The 3 H’s of Faith and Fitness

fitness Nov 03, 2020

The 3 H’s of Faith and Fitness

(Press play above to listen to this episode, or enjoy reading below.)

As Christians, we don’t hear a lot about fitness, dieting, or body image struggles in the Church, so if you’ve ever wondered:

Is it okay to want to be fit?
Is it okay to ask God to help me lose weight?
Is it okay to have body confidence?

Today’s episode will clear up any confusion!

Before I even dive in though, I have to say, thank you!

I was reading the iTunes reviews for the Strong. Confident. His. Podcast and ahem...lump in my throat! I was totally overcome with tears of gratitude.

And, because of you the podcast is reaching more of our sisters in Christ! Thank you for sharing it and telling your friends, because without you this would not be. Do you know that it has a 92% subscription rate? WOW!

Let me just share what Lynn Archie wrote:

5 Stars!

Love your podcast!

Kim, I have been listening everyday since I heard you at the Truth Becomes Her Own Your Influence Conference. I am so glad I found it, it is so encouraging, empowering, and relaxing from me. Each time I hop in my car, I pop your podcast on and it immediately relaxes and encourages me. Keep empowering women to be healthy and leading others to Him. love, love, love, my friend!

Lynn, if you’re listening sweet friend. You have no idea how encouraging your words are to me, Thank you so much, and God bless you!

If you haven’t had a chance to rate or review the podcast, will you? It’s really helping it reach more of our sisters, thank you in advance! You can do that, here.

I think there’s a lot of confusion about fitness being vain and whether or not you should want to be fit, so I thought it was important to talk openly and honestly about it.

Today, I pray God gives me the words to help end this.

I’ve kept the names anonymous but here are a couple of the messages I receive, so you can get the idea.

"Kim, I have a question about food. So I always have this thought in the back of my mind that focusing so hard on eating healthy and exercising is selfish, because we are focusing on ourselves and not Jesus and how we eat and exercise is often motivated by vanity. So how do I reconcile this with the truth that eating healthy and exercising is what God wants for us even when we struggle and find it hard to do so."

And here’s another one:

"Kim, I have asked the women’s ministry leader and some of the women at my church about starting a small fitness group, but they said that fitness is vain. I’m confused. Please help!"

This absolutely breaks my heart! I can just feel the hurt and confusion in these messages.

When I prayed about this episode, I thought of the song, "Giants Fall" by Francesca Battistelli.

If you haven't heard it, here's a part of it:

Don't you be afraid

Of giants in your way

With God you know that anything's possible

So step into the fight

He's right there by your side

The stones inside your hand might be too small

But watch the giants fall

Ask and believe

You're gonna see

The hand of God in every little thing

God wants to be involved in EVERY aspect of our lives – including our fitness!

The 3 H’s of Faith and Fitness ...Honoring God in Your Body

Honoring God in your body (His temple) is the answer to the confusion of is fitness vain? And, we’re all at a different place on the spectrum, so let’s break this apart and look at 3 different categories.

Heart Issue

As Christian women we know that we were born with a sin nature, so we need to honestly check the motivation of our hearts.

Examining our hearts and honestly presenting our case before the Lord is the answer.

We don’t need to ride the crazy emotional chaos train of losing and then gaining, and the emotional highs of feeling like we look good and lows of feeling like we look bad – anymore.

That’s the world's way.

What’s the motivation of your heart to be fit, friend?

God wants us to live with humility.

I think we often get the meaning of humility confused - thinking it’s bad, but it’s such a great quality.

Webster's defines it as: : freedom from pride or arrogance but it’s so much more...

Proverbs 3:5 is an excellent summation of the biblical meaning of humility.

To be humble, we must have faith that God will lead us in the best way to live and what to avoid in temptation. We are to put complete trust in the Lord and not deceive ourselves with vanity or lust. We should lean on the understanding, wisdom, and divinity of God to show us the righteous path through prayer, meditation, fasting and other faithful practices.

Humility opens our hearts and keeps us from the arrogance of our ego.

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

– Philippians 2:3

If the motivation of our hearts is like this, our fitness goals are for His glory!

Health Issue

God’s word says He desires health for us,

3 John 2 says,

“Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, as it goes well with your soul.”

