If personal goals are focused on pleasing myself rather than pleasing Him, then His voice on the subject will be clouded and misdirected. ~ Susan Mucklow
For some time the subject of weight loss was dormant. It had been a sore subject in my life and like an actual sore, I habitually picked at the scab which caused more harm than good. The Lord asked me to “leave it alone.” This year He resurfaced the subject with an undisclosed goal in mind. I have had the discipline to follow a diet plan, but a new layer of this old problem surfaced with a seeming inability to drop the weight. The angst began a frenzied search for direction.
I recently shared the subject with a few new acquaintances. After a little discussion, Pam stated, “Sometimes I think the Lord is more interested in our obedience than our results.” I am amazed at how a simple line can penetrate so deep. I have no doubt that God forges words into arrows to pierce the heart. Pam was His able archer.
The Lord cut through the clouds. I had to admit that I have had more interest in losing weight than in pleasing Him. He had more interest in my obedience than in external weight loss. I was looking for the right diet and/or diet combo so that I could call compliance ‘obedience’ – even though compliance would not require any dialogue with Him on this subject. Who would have known that but the Lord Himself? After all, losing weight is the evidence that many people would use to gauge my obedience and/or the quality of my relationship with Him. Needless to say, my desire to appear obedient was frustrated as the scales went up instead of down. Each pound I gained muddied the water; frantic, I began switching diet plans to try to change the direction of the scale – because the direction of the scale is what I was craving!
I wanted weight loss, He wanted relationship with me on this subject. He won my heart again. Left to my own device, I would have settled for “another man’s process” – inadvertently excluding the Lord from my own. An interest in weight loss would have superseded His interest in our communion and the liberty for which I have been set free. His concern for my heart, for dialogue, and for my deep need to follow His spontaneous lead on this subject (and every other) trumped my shallow desire!
I experienced a brief regression to younger days when my motivation for reading the Bible was to increase my faith. In youth, I wanted more faith just so I could get the things that faith offered. The flesh translated Romans 10:17 in accordance with the flesh – twisting the Word of God until it no longer held the pleasure of knowing and pleasing Him, but rather became a vain attempt to gain faith to “prosper” or to increase “health” or to get “prayers answered.”
I am grateful for His perpetual work in me! His ways are not my ways; He has a higher agenda. He said it is better to obey than to sacrifice; yet how often have I been willing to sacrifice (or abstain) just to get the results I’ve wanted? In actuality, sacrifice is far easier than obedience.
Obedience requires me to let go of the illusion of control in exchange for dependency. Obedience is relational in nature; it asks me to slow down and listen. I cannot obey what I do not hear Him speak. It is through relationship that I hear, trust, and fall in love with Him for Who He is – with no regard for whether or not I ever lose the weight, gain approval, or see my prayers answered. I believe it is relational obedience that will lead to the attainment of true goals – even as my heart is turned toward pleasing Him.
It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life. John 6:63 (NASB)
Now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter. Romans 7:6 (NASB)
He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant–not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. 2 Corinthians 3:6 (NIV)