TRANSFORMED | Transformed: Body | Romans 12:1 | Week 5

Uuugghhh! For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh.  For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.  (Romans 7:18)  For I do not understand my own actions.  For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.  So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.  (Romans 7:16-17)  For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.  (Romans 7:22-23)

Here we are in a series of transformation and I've got the wonderful topic of the body.  How many of us feel the same type of angst that the Apostle Paul felt in those verses?  Just like Larry gave us this wholeness wheel {Spirit--Mind--Body--Emotion--Relationships--Vocation--Resources} at the beginning [of the series], if I were to take a look at that and talk to God about how am I doing with my body in this journey of transformation, I feel some of that angst!  It's interesting that over the last couple of weeks of preparing this message, I feel like God has turned up the volume on my hunger, and I've become real aware of that.  I have hunger!  I know that's silly, but I think that sometimes I fall asleep to my body and I don't even realize I have these kind of urges or cravings.  As God's been showing me that I have this kind of hunger, you know where I go to fulfill it?  The donut shop!  Because fall is amazing....I go get a half dozen donuts and I polish them off throughout the day.  Great!  I'm doing awesome!  At night I get the munchies.  There's a lot of stuff in my refrigerator, but I'm really in the mood for salt.  I'll polish off half the bag of chips.  I love the fall and I need a boost of caffeine and get my brain awake, so I'm going to go to Starbucks and get my Pumpkin Spice Latte and I'm going to satisfy my craving.  God's been showing me that I have these cravings, these yearnings, these urges, and it's really easy to go and satisfy them myself.  It's easy because it's accessible.  I've got food in my cupboards and refrigerator.  I've got a car and can drive to the restaurant of my choosing or the store and fill whatever that craving is.  So I'm susceptible to following the cravings my body has and trying to satisfy them myself...