Love this, fit from the inside out...

Did you know, I’ve been flat out told no one wants this message… OUCH! Right?

I believe one of the main reasons fitness isn’t more prevalent in the Church is that it’s so convicting.

Let me give you an example: I was told no one wants to hear the message I share because... people don't want to be held accountable for what they eat and how they take care of our bodies… YEP! You heard me right!

Can you picture my jaw falling on the floor when I was told this!

You can’t tell me God wants us to pray over the donuts and then judge those of us who workout to have the mental health and energy we need to show up at our best for God, to work, and take care of families.

Some may say it’s vain to want to be fit, but the truth is gluttony is a sin no one wants to confront.

Have you heard this scripture...

Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things. – Philippians 3:19

When I researched what this meant it said, Whose God is their belly, this is what I found: "They serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly.”

Their appetites are the god of their lives.

This makes my heart cry out to God to bring health and fitness into the Church!

God made our bodies, He made the food for our bodies to eat. His foods are naturally self-regulating. You would never eat five sweet potatoes but a serving of fries sure goes down easily.

I want to make sure though that you don’t think I’m saying you’re just supposed to eat perfectly all the time...

What I am saying is that eating foods as close to the way God made them most of the time will enable us to be much healthier and it takes the cravings away for the things that rob us of our health.

Also, think about how good you feel when you workout, walk, or move in a way that gets your heart rate up, fitness is more than a look it’s a lifestyle that makes you feel alive and rejuvenated!

We need our health to carry out His call!

I wrote a quote that says, Jesus, help make my fitness goals more about serving you and less about what I look like.

I believe this is our lasting answer to honoring God with our health.

Happiness Issue

I’m coaching four women right now who believe, they can’t be happy unless they:

Weigh a certain number on the scale
Fit into a size of clothing
Achieve a certain body type

Happiness in fitness is another place of confusion.

When I say happy, friend, I don’t mean a temporary feeling. I mean putting your hope in the Lord, that you pray with faith filled expectation, that you have peace knowing that whatever is going on in your life, God is working all things for your good.

When you google what God say about happiness, this is what you’ ll find:

Psalm 37:4 says,

Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.

So the question is this, are you delighting yourself in the Lord?

Listen to this biblical definition of delight:

Taking delight in the Lord means that our hearts truly find peace and fulfillment in Him. This world can never satisfy our deepest longings, but if we choose to delight in God's way, He will always provide above and beyond our expectations.

Fitness can be a major happy thief, but God doesn’t want your happiness stolen away by worldly ideals of happiness.

In my book, 10 Steps to Your Faith Inspired Transformation, F.I.T. I teach about uncovering your happy thief.

When you know what it is, you can pray scriptures over it.

There’s no happiness living for a number on the scale, thinking you can only be happy if you’re a certain size or measurements, or waking up in the middle of the night beating yourself up for what you ate that day!

And here’s the deal: none of this leads to health and it is affecting your emotions, and robbing you of your joy.

Proverbs 17:22 says,

A joyful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit dries up the bones.

Can you see how the internal stress of achieving a fitness goal can actually be ruining your health and happiness, this is not of God friend.

Okay to sum this up, We need to delight ourselves in the Lord to be truly happy, and He’s got to be first in everything in our lives including fitness!

I really hope you remember this...

Being fit to serve God and carry out His plan for your life is not vain. He knows your heart, sweet friend!

Prayer

Dear God,

For those of us who love you and are trying to get healthier, or know how being fit has changed our lives, we don't want to be counted as vain. Please help us bring truth to those who are confused in this area.

Fitness is filled with lost and hurting people, and we can reach them for You!

Your Word is our final authority, so we aim to represent you to the very best of our abilities. We want a lost and hurting sister to see you in us.

God help us pursue our fitness in a manner that glorifies you.

We need a healthy, happy, humble, heart to accomplish this, so guide us when we veer off track, and give us strength to honor you in our mind, body, and soul.

In Jesus name, amen.

Faith Fuel

The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the spirit is life and peace. – Romans 8:6

You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You, Because he trusts in You. – Isaiah 26:3

Now you know I”m never going to leave you without asking you to get into action, because nothing happened without it!

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