Conquerors

Today I read several chapters in Romans, and saw them in a new light.  I'd been feeling discouraged about my battle with my weight and other physical issues in my body, and this morning the thought crossed my mind that maybe the meetings I've been attending where we bring a spiritual focus to issues with weight control weren't working to restore my health. I KNEW I needed to have fewer carbohydrates in my diet - the physical laws that govern my body seemed to say so - and yet I found myself eating a meal last night that had more carbohydrates than I would have liked. It was soooo discouraging. 

And then I stepped on the scales and saw that I was down two pounds!  It was like God was speaking to me saying, "Don't let discouragement get the better of you.  It IS working!"  So, I opened my Bible and found myself reading this:

Do you not know, brothers — for I am speaking to men who know the law — that the law has authority over a man only as long as he lives? For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law of marriage. So then, if she marries another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress, even though she marries another man. So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God. For when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death. But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code. . . . We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do — this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. . . . Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God. You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you. . . . We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.  Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will. And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. . . . in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom 7:1-6, Rom 7:14-20, Rom 8:5-11, Rom 8:22-29, Rom 8:37-39 NIV)

 As I was reading all about the law and the body, it occurred to me that this could apply far more than just to the ten commandment type of law - it could apply to laws of health as well!  Certainly I had seen the challenge of living in alignment with these physical laws at war in my own body where I found myself doing things I didn't want to do as Paul describes.  All of a sudden this passage becomes a beautiful promise of renewed health.  So, today my task is to keep my mind set on what the Spirit desires instead of what my physical body's cravings might desire. As The Message Bible puts it - "People with their minds set on you, you keep completely whole, Steady on their feet, because they keep at it and don't quit. Depend on God and keep at it because in the Lord God you have a sure thing." (Isa 26:3-4 from THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language © 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved.)

Thank you, Father for your promises and the way you are fulfilling them in me now!  Thank you for the healing you are working in me.  I see you at work in the way my desires are changing to more healthful choices!  You are an amazing God, and I am so grateful I can call you my Father and look to you for guidance and strength each day!  I am grateful for the reminder and promise in Jude's words - "To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen." (Jude 24-25 NIV)