Healthy Lifestyle Change? It has to be in our way of thinking, speech and actions!

Just about each day over the last year I have prayed the Lord’s Prayer. That probably doesn’t sound like a really significant statement, as how often is it recited in liturgies or other settings, right?! For me it has been life changing!

Do you know that first verse in Psalm 127? “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.” I’ve always thought that verse referred to families, and even so, families are made of people. If we as individuals are trying to make our own way, apart from the truths in God’s Word, then just as our life isn’t being built by Him, neither will our household be built by Him. 

You and I can embrace every diet and exercise fad that comes along. We can follow the workout instructor or nutritionist who inspires us on social media. We can do all sorts of things, but if we don’t give the battle to the Lord, and let Him build our house, then we won’t really succeed.

What does success truly look like? I’m certain there are physically fit, healthy people out there who aren’t tuned in to the Holy Spirit. I remember my husband and I visiting his Aunt Betty in the midwest early in our marriage. As she drove us to church Sunday morning she remarked with concern that every Sunday she sees so many people out running, or at gyms, instead of being in church. She said she thinks they must be going to “the church of the body.” Of course a person is able to get physically healthy without actively including God in the process, although none of us wakes up each morning, or even breathes a single breath without His provision and grace! Whether or not we acknowledge Him in the process is a different story.

As believers though, with a focus on remembering that our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, how might we best lean on God to bring us to success in our health journey? We have to let HIM be the builder of our house, the builder of our temple! 

“Our Father, who art in heaven. Hallowed be Thy name!”

Right there! Here I am, here you are, facing this battle. The battle of what we should eat, what action we should take. Do we have time? Do we have energy? Do we have the space to exercise? Do we have a decent grocery budget for healthy food? Do we have the discipline, knowledge, and perseverance to make it happen?!?! But that statement brings it all into perspective!

“Our Father, who art in heaven. Hallowed be thy name!”

“All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves, for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.”

Unlike David in this 17th chapter of II Samuel, we are not planning to defeat Goliath. Just as God was with David, and with the Israelites, He is with you and I today! Just as he saved them in a mighty way, to show His glory, He can make us victorious in our battles, so that we can bring glory and honor to Him. 

At the risk of seeming blasphemous, maybe a way that passage would be written about your life or my life would be, “Everyone here will know that it is not by fad diets or celebrity workouts that the Lord saves, for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give our health into our hands!”

“Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done…”

God’s kingdom and will came into our hearts the moment we surrendered ourselves to Him, and accepted Christ’s gift of salvation from sin. But sin still influences our thinking, our speech, our actions. We still live here, in this broken world, in this broken flesh, a flesh that has spent decades being influenced both by the world, and by our own sinful thinking. We have to live in the truth proclaimed in II Corinthians 5, “If anyone be in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away, behold, the new has come.” 

We have to embrace this truth, and live in it! Why would we wallow in old habits, in old choices that lead to sickness and sometimes death? Christ liberated us from all that! We don’t have to live in that anymore!

Each day, when I recite that first part of the prayer, I say, “Thy kingdom come to my way of thinking, to what I say, and to what I do! Thy will be done in what I think, what I say, and what I do, as it has been done in my heart by your saving grace!” I ask for this in every area of my life, as I NEED His ways to be my ways, and, because each morning I wake up in this flesh, I have to ask it all over again. I find the flesh to be relentless, and I can only win if I have a tenacity that comes from Him! 

One of the areas I need this transformation is in my quest for better health. One might pray, “Lord, thy kingdom come and Thy will be done in causing me to think about your plan for my health. Lord, cause me to think about how wonderfully and fearfully you made me, and what a great stewardship this body is! Lord, please help me to be grateful for your amazing provision of plant life and animal products that can meet my health needs, and please turn my thinking away from cultural foods that are processed, cooked in unhealthy ways, and are tantalizing, but don’t lead to better health!”

We could pray, “Lord, please help my speech to be about the goodness of your provision, and how amazing it is that the specific needs of my body can be met by the nutrients in the food that grows from the earth! Please help me to talk positively to my family about how incredible and intuitive is your provision! Lord, when a coworker offers me pizza they’ve ordered for everyone, remind me to thank them, and say how thoughtful it was of them, and then to say no thank you. Or if it is some baked treat, remind me to tell them how good it looks, and what a lovely thing it was for them to make and bring. I’m so happy to see it, but, oh, no thank you!”

We might pray, “Lord, please help me to use my hands to prepare food that will nourish our bodies, give us the most energy to accomplish what you have before us, and to give us good fellowship around the table! Please help me find the time to exercise, because you know, Lord, how I’m able to pray so freely when I’m just spending that time with you, walking, riding the elliptical, what have you. You know better than I how you made my body to respond to exercise by lifting my spirits and making me a more pleasant person to be around.” 

Who knew the Lord’s Prayer had so much to say?! But it does. When Jesus shared this model prayer, He already knew the very specific battles you and I would face. He knew what we would face in our relationships, in our social status, in our education, our efforts to survive whatever comes our way, and He knew the battles we would face with our health. He is all knowing, and when He first shared this model prayer He knew that one day Blaky would be surrendering her health to Him, using these very words. Centuries before you or I were born, He was already at our personal battles. He already knew that with His Word He was equipping us to face what would come our way. 

“All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” Psalm 139:16

So go friend. Go in God’s wisdom, in His grace, in His strength. He is with you!

“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9

Surrender your health to Him, and He will lead the way.