In his wisdom, in Psalm 139:23-24, David asks God to search his heart and his thoughts and to point out anything that offends Him.
If you’ve been forever trying to lose weight, learn from David and let this be the starting point for you, too. Take your hands off the steering wheel of your weight loss efforts and ask the Lord to take command and control.
Below the Surface
Ask Him to show you what lies beneath the surface, what fears have been keeping you stuck, what you’re really craving, what keeps you anxious, and then allow Him to lead you back on the right path.
God created us, and He knows us better than we know ourselves. Doesn’t it make sense to seek Him for answers instead of trying to figure it out ourselves?
Self-Reflection
Your journey starts not with figuring out the right diet or workout program. That will come after. To move towards your goal, you will first need to identify why you keep making the same mistakes over and over again. Why are you always starting over? Why are you always on a diet? Why aren’t you doing the things you know to do?
You may be saying to yourself:
If only I was more disciplined
It’s my emotional eating
I don't have enough time—my schedule is too busy
If only I would exercise more
If only I had a faster metabolism
It's my sweet tooth.These all sound like valid reasons, but they are only the effect of a deeper cause. They are only symptoms of a deeper issue. Like a check-engine light in the car that provides clues into what’s really going on in order to fix the car, we’ve got to check out our engine (our body).
Thoughts Drive Action
Our engines are our subconscious thoughts. They drive our actions. They keep us repeating the same set of behaviors over and over again. Unless you’re a mechanic, you have no idea about the inner workings of a car; and in our case, our subconscious mind. You just know that something is off. The excess weight is our clue that something is off—that’s our check engine light.
Because we’re not mechanics, we start tinkering around, making wild random guesses about what the problem is. We try to control our carbs, exercise more, make ourselves be more disciplined, pray more, but as you can probably attest, none of these changes last. Sure you may lose some but it always seems to find you again.
Get to the Root
There’s a deeper issue at play that goes beyond eating less and exercising more. Until you get to the root of this, you will continue to spin your wheels. You will continue to self-sabotage, get over-whelmed, feel frustrated, disappointed, and discouraged. You will continue to experience anxiety around losing weight and that’s why will you subconsciously keep doing things that keep sabotaging yourself.
It’s a Spiritual Battle
If you feel like you’re always taking 1-step forward and 2-steps back, recognize that losing weight is a spiritual battle. It requires peeling back the layers and recognizing the unmet needs in your life then inviting God to fill them.
Self-Reflection
A few powerful questions to ask yourself are:
What am I really craving? What emotions/needs/feelings am I stuffing?
What will really satisfy me?
What do I need to surrender to the Lord?
What am I unwilling to face?
Ask the Holy Spirit to give you insight into these answers. Pour your heart out to God and commit this process to Him.
Before you try another diet or weight loss program, be sure to ask God to search you. He is faithful and He will give you the answers you seek.
Love Always,
