Yesterday I posted about how God has been convicting me of not Loving HIM with my
BODY. I said that “I didn’t feel like I was loving God with all that I am because I was not healthy.” I didn’t feel like my Health was allowing me to bring MAXIMUM honor and glory to God. I felt like my health was holding me back from giving God my best. At the Doctors office I was listed as being one of the many Americans dealing with Obesity.
So, it seems I have upset some of my readers with yesterdays post, which was a simple explanation of why I was hitting up the gym. I was explaining that I was not just going to the gym for me, but I was doing it, because I felt by being healthier I could be more affective for God’s Glory. HERE is the Passage that shapes my thinking on loving God with YOUR All to the best of your abililty.
Deut. 6:5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.
Other Passages that repeat this thought. Joshua 22:5, Matthew 22:37, Mark 12:30
I think loving GOD with ALL that we are means everything. I love Crosswalk.com because it has a lot of free Bible Study tools all in 1 place. I would like to link you to the words HEART, SOUL, and MIGHT and how the strong’s numbers define these words.
Matthew Henrys Commentary says this:
My son, give me thine heart. We are to love God with all our heart, and soul, and might. That is, 1. With a sincere love; not in word and tongue only, but inwardly in truth. 2. With a strong love. He that is our All, must have our all, and none but he. 3. With a superlative love; we must love God above any creature whatever, and love nothing but what we love for him. 4. With an intelligent love. To love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, we must see good cause to love him. 5. With an entire love; he is ONE, our hearts must be united in his love. Oh that this love of God may be shed abroad in our hearts!
AND for me that means I have some areas that I need to improve. This year I want try and love Him more with my MIND (READING 2 BOOKS PER MONTH) and with my BODY. (HITTING THE GYM).
To much of anything takes the focus off of loving HIM. So yes, I believe you could love food, sleep, work, the gym, your wife, money, church and so many other things to the point that it is affecting how MUCH GLORY you are bringing GOD.
I believe that a person who is overweight or not sleeping enough (and I could list so much more) is still able to GLORIFY GOD, but are you bringing HIM MAXIMUM GLORY? I did not feel I was bringing HIM MAXIMUM GLORY by being out of shape like I was. If you can sleep 5 hours and still offer God your best, then GREAT. If you can be overweight and honestly say “I give God the best that I am able to everyday” then GREAT.
I believe I was convicted by the HOLY SPIRIT to get in shape for God. Maybe you have not been convicted-fine, but if the Spirit of God speaks to your heart about losing weight, getting more sleep, or anything else that WILL BRING GOD MAXIMUM GLORY I suggest you obey.
One more note: verse 7 says
7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.
I believe Giving God your ALL is a LIFESTYLE. Giving God your all is a form of Worship. When you talk, sit, walk, lie down, rise, (eat, work, hit the gym) do it all for The GLORY OF GOD.
I love Lincoln Brewsters song “Love the Lord With All”
Filed under: God's Glory, Think Deep, Youtube | Tagged: Bible study, crosswalk, Deut 6, Giving God your best, God's Glory, Gym, heart, Lincoln Brewster, Love God, Matthew Henry, Mind, Obesity, soul, Strength, Strongs numbers
Hum…gonna have to disagree with you a bit. If being overweight hinders someone glorifying God…then does the color of your skin? The color of your hair? No one can say they are perfect-completely glorifying God in ALL they do, say, or ARE. Striving to do that is all one can do. But bringing attention to how much weight you’ve lost, or how big your arms are…takes all the attention away from your main point…glorifying God! I agree with your scripture references to make your point…just not sure proclaiming it the way you are is right. Not saying I’m right too, though. This is a blog-expressing opinion is what I’m doing. Not upset…just asking questions to help me understand and to clarify your point!
I agree… I love discussion. It made me think a lot this morning. I am “striving to do all that I can to Glorify God” and I feel that my weight and health are things that I have control over. I am a young youth pastor, newly married and in the past 2 years I added 15-20lbs. I believe this has affected my ministry effectiveness. My energy level was not as high. Students were joking around with me about my added weight gain and now in the last few weeks as my muscles have been firming up (they have been making comments that they’ve noticed) I wanted them to know I was not losing weight for them, but for God. I have also been joking around with them and want to stress to them that I am making this “change” because I’m desiring and committed to loving God with my body, not just my heart and mind.
