Romans. Wow. I can HARDLY get through a chapter.
Every verse is life giving. Every verse deepens my faith.
This is where my "power of the spirit scripture" came from; Romans. And I can see why! In Romans 6, I learned everything I needed to learn about •heart obedience.•
Heart obedience is the difference maker when it comes to crucifying the flesh in order to be led in the spirit even in weight loss.  Romans 6:12-13, “Do not let sin control the way you live. Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin.”
••••AN INSTRUMENT OF EVIL.••••
Wow. For so long I didn’t even realize that I didn’t even know what •sin• really was. I always defined sin as “doing wrong”, but realizing that it is also •not doing right•; freed me. Freed me from bread. Wine. Nachos. Pasta. Rice. Crème Brûlée.
None of those things were BAD. I was just a slave to them because I didn’t have heart obedience. I didn’t have any idea that I was practicing being led by my sinful nature. The nature within me that mastered my every thought. My sinful nature had me convinced that I needed to do whatever my flesh felt compelled to do. When I was stressed, I drank wine. When I was hungry, I ate whatever was available to me, despite any commitments I had made to change my life physically. I was a slave to my sinful nature. I didn’t know that I had a choice to be mastered by God or sin. And that sin could relate to •anything• in my life, not just doing bad things. I didn't know that we become slaves to whatever we choose to obey! And I was a slave to my every fleshly desire.
To my sinful nature.
Wow! There’s so much freedom in seeing this! Freedom in that it shows me that anything within me that is not of God, is of the enemy. Even my cheating on my meal plan because of cravings. And that frees me from so much, still. (I'm now free from stress, anxiety, fear, depression, any of it. And all of it.)
Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin! Rather, use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God! Sin is no longer your master…even in weight loss! It was in this revelation that I stepped into heart obedience. Because I realized that the God who called me to do hard things, is also the one who will enable me to do his will, even as I stare down a cheesecake. I now see sin as a deep discrepancy between who we are and who we are created to become! And in that, is freedom.
Romans has shown me that in the future we will BECOME but until then, we must OVERCOME!
And so in God‘s presence, we are free to obey out of love, not necessity and through God’s power, not our own! And that’s where heart obedience is activated. Obedience becomes easier when you lead from your heart, that’s when you see that your weight loss journey as serving something greater! Because our problems, even the problems surrounding our cravings, develop our endurance! And within that, our strength of character is developed. And our strength of character is the change within us that gives way to a new natural desire for obedience. Heart obedience. Fleshly obedience is faulty and gave birth to my fat pant collection. Heart obedience gave birth to my evidence collection. Evidence of Gods strength and grace, every single day...even in weight loss.