How to Have Spirit-Filled Resolutions & 5 Questions that Help

Every year it’s the same.  
I am going to get in shape this year!  
I want to lose 50 lbs.!  
I want to run a 5k! 

And then the obsession begins.  Do whatever it takes to make that goal.  Forget about everything else.  This obsession becomes the single most important thing in my life every year... for about 3 weeks.  Then I get frustrated that I’m not doing a good enough job.  The weight just isn't coming off fast enough!  I can barely run for 1 minute without feeling like I’m going to die! So I give up for a few weeks, gain whatever I lost and then start again.

In week 2, Day 3 of “Beholding Him Becoming Missional” Laura Krokos asks the question, “In what areas are you most in need of God’s ability to empower you?”  Um, hello!  I had never even THOUGHT about my need for God to empower me in weight loss. Here I’ve been trudging through this all on my own and somehow thinking this is like the one thing in life that is totally in MY control and I don’t need God in.

"So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh." Galatians 5:16 

My flesh desires a lot of things.  It desires too much cheesecake, too much pizza and honestly too much laziness.  It even desires an unhealthy obsession with achieving some amazing fitness goal.  My flesh is unbalanced, lazy and critical.  You wanna know what I think the most destructive thing my flesh does?  It takes my focus off of Christ and puts it right on myself. 

Galatians 5:20 lists selfish ambition as one of the acts of the flesh.  My goals with weight loss and fitness have almost always been placed all about me.  To look better, to be able to prove something to people and to get recognition from people who don’t think I can do it!

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control." Galatians 5:22-23b

I would much rather have, joy, peace, and even self-control (control of self by the Spirit) than being constantly worried and anxious about how I am doing, if people are noticing me, and if I will EVER reach my goal!

So here is my New Year’s resolution:
To be consistently yielded to the Holy Spirit in the area of fitness.
I am going to take my thoughts captive by asking some practical questions:

1.  Is working out/eating right hindering my ability to spend time with the Lord?
2.  Am I placing working out/eating right above people?
3.  Do I find myself obsessing throughout the day about my weight?
4.  Am I comparing myself to those around me?
5.  How is working out/eating right HELPING me in the mission God has for me?

As I ask these questions, yielded to the Holy Spirit, I don’t know exactly what will happen.  But I believe God will yield fruit in my life because He says He will!  Is fitness something you struggle with in allowing God to empower you?  If it is, would you join me   right now in asking the Lord to take control of this area of your life?  I believe He will do something amazing in your heart!

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About Rhonda

Rhonda attended Oklahoma Baptist University for two years until she felt called to reach out to a secular campus.  She then transferred to Mesa State where she graduated in 2004 with a B.A. in Counseling Psychology. She now serves as a missionary to college students and has a passion for reaching out to young women.  God has a purpose and design for who he wants Godly women to be, and Rhonda is excited about helping women find freedom and joy in His purpose.

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