Although Washington Post Columnist Eugene Robinson published an irreverent and irrelevant article on Chris Christie's possible health complications with a probable run for President, I wanted to comment at this time on one point from the New Jersey about his weight problem:
“"I’m really struggling, been struggling for a long time with it,” he told CNN’s Piers Morgan in June. “And I know that it would be better for my kids if I got it more under control, and so I do feel a sense of guilt at times about that.""
Governor Christie struggles with his rotundity, the American people are well aware. We all struggle with issues in our lives, and thus they persist. The solution to relief from the pains, problems, and pressures in our life is not to attack our feelings with greater tenacity or fight with greater physical effort and willful determination.
Instead, everyone of us who wishes to be set free from any setback in our lives must fight the good fight of faith (1 Timothy 6: 12). Let everyone hear the clean and clear redemption which God has offered to the world through the propitiatory death and resurrection of His Son:
"In whom [Christ] we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace." (Ephesians 1: 7)
Before that, Paul explicitly describes the favor that every believer has in Christ:
"To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved." (Ephesians 1: 6)
In fact, God the Father loves us as much as He loves His Beloved Son!
"I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the
world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved
me." (John 17: 23)
God loves us as much as His Son because through Him we receive the gift of no condemnation:
"Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." (Romans 8:1, NASB)
We are in Christ, and in Him, therefore, we are free from and judgment. God is no longer angry with us, imputing our sin to His own Son in our stead:
"For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made
the righteousness of God in him." (2 Corinthians 5: 21)
And we have the Holy Spirit, who brings Christ to live within us, who convicts us of the righteousness that we have and identify with in Christ:
"And I will pray the
Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for
ever;
"Even the Spirit
of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither
knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
"I will not leave you
comfortless: I will come to you." (John 14: 16-18)
and later, Jesus said of the Holy Spirit:
"And when he [The Holy Spirit] is come, he
will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:
"Of sin,
because they believe not on me;
"Of righteousness,
because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more" (John 16: 8-9)
We must meditate on the Holy Spirit, let the Word of God (for His Word is Spirit and Truth, cf ) transform us from glory to glory (cf 2 Corinthians 3: 18), who reminds us and extends to us a growing revelation of our right standing in Christ.
Not by our own efforts, whether well-intentioned or guilt-induced, do we change for the better, but by the power of the Holy Spirit. We cannot rely on our own efforts to perfect the work of the indwelling Holy Spirit:
"Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the
flesh?
"Have ye suffered so
many things in vain? if it be yet in vain.
"He therefore that
ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he
it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?" (Galatians 3: 3-5)
I know that Governor Christie is a religious man. I now hope that he will choose to walk in the Spirit, thereby no longer satisfying the lusts of the flesh — including overeating or any other excess. (cf Galatians 5: 16). The more that he, and everyone else, medidates on the love that God has for us, the more we fall under the loving control of the Holy Spirit, who leads us to walk in accord with the will of God:
" [I pray] That Christ may
dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,
"May be able to
comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth,
and height;
"And to know the
love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the
fulness of God. " ( Ephesians 3: 17-19)
When we receive a greater awareness of God's love, we walk in the Spirit. Not through self-deprecation, not through condemnation, but through a growing knowledge of God's grace (2 Peter 3: 18) do we realize that we are more than overcomers (Romans 8: 37) and thus reign in life over all problems that afflict us (Romans 5:19)
Governor Christie is doing a great job in his state. Now he just needs to let Christ finish the work which God began in him (cf Philippians 1: 6). He alone can transform an already capable man into a healthy figure who honors the One who made him, loved him, and died for him to grant him life and that more abundantly.