And if Our God Is for Us

There are times when I hear a certain song or read a certain verse and I just know I'm meant to hear or read it at that particular time. Yesterday, for example, I was listening to Pandora while getting ready for church, and one of my all-time favorite worship songs came on: "Our God Is Greater" by Chris Tomlin. Wouldn't you know that when I got to church yesterday morning, that was one of the songs we sang? I had the joy of hearing (and singing) it twice yesterday, which is always a sign to me that I needed to hear and sing it.

I particularly like the words in the bridge of the song:

And if our God is for us, then who could ever stop us?
And if our God is with us, then what can stand against?


I think these words speak to me because sometimes I need to be reminded that I'm not fighting all alone. That God has my back. That I've got the power of the Holy Spirit residing in me, giving me strength to stand firm against temptation, to make the right decisions, to deny myself, to go against the grain. As I mentioned in my previous blog posts, making healthy choices (and sticking to them) has been a pretty big struggle lately. 


Fast forward to tonight. I was on my blog and happened to check out my site meter. (Something, I might add, that I rarely do.) I like to see where my blog visitors are from, so when I noticed that one visitor was from Nashville (where I went to college and one of my favorite cities in the world), I decided to click on the URL that showed which page they visited and how they got there. Turns out they had Googled a particular passage of Scripture which I had posted on my blog way back in March 2005. 


(Wanna take a guess as to what the passage was? Oh, this is good!)


"If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since God did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won't God, who gave us Christ, also give us everything else?" Romans 8:31b-32


When I read this tonight, I just laughed. If I'd had any doubt before today that God was speaking to me through these words, then seeing this tonight erased it altogether. How sweet to know that God is making especially sure that I remember that He is on my side, and that nothing can stand against us and His plans for me!

Don't Give Up

This has not been a stellar week for me, food and exercise-wise. Far from it, in fact. Most days I've eaten well all day up until after dinner, when I sabotage my healthy eating with an overdose of sweets. And this morning I did not get up and run as I'd planned to do but went back to sleep instead. I feel like a big, gluttonous, lazy failure.

So I'm grateful that God put this verse on my heart this morning:

"Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." (Galatians 6:9)

I think it's a verse I need to meditate upon for a while. I've always thought of it in the context of doing good things for others and for God, but today I'm realizing that it's also in doing good for myself (i.e., my health). If every time I worked out or ate healthy food I saw immediate results then of course I'd be motivated to continue. Sadly, results like that aren't usually immediately seen, so I have to keep on keeping on in faith that there will be good results if I don't give up.

Journeying to Fitness

Over the past few months I've found myself thinking a lot about my health and physical fitness, and how they relate to my spiritual condition. There is one passage in particular that God has placed on my heart that often springs to mind (and in fact was read at church this morning):


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, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body. (I Cor. 6:19-20)


I've exercised a lot over the past few years and have tried to be careful about what I eat, but for so long my primary motivation was vanity, with good health and more energy close behind. Those are good motivating factors, but I no longer think they're the most important reasons for me to exercise and eat well.


It's only recently that I've come to see taking care of my physical self as an important part of my spiritual life, and to view healthy living as a commandment. It's definitely a new way of viewing health and fitness, and a sobering one at that. I'd be lying if I said it's not a struggle--really, a daily one. After nearly a year of fitness boot camp, there are still plenty of days where I really don't want to get out of bed before dawn to go to it. I still give in to temptations to eat unhealthy food; just this weekend I couldn't resist the Cadbury Mini Eggs (my favorite Easter candy) on post-Easter clearance (even more of a temptation!). Some days I feel really strong, physically as well as when it comes to resisting temptation and eating well, and other days I feel like a big failure when it comes to honoring God with my body.


There are a few resources that I've found particularly helpful as I journey to physical (and spiritual) fitness:

• Books: Every Body Matters by Gary Thomas (which I wrote a blog post about a while back) and Made to Crave by Lysa TerKeurst. Both books have been especially helpful in getting me to realize the relationship between our physical fitness and spiritual fitness.

• Blog: Peak 313 Fitness (http://peak313.com/)--Written by a Christian woman who provides great practical fitness advice as well as spiritual encouragement.

• Blog: 100 Days of Real Food (http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/)--This family challenged themselves to 100 days of cutting out processed food. Two years later, they continue to eat as "real" food as possible and share lots of tips and recipes for healthy eating, even on a budget.

• Telling friends, family and co-workers about my efforts to live a healthy lifestyle has been a big part of this journey. The more accountability I have (and the more people I have asking about it and encouraging me), the greater success I'll have.


I suspect that this journey to fitness is going to be a lifelong struggle. I'm not sure I'll ever reach a point where those Mini Eggs don't call to me. Like any other task that I feel called to do (be patient with others or steer clear of gossip, for example), I don't always do what I should. I'm thankful that, just as He's with me in every other area of my life, the Holy Spirit is at work in this area of my life, giving me wisdom and guidance as I strive to be obedient to what God's calling me to do regarding my health and fitness.