Chubby Christian,
Save for a minority of people whose weight issues are genetic, being overweight is not even in the same ballpark as the color of one’s hair or skin.
The latter are genetic and predetermined, while the former in most cases is not genetic, but a result of poor eating habits or lack of discipline. Again, there are those whose weight is the result of genetics, but I dare say the numbers are far smaller than we like to tell ourselves. In most cases the genetic excuse is just that…an excuse. If it weren’t then every nation in the world would have equal amounts of genetically overweight people and that is not the case.
WOW! When I asked that simple question for clarification from Jeremy (playing the devil’s advocate-because I know Jeremy-and know his heart for the Lord and what he meant, and I was trying to get a discussion started) did I ever get a discussion! I am saddened and a little shocked at some of the responses. (NOT Jeremy’s). Knowing he’s a youth pastor and knowing that body image, self esteem, is a MAJOR issue for our youth…I was hoping the conversation would head toward showing a teen that God loves you and accepts you NO MATTER what you look like! That if HE loves you-you also can love yourself JUST THE WAY YOU ARE. Again, playing the devil’s advocate-I worded my questions the way maybe a lost teen, or a struggling teen would ask them-or even a CHRISTIAN teen would ask! I know full well that one’s skin color and hair color are genetic! However-a teen looking at weight would throw that in. Because aren’t we telling them (I’ver heard it from the pulpit) “Come in! You are accepted as you are! Long hair, short hair, blue hair, piercings, etc.” And the broad generalizations made by 2 of the posts…wow! If I were a teen struggling…I’d be like-”Ok! now I know that when he looks at me, though he does not know me-he has already determined in his mind that I don’t care about my weight, that I shove twinkies in my mouth, and that I’m not disciplined! I’m an adult and that’s how I took that statement! WOW! Not the way I was hoping our teens would view and get an understand of body image and acceptance! Though-I’m happy to say that I believe…no, I KNOW God loves me just the way I am! And I hope the teens who I see every Wednesday at youth group how may question this-can one day KNOW it too! Keep striving to glorify God-in all you do. Do your best-that’s all God asks. Well-I have to get going now…I have 20 twinkies waiting for me!!!
YYYUUUMMMM!!!!!!!!!!
looking at this post and its responses, i must say that i dont think the body image and self esteem of teens was the purpose or focus of what was initially being posted. do i agree that those are important issues? yes, definitely! do i believe that teens (or anyone) should be accepted into the church without judgment? yes. but i don’t think that was the issue being discussed here. i think the main purpose of this post was clear. jeremy is trying to lose weight because he felt like he wasn’t honoring god and giving god HIS personal best. was he saying everyone needed to do this? no. he was saying this is how HE was being convicted and wanted to make this change in his life- not that everyone needs to. jeremy wasn’t making a generalization about overweight people, he was sharing a personal struggle, and how he’s trying to overcome it. also, i don’t think weight is the main issue here- i think it is about one’s overall health. anyway, this has been interesting!
CC,
You changed the parameters of the discussion. The original post and subsequent discussion was about “glorifying God”, not being “loved by God”.
I made no “broad generalizations” save to suggest that the numbers of people who believe their weight to be genetically caused are far less than we believe. I struggle with my weight also. Always have, always will. But, to chalk my weight problems up to genetics or heredity would make it easy for me to justify myself and my weight gain.
The twinkie illustration was just that…an illustration. Perhaps my hyperbolic method of illustrating a point is where the hang-up is. So, I’ll change it. If I am overweight, yet refuse to take a look at my own eating habits and my own behaviors and seek to change the way God desires us all to change in every area of our lives, then I am not bringing glory to God in that area.
Please note again that I did not say God does not love me or accept me. There is a distinct difference between glorifying God and Him loving me. He loves me and accepts me, but also wants me to change.
Blessings,
B
I want to make one addition. Glorifying something means showing it to be valuable. Glorifying God means we show Him to be supremely valuable.
We are all valuable to God and He, in a sense, “glorified” us (i.e. He showed us our value) by sending His Son. We show God to be valuable to us when we bring everything into submission to Him. Our thoughts, our words, our eating habits…everything.
