It’s no secret, I love to work out, like seriously love it. I love waking up knowing I will be doing something to grow my body stronger and take care of the body God has gifted me with. I love that mid-workout feeling of challenging myself mentally and physically. I love that at 57, I still feel strong and have the energy to do the things I enjoy. I have been teaching fitness classes continuously for 36 years and I still look forward to each and every class.
As much as I love getting physically stronger, my even bigger passion is growing spiritually stronger so I can live more like Jesus lived. I know in order to live more like Him, I need to make digging deeper into my relationship with Him a priority. Because my faith has made such a huge difference in my own life, my life’s work is to help others know Him personally too. I believe when we are obedient in our faith, we can be faithful in living for Christ in all areas of our lives including reaching our health goals.
Some people may see fitness and faith as two separate areas of their life, but not for me. In my own journey, I have found my health is like a three legged stool; faith, fitness and food. If just one of these pillars is out of whack it affects my overall health. I firmly believe that the mind, body and soul connection is vital for living a healthy lifestyle. "Just as our spirits affect our bodies, so our physical bodies affect our spirits" (commentary on 1 Corinthians 6:12,13)
The Bible tells us to take care of the body God has given us. 1 Corinthians 6:19 reminds us that we are to honor God by the way we treat our bodies "Don't you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself." Romans 6:13 says it this way, "Use your whole body as a tool to do what is right for the glory of God." Isn't that powerful inspiration and motivation to strive for optimum health?!
Here at Faithful Workouts we are 110% committed to helping our community grow stronger physically but also stronger spiritually. In order to break from from an unhealthy lifestyle and the defeating lies of the enemy "I am not tall enough, skinny enough, pretty enough, fit enough, healthy enough, successful enough" you need God's strength and guidance.
One thing that REALLY breaks my heart is that so many people don't love themselves. When they look in a mirror they see their faults rather than their beauty. Often, the problem is that we know too much about ourselves. We not only know every sinful thing we've done, we also know the negative thoughts we battle with.
But here's the most freeing news - if you believe that Jesus died on the cross to forgive you for all the things you've done and will do, then you are perfect, blameless and without a single blemish in God's eyes.
Reaching any goal in life means, yes, we have to put in the hard work but when we are weighed down with thoughts of feeling 'less than' and 'not good enough' it can feel impossible to overcome. Pushing through struggles and hardships to accomplish our goals is even more difficult when we allow the enemy to defeat us. When you change your mindset about how much God loves and values you while standing firm in the truth that Jesus has already declared victory in your name, you change the course of your whole life.
If you struggle to love yourself my prayer is you will spend more time digging deep into God's word where you will find the truth about what He says about you and start to believe it and less time in other people's opinions. I don't think we can really love ourselves until we realize that the One who created us calls us His masterpiece!
My prayer is you will cherish yourself and as a result exercise because you love your body, not because you hate it and you will fuel your body with healthy food because you want to care for your beautiful body instead of "dieting" to get your body to look a certain way so that others will love you.
Please hear me....you are BEAUTIFUL and you are LOVED by a Savior who died to know YOU.
Your physical and spiritual health are more connected than you may think and that's why at Faithful Workouts we believe you need all three pillars of faith, fitness and food to achieve your goals. To keep faith at the center of your health and to reach your goals, I want to specifically challenge you to:
1. Meditate on these verses and keep them close so when you hear the lies creeping in you can call out the truth:
"See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are!" John 3:1
"For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin" Romans 6:6
"I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well" Psalm 139:14
2. Wake up every day committed to doing something physically good for your body. You may not always have time for a 30 minute workout and that’s okay. What’s not okay is saying “I don’t have time to workout” and surrendering into doing nothing. Do squats while you fold laundry, figure out how much time you do have whether it’s 5 minutes or 10 and fit in as many sets of jumping jacks and push ups as you can in the time you have (you’d be amazed at how much you can get your heart rate up with 5-10 minutes of powerful movements!), grab the spouse, kids, grandkids or neighbor and go for a quick bike ride.
3. Carve out time each day to spend with Jesus. Open your Bible and write out a few scriptures that really speak to you. Write down how they make you feel and spend time in prayer thanking God for His never-ending goodness and faithfulness.
4. Commit to fueling your body with real whole foods. God created the earth with the ability to provide an abundance of nourishing foods that have the power to heal our bodies and strengthen our immune systems. Be resolved to limit sugar and not to buy foods that hurt your body instead of care for it. The enemy wants to see you fail, he wants you to feel weak and beat yourself so limit the opportunities he has as much as possible.
5. Ask God to help you make positive changes in your life. You are not meant to do this alone. Seek God’s strength and wisdom. Remember, where God guides, He always provides!
You are never in this alone friend! God is always with you, you only need to diligently seek Him. Stay plugged into the Faithful Workouts community where you can find a supportive group of imperfect people all on the same journey and doing it TOGETHER.