Growing up I was very skinny, never having any trouble with weight. When I got married though I put on some pounds. I went from 145 to 195 in about 3 years. Now 145 was way too skinny for me but 195 made me feel very large. I lost it (which I will tell you how in a bit) all down to 155 which felt like a good weight for me. However, in the last year I have put on 26 lbs bringing me to a chubby 176.
I honestly didn't notice it much until one day I stepped on the scale and thought "how in the world did I get here?" How may times have we thought that spiritually? How in the world did I get so far away from God? Why don't I feel like I did when I first came to Christ or even how I did three years ago when I was so passionate for him. It has sadly happened to mostly all of us one time or another. Perhaps it's how you feel right now.
The truth is, it doesn't happen overnight, it took a lot of little things to get you to this point. Just like weight gain, maybe you started eating more fast food or larger portions, maybe lots of snacking. Spiritually, perhaps you stopped praying as much, you quit reading the bible or you quit listening to the sermons at church. The point is, those small things are the very reason why I gained weight and why we become spiritually unhealthy.
So now that we know the reason for our weight gain, we need to choose to make some changes. For me, I began exercising and quit eating fast food. I'm eating smaller portions and choosing fruit over potato chips. I can proudly tell you that with doing this for a month I have lost five pounds and am down to 171.
So your first thought is... wait a minute, that's all?!? Only 5 pounds?
Yep, only five pounds in four weeks. The weight is NOT going to come off immediately. You are not going to feel spiritually amazing immediately, you have got to work at it. You have to get rid of the sin through prayer and reading of God's word. You need to get involved in serving in your church and get plugged into a study or small group. Your relationship with God may be five pounds better in four weeks, which may be frustrating, but you are five pounds healthier then you were four weeks earlier. It will take time but it's worth it.
Temptation will come, fast food is around every corner, so is sin. Maybe McDonalds is your fast-food vice, maybe pornography on your computer. Both are pretty easy to have access to and both are detrimental to your health. You have got to take one day at a time to conquer temptation.
So now that you know the relationship between weight loss and spiritual gain, I can tell you how I lost weight the first time. I went from 195 to 155 in about three months. That's pretty amazing isn't it. The truth is, I lost it by skipping meals. This is obviously not the healthy way to do it. Everyone said I looked skinny but I also looked sick. In fact I was sick one time a month for about a year, but I was skinny. Spiritually so many of us have done this. We have felt far from God so we start going to church but don't get involved. We start reading the bible, but only as a good story, reading without acting on what it says. We start praying but only as a ritual to feel like we are doing what we are supposed to. We start wearing Christian T-Shirts and listening to Christian radio but our relationship with God is weak and lacking. To outsiders, you will look 155 spiritually healthy, but deep down you are sick and unhealthy. You seem healthy on the surface while your insides are screaming for some real spiritual food.
If you were reading at the beginning you will notice that I went from 155 to 176 pretty quickly after I got bored of skipping meals. I never was truly healthy, just skinny. Spiritually if you try the surface solutions you will quickly fall back into the sin you were in before and back to where you started.
You have got to do this the right way, it isn't easy but God never said it would be. Sin and unhealthy foods are appealing but they will kill you if you don't make a change. So take this opportunity to decide that you are going to get your spiritual life back on track to being healthy. Know you won't see huge results quickly but after a while you will look in the mirror and think "How in the world was I ever where I was a year ago!"
Love you all
Brad
