S. Michael Houdmann Supporter Got Questions Ministries

While nothing in the Bible specifically addresses obesity and weight loss, there is much in God's Word about the importance of our health and of taking care of our bodies. God warns us against glut...

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July 01 2013 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report

Lynn Willis Supporter Obedient Daughter of the High King of the Universe

Many who are saved by Jesus come to Him with physical manifestations of their prior lives: drug abuse, alcohol abuse, food addiction or gluttony (which is the excess want of anything). To call an obese Christian a bad Christian for being obese is ridiculous! To call someone struggling with drug abuse who is saved by the blood of the lamb a bad Christian is ridiculous! We struggle... we are weak and human. We sin not because we are sinners but we sin because we are prone to sin from the beginning with Adam. 

Yes Jesus saves and heals, and yes we can overcome anything with Him... but some struggle more than others. Satan is relentless, and our faith grows incrementally so... we get stronger and stronger as we walk with Christ. Sanctification is not an overnight process!

It is only through and with God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit in our lives that we become perfect, righteous and whole. 

I am obese and have been all my life - as a preschooler onward. I didn't give much effort to keeping my body 'fit' because I identified early on that if people didn't like or respect me because of my weight, it was their problem not mine. I grew up in a world obsessed with physical beauty, and rebuked that idolatry from an early age and learned to just accept myself as I was, and I was a big girl. My idols were my mind, my career, materialism, wealth and fame, popularity and drugs - not good looks or physicality - in fact those things were least important to me with friends too. 

My obesity came not from gluttony but from sloth - I focused on more important issues (to me) than my poundage. Basically, satan sold me a bill of goods that being overweight was A.O.K. but it was a big, fat lie (pun intended) and I ate what I wanted when I wanted without really thinking about it! I was fat, I accepted that and that was the way it was. But, if I had truly loved myself, I would have looked after myself and I didn't really love myself because I didn't know the love of God. 

Now? Now I am in a position where I can not lose weight due to disability/lack of mobility and poverty (unable to move to work it off due to severe osteoarthritis, and unable to afford to buy a regular, healthy, balanced diet instead, or even physically able to go shopping - eating whatever is God given to me to eat and while I may go without, He always provides at least something each day! Amen!) I do not overeat, but perhaps once a month admittedly, I do buy pizza as a treat as it is a fav food! Basically I eat when I can, and I even fast in prayer as a humbling before God. Yet, I remain obese and at the same time an obedient daughter of God and follower of Christ.

If you are saved you change from the inside out. God wants you to look after yourself because He knows that you benefit. You come to love yourself more because He loves you and that love is so amazing! If you struggle with being overweight, know this... HE LOVES YOU REGARDLESS. If you want to love Him back... work to get healthier and stronger and continue to boast of the good works of the Lord in your life. 

And in Heaven we are given perfect heavenly bodies so... something else to look forward to, Amen!

I hope that helps you to understand how God sees you which is... BELOVED RIGHT WHERE YOU ARE RIGHT NOW.

Blessings,
in HIM,
Lynn

August 11 2014 • 6 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report

Oun Kwon Supporter

Weigh loss is good and weight gain is good, or vice versa - all depending on where one is on the scale. Serious, if one does not take care of one's own body and does not curve desire of flesh - physical, physiological, psychological, political and social - what good is to be labeled as a Christian? It would be a mockery. Don't say we don't know how to.

July 15 2013 • 1 response • Vote Up • Share • Report