating piece, yes. The body piece, yes. But then when you're going through whatever trial, whatever challenge, uh, relationships, work, everything, it will touch all of that, and you will love it. You will love the way that feels.
SPEAKER_02:So let's wrap up with Colossians 3 2, and then I have another verse I want to um share from Colossians 2.3. Colossians 3-2 reminds us set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. And so I can say honestly, that for many years my desire to lose weight or release weight, whatever word you want to use there, was very much rooted on earthly things. It wasn't because I had a godly desire to steward my body well. And Colossians 3.2 admonishes me in that set your minds on things of God, not on earthly things. And Colossians 2.23 is a favorite of ours in this ministry, too. And you could back up all the way to verse 20. But um, I'm just gonna read one verse here. Such regulations, and those are like, don't touch this, don't eat that, blah blah blah, have an appearance of wisdom with their self-imposed worship. Look at me, look at me, their false humility. Oh, it's really not that hard, and their harsh treatment of the body, do another lap, run another mile, hurry quick. But they lack this is what they lack. All of these things they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence, overdoing it, you know, in any respect. So we want to keep that in mind.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, Jesus doesn't change us by giving us tighter rules and restrictions, not at all. He changes us by giving us himself, and that's where that freedom is, that's where that that hope is, that peace that we're longing for. So many of us. So we have a breath prayer that we want to share with you. And remember, breath prayers, this is just one tool that we use to renew our minds, calming our body at the same time as speaking God's truth. So we're gonna inhale and say, You have given me a new mind. And we're gonna exhale and say, and I trust you to change my heart. So let's go ahead and inhale, nice deep breath. You have given me a new mind.
SPEAKER_02:Given me a new mind.
SPEAKER_01:Exhale, and I trust you to change my heart. Let's do that one more time. Nice deep breath. Inhale. You have given me a new mind. Exhale, and I trust you to change my heart. I love it.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, that always feels good to do those deepers. So, reflection questions we have for you at the end of this episode for you to kind of take with you. You might just want to invite God to show you, Lord. Why do I want to lose weight? What do I believe it will give me? And what do you have to say about that?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and it's okay, just to tell you, it's okay. It's okay. Be honest with him. There's there's no judgment there, there's no condemnation in Christ. He just wants to be with you. Um, here's another question: Am I seeking first God's kingdom or a kingdom of my own making?
SPEAKER_02:Mmm, a little kingdom with a kingdom of one. Like, ooh. Yep. And I get that too. Yeah. And the third question you might ponder is how can I renew my mind today? Maybe a breath prayer, no matter where I am in this journey. Gives us something to think about. Friends, wherever you are, longing, confused, frustrated, hopeful, God sees. Yes, he's not waiting for you to hit some goal weight on your scale. He isn't waiting for me to hit a goal weight on my scale. He is longing for our hearts.
SPEAKER_01:Well, and when you give him your thoughts, your beliefs, your body, your cravings, your longings, everything. When you give those things to him, you're not giving up your dreams. You're actually trading them for something better, intimacy with the king.
SPEAKER_02:So until next time, keep renewing your mind, keep abiding in him, and let him do the transforming.
SPEAKER_01:And we're so glad that you've been here today. We would love to see you in our community. We have an amazing community. Oh my goodness. We just love these people so much. And we're all on this journey together, renewing our minds, learning how to think different ways toward freedom. I love it. Anyway. And please, please join us for our next episode of Revelation All.