I will be honest. I used to wonder how people could get up early in the morning to go jogging. I stared at people who ate salads without salad dressing in absolute awe. I was envious of the girls at the gym wearing the skimpy workout clothes on their perfect bodies. I could not help but ask myself why they had willpower to stick with a diet plan, and at the time, I did not. I was ashamed of the fact that I was too undisciplined to get up at 5:00 am every morning to workout. Instead, I preferred to sleep an extra hour or two or three. Those thoughts were almost always accompanied by feelings of shame, failure, and doubt that this time would be any different.
To this day, I still do not know the answer to the question. When I see a woman pushing her kid in a stroller as she runs, I do not know whether it is a normal thing for her to be at the track every day, or if she dragged herself out of bed kicking and screaming for the first time since giving birth. And neither do you! The person in the restaurant eating a vegetable plate may be doing so for the first time since falling back into their old, unhealthy eating habits six (6) weeks ago. Likewise, the girl in the skimpy workout clothes who looks like she is having the time of her life on the treadmill may be working out because she gained ten (10) pounds, and for the first time in her life she realizes she has to make some changes to her lifestyle to keep her weight under control. She is singing to the music not because she is having fun, but because she is trying to find a way to get through another workout session just like you.
You can speculate all day about what motivates another person to adopt and maintain a healthy lifestyle, but it is a fruitless exercise because you will never know the truth unless the other person tells you. Sometimes the truth of the matter is that the person has not adopted healthier habits at all. On the contrary, the individual whose body you are coveting may be at the gym to mask the fact that she binges and purges regularly, but to all the world she simply appears to be another workout junkie.
The person who is rapidly losing weight could have had gastric bypass surgery or suffer from an illness. Nevertheless, the enemy wants you to make unfair comparisons and dwell on those negative thoughts in order to belittle you in your own eyes. He wants you to measure yourself against everyone else and find yourself lacking. He wants you to covet someone else’s healthy and fit-looking body without knowing that person is just two (2) payments away from being unable to afford to have the lap band implanted on their stomachs tightened again to keep the weight off.
To this day, I do not love to work out, and I still do not fully understand the people who do. However, I do love my Lord! Consequently, I count it as a simple thing to show Him I love and worship Him by obeying His commands to eat and drink for His glory and maintain the temple of His Holy Spirit by exercising. My God is worthy of the sacrifice to eat right and exercise because of the price He paid for me on the Cross where He put to death gluttony and idolatry to heal me by His stripes and make me the new, healthy, and fit creature that I desired in my heart to be.
If you count Him worthy of those same sacrifices, you will discover that it is not your willpower that makes you choose to eat healthy foods and beverages. It is not self-discipline that causes you to rise early to walk in your neighborhood. On the contrary, when you surrender to His will in faith, love, and obedience, a strength exchange takes place whereby God’s strength is perfected in your weakness, ‘For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:1).If you want God to work in you to make you healthy and fit for life through Christ, purchase your copies of the Eating as an Act of Worship Workbook and the Eating as an Act of Worship Teacher’s Edition online today at Amazon or Barnes and Noble.com. In the books, you will learn the biblical principles regarding the body, dieting, exercising, and maintaining a healthy body for the glory of God. Read our weekly blog for motivation to stay healthy and fit through Christ. Follow us daily on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest for recipes, and diet and exercise tips. Tune in to our syndicated radio show on iTunes, Spotify the DFW Den Radio Station, the StudioW Buzz Radio Station, and Victory KVDW 100.9 FM, 95.3 FM, and 1530 AM in Little Rock, Arkansas for interviews and health and fitness trends. Lastly, make your tax-deductible donation to Eating as an Act of Worship Ministries at www.eatingasanactofworshipministries.org!
