Have you ever wished for a new life? Have you ever wished that you could change? Have you ever wished that you could be happy and fulfilled? I sure have. In fact, I can say that I have wished all of these things within the past month and yesterday I got my answer. I (and YOU) CAN have these things!
Let me back up.... Yesterday, my hubby and I were eating dinner before mass. I had a very down day yesterday and was feeling blah. I was feeling unloved, insecure, and to be honest just hopeless. I looked at hubby and said, "I can't wait to hear what God has to tell me today!" Let me just say, I was in awe when this is what He said....
Ephesians Chapter 4
"Now this I affirm and insist on In the Lord; you must no longer live as the Gentiles live, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of their ignorance and hardness of heart. They have lost all sensitivity and have abandoned themselves to licentiousness, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. That is not the way you learned Christ! For surely you have heard about him and were taught in him, as truth is in Jesus. You were taught to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness."
WOAH!!!! Did you hear this???? We are to no longer live as broken people live. We are no longer to live in the futility of our minds. To me, living and acting on the eating disorder is surely living in the futility of my mind because the ed is all about taking over and corrupting my mind. Every.single.day. But, God is telling me that I must no longer live this way. I must no longer live this way. Now, God NEVER tells us to do something that we cannot do. This is very important, because in the past I would have read this and thought.... "But, I can't just stop." Well, YES I CAN! I can because God tells me that I "MUST" no longer live in the futility of my mind! This is great news!
This passage also says that when living in the futility of our minds (which I am taking as ed, but it can be anything that is holding us back and making us feel sad, hopeless, depressed, guilty, scared, etc.) we are alienated form the life of God. As I have said before, God gives LIFE, HOPE, LOVE, FULFILLMENT.... everything we all long for. But, He tells us right here that if we are living in the futility of our minds, we will be alienated from these things. Wow! This hit my heart big time. Like I said, yesterday I was feeling sad, hopeless, unloved, insecure, etc. and all of these things are what it means to be alienated from God's best.
So, what does God tell us to do... "Put away your former way of life, your old self, your corrupt self and deluded by its lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness." Again... BLOWS-MY-MIND!!!! Right here, God is telling me to put away my former life (ED!!!- which is corrupt and deluded by its lusts- hello- how many years have I lusted after food, the perfect weight, the perfect body, being in control, etc. etc. etc.). He is telling me to put on my new life (FULL RECOVERY- not just thinking it but LIVING IT...ACTING IT OUT!!!) And, He's telling me that my new life was created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. To me, that is RECOVERY!!! When I am LIVING RECOVERY.... I am taking care of the body that God gave me. I am acting lovingly to myself and others. I am better able to put others before myself. I will be more confident. I will not be lusting after things that harm me (trying to maintain unhealthy behaviors).
I know that was so wordy. But, I had a lot to say and I actually have a ton more to say about this. But, I wanted to get this part out. It's something that I know I will need to read and re-read, and meditate on and pray about. But, like I said, I know that it is possible to put off the old self and put on the new self. It is possible and I truly believe that when we do that, we will also be able to love our new selves.
Have you ever struggles with feeling unloved? Have you ever struggled with insecurity? Today, how can you put off your old self and put on your new self?
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