Have you gotten away from the good habits that once had you headed in the right direction towards your weight loss goal?
Do you feel defeated because you just can’t seem to stick with your weight loss strategy?
Do you feel tired of always fighting the fight but always losing the battle? Perhaps you dear brother and sister need to make an attitude adjustment in how you’re fighting the “battle of the bulge”.
So often many brothers and sisters that have a vibrant, healthy relationship with the Lord do not have the same vibrant, healthy relationships with themselves and there is a reason.
Those that suffer from this have not yet figured out that they have been fighting a spiritual fight in their desire to get healthier and lose weight.
If we remember that EVERYTHING that exists in the natural has a parallel in the spiritual world we can then fully realize that the battle that we face in our health issues is indeed a spiritual one that the devil and/or our flesh is constantly utilizing against us to make us feel defeated and worthless.
You’ve relied on God to defeat the devil and/or your flesh in every other area of your life knowing that even if you make mistakes or even intentionally miss the mark that God still loves you and that you can repent, ask for forgiveness and move forward as we “cast those cares” upon Him so that He can help us deal with them in a Godly way or as Jesus would have us deal with them….why should your weight loss or health goals be any different?
I will submit to you that it shouldn’t be because in essence when we worry and mull over and over about these things (just as in any other area that we deem “spiritual”) we are showing a lack of faith in God as if He is not able to help us lose the weight or reach or physical fitness goals.
So to encourage you dear brother or sister (I am greatly encouraged by this)
I ask you the question…have you truly turned your weight loss and/or health goals/issues over to the Lord?
I know that this question doesn’t sound much like an encouragement but unless you are a “babe in Christ” of just a few weeks you should by now know that any and everything that you come to fully trust the Lord to handled always bear fruit…hasn’t it?
The truth is that God has the answers and He has often placed them or people who have answers to help you in your struggles in your lives but you eschew His help by choosing to worry about why you cannot “lose the weight” or why you cannot seemingly make the right nutritional choices, or obtain the energy or time to exercise the temple that God has blessed you with (no matter how it looks right now!) and He has plainly told you in His word NOT to worry about “things” but to bring all of our “requests” to Him.
How do we make this change? I’m glad that you asked and God has shown me through the leading of His Holy Spirit and by trial and error as I over the years have figured out that I was making the choice to NOT listen to Him when He was trying to steer me into a better and more healthy lifestyle choices…so here we go!
First and foremost pray and ask God to lead you in this fight fully realizing that many of the same things that He has placed before you in the past that you just did not “feel like doing” will be placed before you again but this time as you pray and allow yourself to be led by His Spirit and just as you already seem to do in all things “spiritual” you will learn to realize and say to yourself over and over as many times as you have to (this is meditating BTW) that “no weapon formed against me shall prosper” and “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me”.
Realize that just as it is any situation where you are trying to follow God that the enemy and your flesh will wake up and realize what you are doing so be ready for the attack (it is an attack)
The devil doesn’t want you to be healthy so you won’t help save as many souls so now that you know that this “attack” (be it the enemy or our flesh) is going to more than likely occur you can be prepared to take it on “head on” with the “Helmet of Salvation and the full armor of God which is always your perfect defense/offense. (Note: your flesh is just as insidious as the enemy and just wants to stay comfortable and live the way it wants instead of how the Lord wants it but YOU RULE THE FLESH BY THE POWER OF JESUS’ BLOOD so it has to yield to you if you desire it…it does take prayer, time, and practice so get to it).
Next…stop being so hard on yourself!
Remember that just as you have “grown” from glory to glory in other spiritual areas so shall you “shrink” from glory to glory as you lose the weight or so shall you prosper with increased health from glory to glory as you learn to kill the flesh and the devil from moment to moment in this journey as you grow in your trust in God in these problem areas that besets so many brothers and sisters in the faith.
It’s a journey and is part of our walk with God and we have to remember that the journey will be filled with peaks and valleys yet the Lord is always with us and if we don’t give up we can reach our goals and have a deeper more meaningful relationship with the Lord as well.
Next…be honest with yourself and ask God to show you the root cause of the unhealthy behaviors that you have had that caused you to get to where you are and be ready to understand that these “roots’ could be “heavy” so be prepared to seek counseling from trusted leaders such as your pastor, elders, or other trusted people who God steers you toward to help you deal with some of the issues that are causing you to want to slowly kill yourself (yep…I said it and it is the truth because the devil desires it).
Lastly, start fresh today and if you “mess up”, miss the mark, or any other superlatives that we use in church today realize that God’s “mercies are new each day” so begin again yet also remember as I said earlier to be honest with yourself and ensure that you are not using God’s grace as an excuse to be lazy as many of us in the faith tend to do when confronted in areas of “sin” to justify their un-Godly behavior.
God will lovingly transition you away from this line of thinking so be encouraged and not afraid (NOTE: I wasn’t even thinking of this as I was preparing to move to the next paragraph and He impressed upon me to put it in there because He knows how many say that they know that He loves them but in their hearts struggle to fully receive it…I LOVE HIM!)
Drink plenty of water, get plenty of rest, find exercises that YOU WILL STICK WITH FOR A LIFETIME, stop justifying and giving into bad food choices, be balanced and have a day (once a week) as I do that you can eat anything that you want but resolve to only do so on that day, and start loving and seeing yourself as God does…He sees you as BEAUTIFUL, LOVELY, STRONG, and DESTINED!!!!
He loves you today? He had me His servant write this letter to you to show you that He will fight for you but you also have to put the work in and fight for yourself but the encouraging part is that He has already won the battle for you!
You bring a smile to His eternal face and He in His timeless sight can see the YOU that YOU desire YOU to be but now YOU have to choose to look and then move in the same direction that the YOU He sees is in with concert with Him and YOU’ll enjoy the journey as YOU always do when YOU choose to walk with Him.
Let’s pray!
Father we thank you for your word today and most of all we thank you for the gift that you gave us when you gave your beautiful Son, our Savior Jesus Christ as a ransom sacrifice to die a horrible, gruesome yet necessary death on a tree at Calvary.
Lord, we your people call on you today to help us in our struggles with issues of weight loss, healthier eating, dietary restrictions, and any/all health issues just as we would do any other area of our lives for we realize that these are just other areas of our heart that you desire for us to allow you to take over and be Lord of in all things.
We your children ask you to strengthen us and prepare our hearts to be willing to make the hard choices and listen to your voice as we are led by your Holy Spirit as we travel this oftentimes “tough” road towards repairing the temple that we have so often abused either intentionally or unintentionally.
We repent and ask for forgiveness for abusing said temple and thank you that as we have now done this that you in your magnificent mercy and unmerited grace will now, that we have chosen to allow you to, lead us into better physical health as we learn through you to take ownership of our bodies as you have told us we are to do in the Holy texts.
We thank you in advance for the results and may our new-found trust in you in these areas of our lives bring you more and more glory and may your Name be magnified and lifted up as we “shine” your light through us in our healthier lifestyle with the prayer also that you guard our hearts against pride which will cause us to fall as our bodies become more fit.
We honor you, we praise you, we worship you, and we love you sweet Jesus and it is in your Holy Name we pray,
Amen,
By the hand of your servant and in concert with the brothers and sisters in your beautiful family,
Ron “Big Black” Garrett
Ron "Big Black" Garrett 