Glorifying God Through Fitness And Exercise
Enjoy this information and inspiration for good Christian health and wellness. Sustaining good health is an area where many individuals struggle. As a Christian, you should strive to exercise and eat right to be healthy enough to serve your purpose on a daily a basis. Job 33:4 (NKJV) says, The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life. Each day God breathes air into your nostrils. Each day is an opportunity to glorify God; therefore, there is no such thing as an unimportant day! For this reason you should honor the gift of life God has given you by taking good care of yourself and maintaining good health.
“Take care of your body. It’s the only place you have to live.“—Jim Rohn
The Bible makes it clear that you are to take good care of your body. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (NKJV) Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s. When you became a Christian, you opened your heart and invited God to come in and dwell with you. God, in the person of the Holy Spirit, makes His home in you, a believer in Jesus Christ. If you invited friends or family to come to your home for a day, you would clean it up very well so that it was looking very good and presentable. Well, as a Christian, God not only lives in your heart permanently, but He owns your body! He made the plan to pay your sin debt. He not only wants you to have a healthy body, but He expects you to use your body to serve Him and do good works. Make an investment to maintain what you inherited through the blood of Jesus.
“Self-care is about giving the world the best of you, not what’s left of you.”—Marissa Palmer, Health Coach.
In Mark 12:31, Jesus tells you to love your neighbor as you love yourself. Jesus is clearly telling you there is nothing wrong with loving yourself. However, you should NOT be IN LOVE with yourself. You shouldn’t love yourself in a vain or narcissistic way. On the flip side, you should not have low self-esteem. You should love yourself because of the worth and value God sees in you. As a sinner, you deserved hell, but God found you worthy enough to send His Son to the cross for you. Jesus paid a tremendous price so you could have eternal life. You cannot give away what you don’t have. If you don’t have joy, you can’t give joy. If you don’t have peace, you can’t give peace. If you don’t have love for yourself, you can’t keep the second greatest commandment because you can’t give love to your neighbor. If you have love for yourself, you should want to have good health. If you don’t take care of yourself, you can’t take care of anybody else. Ephesians 2:8-10 (NKJV) says For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. If you are not taking care of others, you will not be serving others and doing good works and thus, you will be outside of the will of God for your life. Ephesians 5:29 (NIV) tells us, After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church. You have to take the time to look out for yourself and your own well-being. You have to respect and value yourself just as God treasures you. He is CRAZY ABOUT YOU! He only desires the BEST for you. 1 Corinthians 2:9 (NIV) says, No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him. Honor God in the present with wholesome daily living.
Here are some very basic and simple suggestions. First of all, DIETS DON’T WORK!!!! Once you get off your diet, you will gain back all of your weight quicker than you lost it. When you see the word ‘diet’, consider it an ugly four-letter word as far as good health is concerned. It is all about a lifestyle change. You want to eat healthy foods with good nutritional value. You should leave room to ‘reward’ yourself with other (junk) foods in moderation. The reward comes AFTER you exercise and/or do some kind of physical activity (even if it is just taking a walk). You should have a minimum of 3 30-40 minute cardiovascular workouts per week. There is one very important thing about good health and/or weight loss. You should exercise or do some physical activity to help burn more calories than you take in. Everybody knows this is true. DOING IT is the hard part!
For those of you reading this that are overweight, don’t be in a rush. I once weighed 289 pounds. Now I’m down to 225. I went jogging everyday and told myself, ‘you are worth it!’ and ‘Take it by the yard, it’s hard. Take it by the inch, it’s a cinch!’. My goal was to lose only one pound a week. I know, it doesn’t sound like much, but after one year, 52 weeks, I had lost 52 pounds. YOU CAN DO THE SAME!!! Do it one step at a time. It takes 21 days to form a habit. After 21 days your body will be used to it. The average new fitness club member goes 6 times and never returns. Not only do they quit, but they do not cancel their memberships so they waste their money continuing to paying dues for a gym membership they are not even using. Diligence, consistency, perseverance, and patience are the keys to victorious healthy living.
You have to call on the help of the Holy Spirit to help maintain a lifestyle of good Christian health. You have to do your part and God will do His part. In Luke 18:27 (NIV) Jesus said, What is impossible with men is possible with God. You have to understand that what Jesus is essentially saying is what is POSSIBLE for man, you must do and what is impossible for man, God will do. You take care of what you can do and God will take of those things impossible for you. But, GOD WILL NOT DO IT ALL FOR YOU!!!! If you don’t do what’s possible, God won’t do what’s impossible. You will block your own blessing if you aren’t doing your part. You have to make a conscious decision to make the necessary changes to live the way God always intended you to live.
“Discipline is remembering what you want most. Not what you want now.”—Billy Blanks
CONCLUSION
As a Christian, to live the victory, you have to be in good health in order to have the energy to do God’s work. We all have different kinds of bodies and appearances. God made us all unique. Do not let your appearance be the result of laziness or gluttony. God frowns at mediocrity. Romans 12:11 (NLT) says, Never be lazy in your work, but serve the Lord enthusiastically. Keep yourself strong and healthy to enable you to do the things that bring glory to God. Caleb was an example of a man living a life focused on God and His glory. Joshua 14:10-14 (NIV) says, Now then, Just as the LORD promised, He has kept me alive for forty-five years since the time He said this to Moses, while Israel moved about in the desert. So here I am today, eighty-five years old! I am still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out; I’m just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then. Now give me this hill country that the LORD promised me that day. You yourself heard then that the Anakites were there and their cities were large and fortified, but the LORD helping me, I will drive them out just as He said. Then Joshua blessed Caleb son of Jephunneh and gave him Hebron as his inheritance. So Hebron has belonged to Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite ever since, because he followed the LORD, the God of Israel, wholeheartedly. Not only was Caleb still healthy and strong at the age of 85 years young, but he was still looking for ways to serve God with unwavering faith. We should all strive to do the same! I will close with my prayer for you from the Word of God: 3 John 1:2 (NIV) tells us, Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you.
Be blessed and healthy my brothers and sisters!
Go Live The Victory!
