I'm Overweight; Is God Unhappy With Me?
The Bible tells us that our bodies are temples for the Holy Spirit. God wants us to take good care of it and make sure it's healthy and ready for His purposes. That said, do we make God unhappy when we get fat and even overweight?
God's love
Friends, the Bible tells us that God loves us no matter who we are. In His eyes, all believers are equal. He loves the fat and the thin. He loves us all so much that He sent Christ Jesus to save all of us from our sins and the punishment that our sins deserve. Christ's sacrifice allows us to enter God's family as His children, and we do that by repenting of our sins.
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It's God's joy to save all men (see 1 Timothy 2:4). Did you know that when a person turns from His wicked ways and repents, heaven throws a huge party? Jesus said in Luke 15:7,
"I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous men who need no repentance."
Friends, we must realize that there's nothing we can do to earn His love. He simply loves us because He does. He loves us unconditionally.
God's happiness
Now that we've established that God's love for us in unconditional, we're going to talk about what pleases God. I talked about His love first because many of us feel that if we displease Him He doesn't love us anymore. That's a lie.
God's love for us is different from His pleasure and satisfaction. He delights in giving us the Kingdom (see Luke 12:32) and in seeing us do what He says (see John 14:15; 1 Samuel 15:22). On the other, we are told to find out and do what pleases Him (see Ephesians 5:10).
One of the things we can do to please Him is by living in the fear of Him (see Ecclesiastes 12:13).
- First, we realize that since Christ died for us, we now live for Him (see 2 Corinthians 5:15). This means whatever we do, we do for Him (see Colossians 3:17). Part of that is taking care of ourselves.
- Second, we remember that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit (see 1 Corinthians 6:19). God Himself lives in us, and how we take care of our bodies matter to Him. Not only are our bodies used to serve the Lord, they also house His indwelling Spirit.
- Third, we must keep in mind that anything that we are slaves to anything that we obey (see Romans 6:16). If we keep obeying the cravings of the stomach, we are slaves to our appetite. When we follow the Lord Jesus, we must learn to deny ourselves, including the pleasure of eating too much (especially without exercise) (see Matthew 16:24).
The Right Food
Dear reader, God should be the ultimate source of joy and happiness for us. Doing His will should be our utmost priority and our reason to live. We are told,
"It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.'" (see Matthew 4:4)
I leave you with these few words from the Lord Jesus Christ, and I pray that it will be your declaration too:
"Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work."" (John 4:34)
