The Joy of the Lord is My Strength
I talk a lot about strength and muscles and fitness. Watching my physical strength grow has absolutely amazed me! I have muscles that I never knew I had. I actually have some abs at this point in my life too, which I have really NEVER seen. It has been incredible to realize what my body is capable of.
But more than that, this has been spiritual transformation for me. In May of 2014, I was simply having trouble getting some weight off. I have never had issues with that until this last year, so it was definitely new for me. I purchased the 21 Day Fix, because I knew I needed to learn how to eat and how to jump-start my very complacent metabolism. I had no idea that my problem went deeper than that.
But when I began my meal planning and exercise routine, I quickly realized how dependent I was on finding joy and fulfillment in food and the activities that related to food. While I wasn’t morbidly overweight or anything like that, I was still very reliant on earthly pleasures to satisfy me. When I began restricting myself from them, I felt a void! As a follower of Christ, this realization hit me hard. Wasn’t I supposed to find my joy and peace in Him? Wasn’t I supposed to trust in Him to help me when things got tough? Instead, I was relying on food, shopping, and other indulgences that fill me up temporarily. Peace found in these things is only fleeting.
I began to read Lysa Teurkerst’s Made to Crave, and this really brought things home for me. (That woman has such a way with words!) Through this Bible study, the truths above became so clear, and I knew that this health and fitness journey I had stumbled into was no accident. God was leading me to a place of reliance and hope in who I was in Him…not who I was in the world or what the scale said about me.