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I am Fearfully and Wonderfully Made
Presented by Cyndi Murphy at Ladies Singing June 8, 2009
Psalm 139:14: I will give thanks to Thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Thy works, and my soul knows it very well.
This verse has never meant more to me than it does right now.
This past Saturday God allowed me to enjoy an experience I would never have dreamed of even dreaming of 17 months ago. I jogged in a 5 mile cross-country trail run --through fields, woods, and across a creek twice! I jogged the whole 5 miles, never walking a step, and I did it in 59 minutes.
I will give thanks to Thee, O Lord my God, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are Thy works, and my soul knows it very well.
As you all know my body has undergone a transformation over the past year and a half. I've released 120 pounds and regained health. I am healthier now at 46 than I was at 26 and more fit than I was at 16.
Now I am not telling you this to brag on myself. And I'm not looking for compliments and praise about how I look. Actually everyone in the church has been sweet and supportive as I have made this journey to fitness. Let me say right here and right that I give glory to God for what has happened in the last year and a half. It would not have happened without Him. You see it really hasn't been my success -- it has been God's success, God's victory, in me. It is what Christ has done in me. His works are wonderful [and my body] and my soul know it. During the past 17 months I have learned about nutrition, health, and fitness thanks to Tracy and WW, but more than that, I have learned some important spiritual lessons that I believe have been the key to my success.
1. The first and most important spiritual lesson I learned in this journey is that my body and what I do with it and to it matters to God. (1 Cor. 3:16-17)
To be honest, when I joined Weight Watchers I wasn't convinced of that. I was initially pretty hesitant about involving God in my quest to lose weight. I resisted talking to him about my desire to lose weight and ask for his help. I think there were three main reasons I was reluctant to go to God with this: 1) I worried I would just be using God like some kind of diet gimmick. 2) I figured if I prayed about it and then failed that I would open myself up to the temptation of blaming God for the failure and the state of my obese body. 3) If I prayed about it I had to make a serious commitment to listen to God about His will in this and that meant being willing to obey as well.
But then the Lord confronted me with a scripture that really convicted me and made me see that this certainly was a matter to bring before the Lord.
1 Cor. 3:16-17 "Do you not know that you are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are."
My body is a temple. Paul says that God's Spirit, the Holy Spirit, literally dwells in me. My obesity was destroying that temple. My 45-year-old body ached like it was 80 years. I couldn't get out of bed without a lot of effort and aches in my hips, knees, and feet. My hands hurt every morning. Getting out of chair took work as I slowly straightened out joints. It was pitiful. I was too young to be so old. I knew I was only old because I had been abusing my body for years. In addition to aches and pains, I snored badly at night and didn't sleep well, I had heartburn daily and ate Tums every night before bed. I was well on my way to be diagnosed with type 2 diabetes if not heart disease. The poor food choices and amount of food I was eating were destroying my body. In 1 Cor. 3:16-17, God said that my body as the temple of God is holy--and I was defiling it.
If that isn't something to repent of and pray to God about, then I don't know what is. Confronted by that passage, it became obvious to me that I had to involve God in this. Indeed God desired to be involved in this. I could make my weight loss all about myself -- or I could make it all about Him and through it bring Him the glory that for so long I had diminished. So I prayed in repentance for defiling His temple.
2. A second thing I have come to understand is that obedience to God in my life meant taking off the weight. (Heb. 12:1)
Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
In the past year, the Lord has opened my eyes to just how much my obesity was literally what Hebrews 12:1 describes as a besetting weight -- an encumbrance---that hindered me from running the race that was set before me. The Lord opened my eyes to the fact that if I didn't get my body under control that I would not be able to serve the Him well while I did continue to live life on this earth. I was already too out of shape and too old in body to play with my children. I was so large I couldn't hold a baby, a future grandbaby, comfortably and certainly couldn't enjoy myself playing on the floor with a toddler. Moving around was exhausting. While my weight wasn't yet really hindering my teaching ministry here at Rolling Hills, I believe it presented a barrier to others as it screamed a lack of self-control (one of the fruits of the Spirit) which is not what a Christian should exhibit. And then there is this desire I have had since I was 17 years old to do mission work. The Lord has not yet led me to that, but now that my youngest children are getting older the idea of going on short term mission trips appears to be within reach. But I knew that I was just too big to travel comfortably and knew that I would be miserable in primitive conditions without air conditioning and having to walk significant distances. So had I limited God's plans for me? Would my work in the church be limited as I grew older because I had brought disease and pain into my life by my neglect or over indulgence of my body. I came to see that as much as my weight hindered my service to and for God, then clearly Satan was elated. I had already provided some victories for Satan in this area. How could I let that continue?
