It Is Finished!

It is finished!

April 9, 2012

We just finished celebrating Holy Week and Easter.  What a wonderful event to celebrate.  Jesus Christ’s life culminated in His death, burial, and resurrection giving mankind the greatest gift ever.  Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!

We took some time this weekend to re-paint the master bedroom.  It was great!  Not only do I have a pretty room, but I had some uninterrupted conversation with Sean (he rolls the big spots and I do the trim) and some alone time as Sean usually finishes before me.  It is funny how often times the conversations that Sean and I have spark my own private reflections.  This weekend was no different.

I was telling Sean about the victories I have been seeing in my desire to eat healthy and exercise.  This has been a struggle for me as long as I can remember but in the last few months I have seen some real changes that are so encouraging.  I have had times when I waited until I was actually hungry to eat (using my bodies clues as my guide).  In the past I would eat lunch because it was time to eat lunch not because I was hungry.  Over the holidays I was at a party and there was a huge platter of Christmas cookies right on the coffee table.  Do you know what?  I had maybe two cookies and totally forgot that they were there at all.  This is major!  To have cookies within reach and not go for them is amazing!  That comes from a changed mind and not changed behavior!  I am also not looking at exercise as a “have” to anymore.  I see it as something I want to do because I enjoy how I feel afterward.  When I do exercise I enjoy it and feel energized when it is over.  All these are changes that are exciting for me and are evidence that I am on the right track.

What track am I on you may ask?  Well, the answer lies in a conversation Papa after Sean left the room to clean up from painting.  I was telling Him how I was amazed at how resting in who Jesus is, what Jesus did, and who I am because of this is the bringing about the good fruit I have tried so hard to produce for myself.  I have spent 30+ years trying to change my behaviors, my thoughts, and my feelings in order to become or to gain Papa’s attention in order that I would stop craving sweets, want to eat veggies, want to exercise, and be a perfect size…whatever.  I have often heard the saying “You get an A for effort!”  Well, with Papa if that were true I should have been a size 8 in my early teens.  I was sincere when I fasted to break this hold on my life.  I repented of my sinful heart until I thought that I was a hopeless mess.  I memorized Scripture to change my thoughts.  I had accountability partners to keep me on track.  These are the things I had tried before instead of just resting in the Love and power of Papa.

When I was sharing my thoughts on how much better my struggle with food, body image, and weight was going Papa stopped me with on phrase.  I heard His say, “Cindy, you don’t have an issue or struggle anymore, it IS finished!”  I had to stop what I was doing and let that thought sink in.  What does that mean?   What?  How does this change my life?  Wow!

I have been able to spend some time thinking about this and to be honest, as of yet, I don’t have any real answers yet.  The one thing I do know is that I don’t have to label myself as having a weight problem anymore.  When Jesus walked this earth, He was tempted and tried just as I am now.  He resisted those temptations and bore those trials perfectly.  He died on the cross, having met all the requirements of the Old Covenant, and breathed His last saying “It Is Finished!”  He came back from the dead, not a ghost, and showed that He had become the victor over death.  He did this in order to re-establish the relationship Adam had with God in the Garden.  These truths were new in a way that astounds me.  There is more in what Jesus did than just eternal salvation and a get out of hell free card!

The words Jesus spoke before He did really spoke volumes to me in regard to my lifelong struggle with food.  It is finished.  Jesus took all of my sins on Himself over 2000 years ago, before I was born.  It is finished.  I can say that my struggle with food is over, finished because of Christ Jesus.  I am free of this because of Papa God and the work of Jesus!

Another thought that came to me while I was talking to Papa is that in the past I would go to the Cross and pour out my soul and then I would stay there.  This is not where Papa wanted me to stay though.  The power of the Christian life is not in the Cross-but the empty tomb, the resurrected Jesus.  Looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of my faith, is where my strength comes from.  We are told we are co-heirs with Jesus and we are seated with Him in the heavenlies.  We are told we have been given all we need for life and godliness.  We are told that when we work out our salvation with fear and trembling it is Christ working in us to cause us to do God’s perfect will.  We are told that we have the same power that God used in raising Jesus from the dead.  These are the things I look to when I look to Jesus and where I feel Papa God wants me to look.

“It is finished!” are powerful life-giving words for me.  I am so thankful that Papa and I had that little talk.  I must add an aside.  I called to share this with a friend of mine and when she answered the phone I said, “I was thinking and I had a thought.  I wanted to share it with you.”  Imagine, thinking and having a thought all at the same time.  Amazing!

Blessings y’all!

Sister Cindy