10 Easy to Remember Commandments of Health and Fitness: Commandment #1

We live in a fast paced world of better, faster, and easier.  We strive to find the one trick or the one new thing that will fix everything quickly and easily.  If there were just a pill, a better diet plan, a new workout machine, magic in a bottle, or better metabolic DNA!  Some people completely ignore health and fitness altogether.  People pay doctors, then ignore their plea for better eating habits and a more active lifestyle.  I hope you will join me as we tackle one command a week to better health and fitness.

The Bible reads in 1 Timothy 4:8, “Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and in the life to come.”  Make no mistake about it, godliness is ‘much better;’ however, do not dismiss that ‘physical training is good.’  You see, we are called to give our ‘bodies’ to God according to Romans 12:1, “And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.”

 

How do you maintain this health and fitness thing though?  Every “New Year’s” there are many people stating this is the year to get into shape.  They buy new shoes, get new clothes, and new equipment in preparation for a new life!  Yet a majority never continue much past January.  They have all the best intentions, but rarely can create the new habits to see it through.

There are no quick fixes and no pills that are going to do the trick.  There are no fad diets that will maintain you for the long haul.  These 10 commandments are meant to see us through the entirety of our lives.  When people ask me how I maintain proper health and fitness in my life, I tell them I figured out Commandment #1!  Working out and eating properly is not easy, but following the first command on my list of commands is what maintains my focus to continue.

The First Commandment of Health and Fitness is “Know Your Why!”  Really!!  If you do not have a really good why, then you will never maintain enough discipline to eat properly and exercise sufficiently.  I have three “WHYS!”  These three reasons I think about on a weekly basis.  Do you “Know Your Why?”  If you cannot write down your 1, 2, or 3 WHY’s to proper health and fitness, then you will have a tough time maintaining proper health and fitness for the long haul.  Before commandment #2, decide what is going to be your WHYs to maintaining you for the long haul motivationally speaking.

In Christ Alone and continuing in prayer,

Chad 

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Has your “Get up and GO!” ever “Got up and WENT?”

Many people in the world are merely existing.  They’re going through the motions of life, but on the inside they don’t understand why they exist.  Many others once saw the vibrancy of life and were ready to take on each day.  They took all the twists and turns this life throws our way in a manner that proved they saw a bigger plan.  They had a great purpose in this journey we call life.

Too many of our “Get up and GO!” has “Got up and WENT!”  There are many reasons this happens: Health issues, rejection, failures, lack of self-discipline, unfair circumstances, bad life choices, and so on.  The plan for their life that looked so clear and concise has become very blurred or lost in the mundane living of everyday life.  Has your “Get up and GO!” done “Got up and WENT?”

 For some there may have never been a clear plan that made them strive to “Get up and GO!”  For many, the idea that God exists and has a perfect plan for our lives seems to be totally foreign.  

For others, they have wandered away from the path they knew that God has for their life.  The cares of the world and the desire for personal gain supersedes God’s eternal purpose.  The Bible is full of stories of people who let their lives become misguided and led astray: Craving for physical pleasure, craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions (1 John 2:15-17). 

It’s not that we cannot enjoy things here on earth, but we keep a proper perspective that there is more to life than what this world can give.  God has a plan for everyone’s life, but often times people reject that plan and strive to go in a totally different direction.  Take the prophet Jonah for instance.  You’ve probably heard the story of the man that was in the belly of a great fish for three days and three nights.  God had a clear and concise plan for Jonah to go to a place and tell them about God.  However, Jonah did not like that plan for his life and decided to go in a different direction.

Jonah 1:1-3 “¹The Lord gave this message to Jonah… ² ‘Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh…’ ³ But Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction to get away from the Lord.”

We are either living our lives in such a way that we are going towards God or we are going in the opposite direction.  Jonah is a quick and easy read that I encourage you to read today.  The question you need to look at today is, “On what path do I currently find myself?”  Am I following the call of God in my daily life to “Get up and GO” or have I done “Got up and WENT?”  If you’re on the wrong path, then make a U-turn now.  Pray, read the Bible, and 'Get up and GO' to church.  If you’re on the right path, then keep going; by all means, keep going!

In Christ Alone and continuing in prayer,

Chad

Join the #JesusFollower team by texting @jesusfo to 81010 to receive 2-3 Biblical texts per week to challenge and encourage you.

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