Welcome to Part III of the Body Shame Game, the final blog in the series. In Part II, I discussed ways to pray in the Spirit in reference to body shame. I also talked about the body of the church and how it correlates with your own body. I pray this last blog truly does give you food for thought and that it heals a part of your soul.
A MIND BATTLE:
If you already workout, you may experience the same thoughts as me:
“I should love myself without this.”
“I should not have to do this everyday.”
“I am too busy for this.”
I have come to understand I cannot work out to lose weight. I must do it because it makes me more confident in God, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. I do it because it brings me closer with Him. Exercise gives me a clearer conscience and a better day with the Lord. The enemy tried to draw me away in the past by convincing me I “should” be comfortable in my skin and I should not try to lose weight until I understand that. I allowed the enemy to manipulate and askew that part of my life. I say no more. I need routine in my life and a rhythm with the Lord – we all do or we will miss the mark every day, it’s even scientifically proven. I began to think it was a chore when I forgot how much better it makes me feel. There is nothing wrong with that. If I am closer to the Lord and more alert because of exercise and eating right, then I absolutely should continue that, but the focus must be on Him, not myself. I encourage you to pray the prayer in my last blog for the focus would be rightly shifted on Him and exercise would become a place of Holy ground for you.
1 Corinthians 4:5 – “Therefore judge nothing until the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart. At that time each will receive their praise from God.”
FOOD FOR THOUGHT.
I struggle a lot with eating fast and then overeating because I eat too fast. I always beat myself up for this, but the Lord spoke to me last month while I was journaling:
“The Lord is ready for redemption as soon as you repent. It’s about turning to the Lord moment by moment, not just changing everything all at once. It’s the little moments of choosing God that turn to hours, days, and years of turning to God. If I didn’t choose Him in the little moments, I would not choose Him at all. I would then turn away when I didn’t choose Him. I have to learn to be okay with baby steps with the Lord. I have to be more patient. Just as I try to eat slower and less, I have to learn to take my spiritual food one bite at a time. It’s a mindset of ‘I don’t need more food but rather, I need to savor the food I already enjoy, because it’s good.’ What I have been given is enough. My mindset is often ‘I need more because its good,’ when really its about savoring the food that has already been offered to you, the food that is already yours. In the same way, I must learn small bites, to savor the moments with God, one moment at a time. What He has already given me is enough and it is already sufficient. Let me always remember that I am learning baby steps, I am learning repentance in the moment. I am learning to slow down and savor Him in the moment, I am learning to focus on the bowl of food in front of me rather than the future bowls ahead.”
The Lord has placed food in front of me that is enough to fill me. It is just enough, no more no less. I like to rush to get seconds because I like food, but what if I savored it instead because I like it? I would not be in a food coma afterward and I would be more trusting of God, having faith that He will always provide just what I need. In eating one bite of spiritual food (and real food) at a time, I am reminded I can savor each moment of my day with the Lord. I have no need to look to the future because what I have right now is enough, otherwise I will grow less and less understanding of how precious and enticing the spiritual food is. Everything I have right now is enough. If you struggle with overeating like me, this may be helpful to you and a good beginning for a soul search. When I overeat, I am filling a space that I am not allowing the Lord to fill and I am not satisfied with Him. The answer? To slow down and savor each moment He has, especially while eating. It is definitely taking me some practice.
CONCLUSION.
We only have one body, one body to love, and one personality to appreciate. When we can appreciate this within us, we will overflow and pour out to others. Christ will be the outward flow of this. If you feel you are overweight, not enough, or self conscious (whether personality or body), the Lord is allowing it to continue until you turn to Him. God made you at your weight, appearance, and personality for a reason. He has the power to change your weight and the way you look right now if He wanted to, but He may choose to wait. Why? This is a spiritual journey that must be handled with the utmost precision and care because this is a matter of the soul. God will take you through the journey and reveal Himself only in the perfect moments as you become equipped and hungry to take it to heart. If you want something to change, only HE can change it and not a moment to soon.
We give ourselves our own right, power, and control to change how we look, and we think it’s up to us. But God is an artist. If an artist creates something, nobody else can come in and change it, for they do not know the heart and mind of the artist. One could never get inside an artist’s head. Therefore, we abide by His law. If He created us, then we are under His law, His sculpting, His design. Therefore God is the one who sculpts our design. Who are you to deem God’s work as ugly, unclean, or unfit for His purposes of creating it? We must take a posture of humility and recognize we are enough to fulfill His purposes. We are strong enough, beautiful enough, and disciplined enough.
You are a part of creation, a part of Love’s grand design. Actually, Love Himself designed YOU. You were made to love the way you look because it is special and unique, unlike anybody around you. Our Father delights in variety, as an artist He will get bored with monotony. You are made by the same God that created the Aurora Borealis, the stars, the sharks, the puppies, the supermodels. The same God that created the world decided to create you. Because you are counted more beautiful and splendorous than the stars, because you are a Holy temple, a housing and dwelling place for the Lord, the enemy will attack you. He will attack you because you are so beautiful and fearfully made, because you have a light that blinds him and keeps him from destroying God’s work. Where you are, the Holy Spirit is and the enemy seeks to destroy that Kingdom and temple in which He dwells.
You don’t look at your sister or brother and think, “Wow, they need to get their life together. They have gained a little weight.” Nobody says that about you, either. So why do we say it to ourselves? We can no longer bind our love. We cannot withhold it from ourselves. God is more concerned about the matters of our heart, and our heart must be to love the Father, to humble ourselves before Him. In loving ourselves, we love the Father. Seek His guidance and ye shall find. Nobody expects you to look different than you already do, or who would you be? They did not meet you with an expectation at first glance, but they stumbled upon your friendship. They stumbled upon YOU. Not a different version of you, not a version they wish you were. But they purely stumbled upon you.
It is hard for us to enjoy good things in life. It is so much easier to be sad, downcast. I encourage you to take a chance and a risk. Have hope that God will take care of your body struggle when you ask Him, that He will answer your prayer and do the unthinkable. Remember He can change your body right at this moment if He wanted to. Be diligent in prayer and in hope, dear friends.
So there it is. I have nothing left but to be stripped bare, to be fully seen and brought into the light in my nakedness and fear. All I have is God, His word, and His impeccable timing:
2 Corinthians 4:10 – “We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.” Romans 8:18-21 – “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.”