1 Timothy 4:16 says to “watch our life and doctrine closely…”. When I make a commitment to be healthy, to eat healthy and to take care of my body, I am showing God to be valuable in THAT ONE AREA and I am watching my life IN THAT ONE area closely. Not doing so does not presuppose that I am not showing God to be valuable in other areas, it simply means I have some more growing to do (and I always have more growing to do).
As youth pastors we need to teach our teens that they are:
a) Valuable to God without condition
b) Loved by God without condition
But, we fall short of our responsibilities if we do not then teach our teens that they were designed to show God’s supreme value in all areas of their lives.
THANK YOU Brian! You hit the nail right on the head with the way I was HOPING this discussion would go when I originally asked my question! I SO appreciate what you wrote in this post. (so much more than the twinkie comment!
) As I explained before-I wrote a simple question to spark a discussion. Did I know the answer to that question? YES-of course I do-and I know Jeremy-so I knew what he was saying. But does everyone reading this post know? That was my orginial intention. To write questions or comments that intentionally sparked a conversation. I did NOT make a personal attack on Jeremy-though it seems my comments were taken that way. And I’m sorry for that. That was not what I meant.
I love your point that if you are not showing God glorified in one area, does not mean you aren’t in another-but that you are growing. THAT’S what my fear was when I orginally read and asked the question-that others readying may think: that because one falls short in one area-is he/she viewed or JUDGED as not glorifying God by someone who IS better in that area.
Thank you for your thoughts, Brian!
Jeremy-I was thinking that your blog was getting a little slow-:) so I thought I’d spark it up a little with some comments. I did not mean to bash you and was not personally attacking you. If it came across that way-I apologize. As Tashawna said-weight is a sensitive issue and I saw something that interests me-so I commented.
God Bless you all-
In Christ,
CC
The same can be said with regard to holiness. We admonish our students to be holy, but many times the way we do it leaves them feeling as if they will never “be holy”. I think it is a tragedy when we communicate a standard that is indeed unreachable, i.e. complete holiness in all areas of our lives. We create OCD Christians who, instead of living in the freedom and grace God provides, obsess about not measuring up in all areas of their lives when the truth is, they will never measure up in all areas.
The truth is, if a teen is screwed up in every area of their lives, but chooses to say no to sex until they are married, then they ARE holy in that area. If they are overweight, but spend daily time with the Lord and speak openly about Him with their friends then they are holy in those areas.
While God does not want us to be content with holiness in just one area, the fact remains that those areas in which we do “get it right” are holy (i.e. set apart).
The mark of a Christian is not sinlessness, but the fight of faith that shows itself in imperfect love. – John Piper
Do you not know, that you body is a temple of The Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have recieved from God? Therefore honor God with your body.
1 Cor. 6:19
Stumbled over your blog in my own quest for a healthier body temple and thought I would leave a piece of the Living Word.
SAV from Denmark.
“i beleive that if being over weight brings you down or makes you sad then yes i beleive it’s time to lose weight if it keeps you from giving god all your might then yes lose the weight. god dos’nt want to see us sad or worring about how we look but dont let food be your god if you spend more time eating than you do talking to god than food has become your idol and your god! i to am over weight and i feel god wanting me to let that go! anything you spend more time doing than you do giving your time to god then how much do you really love him! i know people that spend 20 minutes trying to hang up with someone there dating after spending 3 hours on the phone and dont even give god 5 minutes but they clame to be christians and say they know god but the day will come when god might say i never knew you!!!… many people claim they beileive in him but they do’nt fear him!….i’m not going to apologize for being blunt or sugar coating this message but this is the truth!…god loves us that jesus would rather die than be without us and he did and rose again so we can be with him forever! but we must turn from our ways and live and breath for him true god fearing people are the salt of the earth we are supposed to taste different than the rest but if the salt loses it’s flavor then we are of no use and to all non beleivers we are no different than they are! but they god is about salvation and if shall cause somebody to stumble shame on us but the good news is god forgives agian and again forever but let us not practice sin or doing wrong remember god said love the lord god with all your strenght with all your heart with all your soul and with all your mind,and love your neighbor as yourself do unto others as you would want done unto you!..return to your first love….god…he loved you first before your mom or your dad or your wife. he love you more than you can amagine!