His Grace Is The Remedy For Your Strongholds

I stood there, blank stare in our dimmed walk in closet.  My finger tips ran across the hangers holding my many options of clothing.  We were both trying to get ready for church, while our three children wreaked havoc on the rest of our house.  The time was ticking, but my blank stare stood firm.

He came up behind me, and put his long arms around my waist.  You are so beautiful.  I love you, Babe.  But I didn’t feel beautiful.  I had a closet full of clothing staring back at me, and nothing that would properly fit a body that had put back on some weight.

We stepped out of the closet and I tried to stuff down the tears that I knew were bubbling to the surface.  That’s when I said it.  These words:

Maybe I need an antidepressant?  Maybe that would help me lose weight?  You know, hypothyroidism is directly linked to a struggle with depression.  It’s a proven fact!  Oh, and the majority of our struggle with weight is mental.  So I have mental problems!

So basically what you are telling me is I have a depressed, mental wife?  We both were able to giggle a bit.  When he put it that way, it did sound kind of humorous.

I’m not against medicine.  I believe that there are imbalances that people do need medicine for.  But this wasn’t the case.  I was doing all the wrong things.  I hadn’t been exercising.  I had been eating the foods that I knew triggered the wrong emotions.  I hadn’t been reading my Bible.  So I pleaded with the Lord.  Please show me very clearly from your Word today, how to change!

He’s done it before.  About twelve years ago, God showed me through the preaching of His Word, how to overcome a stronghold in my life.  It was as clear as day, and it caused repentance and change in my life.  I needed this.

He was faithful.  During our bible fellowship class, I opened to Galatians 5.  That’s the chapter we were going over that day to my surprise.  Law verses grace was preached.  The same thing in the next service.  Even down to specific phrases that different people used, were exactly the same.  Leave the results up to God.  Stop striving and trying to do anything apart from grace.  Stop living by the law.

To be saved by grace is one thing, but to choose to live out grace on a daily basis is another.  I had been putting myself under the bondage of the law again.  I had been living with a works-based mentality, and it was wearing me down.  The law brings death and a curse.  I was craving grace.

Will you follow me on my journey towards making grace a daily practice?  Because without grace, I’m living by the law.  The law is unattainable and grace brings freedom and joy.  I want joy.  I want God’s unmerited favor in my life.  I choose joy today.

This struggle with food is so not about food.  It’s the area of my life that is easy for me to control (or lose control of) most days.  I’m seeking the Lord to bring lasting victory in this area.   Do you have an particular addiction or stronghold you seem to be battling over and over?  Do you feel like you take two steps forward and four steps back on a regular basis?  Will you choose grace with me?  Will you put aside the law?  How can I pray for you?

His grace is sufficient for us.  In our weaknesses, He is meant to be made strong.  The things you and I struggle with the most aren’t meant to have so much attention!  Sin isn’t meant to be glorified, our Heavenly Father is!  His power in our weakness to overcome these strongholds is how we can best glorify God!  Grace should always win!

Stop living like you have an ounce of strength to overcome it and rely fully on the Lord so you can boast of His greatness and power!

Some verses on grace to meditate on and consider memorizing:

2 Corinthians 12:9-10- But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. ¹⁰ For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Galatians 5:1- For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

Galatians 5:16-17- But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. ¹⁷ For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.

Romans 6:14-  For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

John 1:17- For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

Galatians 3:13- Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”

Galatians 2:20- I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

1 Corinthians 15;56- The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.

Ephesians 2:8-10- For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, ⁹ not a result of works, so that no one may boast. ¹⁰ For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand,that we should walk in them.

2 Corinthians 10:4-5- (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)

⁵ Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

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