So repent and pray I did. I asked that God help me to learn how to treat my God-designed body with the respect it deserves and to permit it a measure of recovery dedicating it to his service. So now my weight loss really was less about me and more about Him.
3. A third lesson I have learned is that my transformation would be accomplished by the "renewing of [my] mind." (Romans 12:2)
"And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God."
In regard to how I treated the God-given gift that is the human body I had conformed to this world -- the American culture where 66% are overweight with 33% being obese. When a person sets out to lose 100+ pounds, there is no doubt about it -- they are wanting transformation. But I knew that I had failed miserably over and over again when trying to lose weight in the past. I knew I could never be transformed by my own power and God showed me that even the help of WW wouldn't be enough. If I wanted transformation -- lasting change from the inside out, then I needed the Romans 12:2 kind There the spirit of God tells us to be "transformed by the renewing of your mind." This implies that transformation does not occur merely by an act of God. It requires personal effort--the effort to "renew the mind." Obviously over the years I had learned and accepted the lies of Satan in regard to my body. What I had to do was educate my mind, renew my mind about how God designed this body to use food and the best way to feed, exercise, and treat the body. As I educated myself and practiced what I learned, I have indeed transformed my relationship with my body, God's gift to me.
In addition to learning about the care and feeding of the human body, mostly from Weight Watchers, I have also renewed my mind directly through God's word. There are several passages that either directly talk about the body and or food, or can be easily applied to it. The following passages have worked to transform me and as Romans 12:1 says, prove that the will of God is good and acceptable, and perfect.
From 1 Corinthians 6:13 and Philippians 3:19 I have learned anew that "food is for the stomach" and that I can make my belly a god.
Philippians 1:20 has taught me that I should live like Paul so that "I shall not be put to shame in anything", but that Christ should "always be exalted in my body" I looked in the mirror and knew that my self-abused body did not honor or exalt the designer and giver of life, and in this way worked to diminish Christ in the eyes of the world.
I Corinthians 10:31 which says, "whatever you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God" drove it home to me that how I relate to food can glorify God -- or not.
Romans 14:15-17 vividly and boldly reminds me of the importance of paying attention to what and how much I eat as it commands: "Do not destroy with your food him for whom Christ died"
With the renewing of my mind has come a transformation evident in my physical body as well as my thinking. Evidence of this transformation is evident in many small ways. Today:
I can get up from bed, a chair, the car, etc. without even thinking about it.
I can run up a flight of stairs.
I enjoy sweating from hard physical labor and exercise.
I I am much stronger now.
I enjoy eating all kinds of vegetables now--even green beans.
I like cooking meals.
I chose to plant and tend our vegetable garden.
I want to teach my children to care about nutrition and fitness.
In all of this I have proven to myself what the will of God is in regard to the body he gave me. It was designed to move with ease and work and accomplish what I desire to do physically. My other body couldn't do those things and I had forgotten that part of the joy of life. It just causes me to glorify God.
Today I enjoy food, another gift from God, more than I ever have--because I eat a variety of it and really taste it. Today I can physically do what I never dreamed of doing before. I can do all this through Christ who strengthens me. I give God the praise and glory for my weight loss. But I am not saying that God has worked a MIRACLE in me. I have not lost weight SUPERNATURALLY. My weight loss has occurred in direct proportion to the workings of the natural world -- the ratio of calories in to calories burned. Yet I know I have lost the weight because God has done His work in me as I confronted the truth: The way I treated my body dishonored Him and limited my ability to serve Him and as I hid his Word in my heart let it renew my mind and transform me.
For each of us, it is difficult to confront the truth about ourselves regarding the sins or other hindrances which keep us from fully serving God, from living the complete Christian life. Your encumbrance is likely completely different from mine--so let me encourage you to examine your life and see what it is that is holding you back in your spiritual service to God. When you are willing to lay that hinderance aside and move ahead in faith with God, then you can "be transformed by the renewing of your mind." This will happen as you search out God's Word and see what He has to say about your situation. What is His will for you as His creation, His child, His redeemed one. The information you need is in there in Scripture. Renew your mind by learning and taking on the mind of God, the mind of Christ, and in doing so you will prove to yourself and to the world just how good and acceptable and perfect the will of God is. And bring glory to His Name.
Psalm 139:14: I will give thanks to Thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Thy works, and my soul knows it very well.
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