I was in my 40’s the day I stepped into Target and saw the racks of bikinis, colorful threads dangling. A familiar feeling of inferiority — a teenage pang rose up. Mom and Dad didn’t approve of bikinis, but I bought them anyway.

I never felt comfortable in one though. I always felt fat. 

My friend Holly, still slender and beautiful in her 40’s told me one day, “Fat is not a feeling.” 

I’m still thinking on that. Because I feel it.

But, I digress.

That day in Target when I saw the racks of strings, I felt all the fat I knew I’d see in the dressing room mirror. And then I heard the Familiar Voice break in, “You have the freedom to say ‘no’.”

I stopped feeling it.

Yes. Looking good in a bikini does not define me. That is an “old way of thinking that I have been set free from.”

I was instantly relieved from any thoughts of bikinis as I went about my shopping — I probably bought a Hershey bar that day.

Whatever. 

I’m not sure the reason my conversation with Holy Spirit in Target so vividly sticks with me. But I’ve quoted Him many times since, to myself and to others as I encourage freedom.

“You’re free to say no.”

And what was I freed from? What do we all need to be free of?

The world’s opinions. The ways of the world which are often in direct opposition to the ways of God.

So, we take our thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ. We offer our bodies — not as trophies of our accomplishments (or hate them for our failures)– but as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God as an act of worship! (2 Corinthians 10:5; Romans 12:1-2)



My mentor gave me a tract back in the days when I most desperately needed freedom from my old ways of thinking. Maybe you’ll be set free too.

“Others May . . . You Cannot”

“If God has called you to be really like Jesus he will draw you into a life of crucifixion and humility, and put upon you such demands of obedience that you will not be able to follow other people, or measure yourself by other Christians, and in many ways he will seem to let other people do things which he will not let you do.

Other Christians and ministers who seem very religious and useful, may push themselves, pull wires, and work schemes to carry out their plans, but you cannot do it, and if you attempt it, you will meet with such failure and rebuke from the Lord as to make you sorely penitent.

Others may boast of themselves, of their work, of their successes, of their writings, but the Holy Spirit will not allow you to do any such thing, and if you begin it, he will lead you into some deep mortification that will make you despise yourself and all your good works.

Others may be allowed to succeed in making money, or may have a legacy left to them, but it is likely God will keep you poor, because he wants you to have something far better than gold, namely, a helpless dependence upon him, that he may have the privilege of supplying you needs day by day out of an unseen treasury.

The Lord may let others be honored and put forward, and keep you hidden in obscurity, because he wants to produce some choice fragrant fruit for his coming glory, which can only be produced in the shade. He may let others be great, but keep you small. He may let others do a work for him and get the credit for it, but he will make you work and toil on without knowing how much you are doing; and then make your work still more precious, he may let others get credit for the work which you have done, and thus make your reward ten times greater when Jesus comes. 

The Holy Spirit will put a strict watch over you, with jealous love, and will rebuke you for little words and feelings or for wasting your time, which other Christians never feel distressed over. So make up your mind that God is an infinite Sovereign, and has a right to do as he pleases with his own. He may not explain to you a thousand things which puzzle your reason in his dealings with you, but if you absolutely sell yourself to be his love slave, he will wrap you up in a jealous love, and bestow upon you many blessings which come only to those who are in the inner circle.

Settle it forever then, that you are to deal directly with the Holy Spirit, and that he is to have the privilege of tying your tongue, or chaining your hand, or closing your eyes, in ways that he does not seem to use with others. Now, when you are so possessed with the living God that you are, in your secret heart, pleased and delighted over this peculiar, personal, private, jealous guardianship and management the Holy Spirit over your life, you will have found the vestibule of Heaven.”

So, your battle with your old worldly way of thinking might not be as vain as mine was that day, but the encouragement in the tract is YOU ARE FREE TO LIVE FREE in following the voice of your Savior.



Do you know how special you are to Him? Do you know His voice?