A Biblical View on Body Image

Ever since I can remember I have struggled with body image. I remember looking in the mirror at seven years old and thinking that I was fat. I started running laps around the yard at eight years old so that I could get fit. I feared gaining wait. I feared not measuring up to the standards of others. So, when someone said something negative about me, I sought to fix that "flaw". I gained wait one year because I was told that I was too skinny and then I lost a lot of wait the next year because I was told I was fat. I injured myself from over working my body, I ended up with insecurities, and hindered my relationships with loved ones all because I wanted to "measure up". All the while, friends and family members told me to, "just ignore the comments" and "they're just jealous of you. You are way better than they are!" But, that never helped one bit. In fact, those comments made me worry even more!

So, What is the truth? What should we believe when we become tempted to listed to these lies?

First,

Who is your god?

Seriously. Who are you trying to listen to more? Your family? Your friends? The kids at school? Maybe its all social media that tells us that there is no such thing as too skinny? Is it the celebrities? Who is it?

If your answer was anything but Jesus Christ, then we have a problem. 

Jesus Christ is the only one with the authority to define you. ONLY Jesus. No one else... not even yourself!! He was the the one who created you (Genesis 1:26-27). Not the kid at school, the friend from church, not even the Kardashians! God created you! He is the master craftsman, the master builder, the master thinker. He is the one who made you and only he can decide your worth.

"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations." Jeremiah 1:5

What does Jesus have to say about all this?

You have been fearfully and wonderfully made! (Psalm 139:14)

He has numbered the very hairs on your head! (Luke 12:7)

You bear the image of God! (Genesis 1:27) You don't look like Him by having legs and arms. You look like Him by being creative, having dominion (Genesis 1:26), having the fruits of the spirit (Galatians 5:22-23), and by seeking to become more like Him!

Your body displays the glory of God! (Psalm 19:1) We are living, breathing, moving, and thinking creatures! By being who we were created to be and doing what we were created to do with the bodies that were created for us, we are giving glory to out Creator! 

This body is only temporary! You are promised a new and improved body in heaven! (1 Corinthians 15:40)

God doesn't care about your outward appearance. He cares about the "hidden person of the heart". He wants you to be beautiful in who you are on the inside. (1 Peter 3:3-4; 1 Timothy 2:9-10; Proverbs 31:30)

God created you just the way you are so that you can glorify him with what you have. Your flaws can display the goodness of God because He chose you! With all of your flaws and all of your imperfection! How you hold yourself before the world in this flawed body will determine how you display God.

How should we react?

Well, I sorta hinted at this a little earlier but, how we choose to live with these bodies that God gave us determines what other people see about our God. Lets take a look at what we are commanded to do with our bodies as a means of reacting to the previous truths stated.

We were commanded to work. (Genesis 2:15) We were created to move! Specifically, to move for the purpose of work and productivity! (We were also given the example by God to rest in Genesis 2:2. So, I don't believe we are to become workaholics!)

Our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit! (1 Corinthians 6:12-20) This means that if you are a believer in Christ, the Holy Spirit is within you! Think of it this way, if you read through the Old Testament and look at the temples built for God, you will see that everything had to be absolutely perfect for Him. They had gold dishes, sacred altars, and the priests went into the temple and cleaned multiple times! They kept everything spotless and exactly as God commanded them to keep it! If then our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit who is God himself, why wouldn't we seek to do the same? The temple displayed the great God of Isreal! We should seek to display our great God by how we treat His temple.

Our goal is that Christ would be honored in our handling of our bodies. (Philippians 1:20) No matter what the cost, we want Christ to be seen through us.

We are to make God look great! (Jeremiah 9:23-24) We aren't to boast in ourselves or even feel bad because we don't meet the expectations of others. On the contrary, we are to take pride in knowing God! In the simple fact that we KNOW him! Isn't that great! 

We are to do good works. (Titus 3:1; 2 Timothy 2:21; Matthew 5:16) We are to DO good! That is an action that can only be achieved by the movement of our bodies. If we care for our bodies then we are able to do these good deeds efficiently and effectively for the glory of God! The ultimate issue isn't what our bodies look like, but what we do with them!

Where do we go from here?

I understand what it is like to get a lot of information piled on top of you all at once and not know either what to do with it or what happens when you start having problems again. 

Paul says:

Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? Your are not your own, for you have been bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

Jesus bought you with his very life! He is worthy of glory! Remember that. You may be flawed and people tell you so but you are meant to glorify God. None of your flaws matter. Absolutely NONE of these "flaws" matter. You can still glorify Him with these imperfections.

here are a couple suggestions for helping you to find your confidence and worth in Christ:

- Find a mentor- someone more mature in their faith than you (and a girl)- and seek their advice. Don't worry to ask them for help. Everyone struggles with insecurities.

- Find a friend (or some friends😁!) and seek to pray for each other and maybe even go through a Bible study together on this topic!

- Pray for those who are teasing you. If they are pointing out your physical flaws it is because they have a flawed view on what true beauty is. They are human too and can glorify God with their bodies as well.

- Write down verses and memorize them. Find ones that encourage and uplift you! Then recite them when your are struggling.

- Go through your daily routine. How much of your time is spent on trying to fix your outward appearance and how much time is spent seeking to honor and glorify God? Make sure that the reason behind your self care is to make much of your Creator!

- Last but not least, seek good Christian resources! If you want to know of any, please leave a comment below and I will try to get to it as soon as possible!

Remember: Matthew 25:14-30

"Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much." Matthew 25:21

Lets seek to be the "good and faithful servant"!

"Go and Make Disciples" Matthew 28:18-20

   It has been a long while since I last posted. A lot has happened since then (but that is a post for another time!). Today, I am going to post about a great need that I see churches and individual Christians have... the need to be on fire for the gospel. (My goal audience are those who have confessed their sins before God and have excepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and savior.)

  This past week I have watched the Secret Church 21  sermon done by pastor David Platt. (It is very good and I highly recommend it by the way! I will put the link at the bottom of the page.) He speaks about the "Great Imbalance" of the world. Here is what that means:

World population: approximately 7.75 billion

  - Unreached People: over 3 billion (about 40%)

People groups: over 17,000

  - Unreached People Groups: over 7,000

Number of missionaries sent from churches: approximantly 400,000

  - Percentage of people groups working with the unreached: approximately 3%

Giving to missions by Christians and churches: approximately $47 billion

  - Percentage of missions giving that goes to the unreached: 1%

For those of you who don't exactly know what an "unreached people group is"(also called UPG's) here is the definition: an unreached people group is any people group who has little or no access to the Bible or any way of hearing the gospel. (Take a look at Joshua Project for more information! I also have the link at the bottom of the page.)

Often times these people don't have any Christians and they have absolutely no possible way to hear the gospel for the fact that there are no believers there and no translation of the Bible in their language.

Matthew 28:18-20 says, "And Jesus said to them, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all  nations, baptizing them int the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."

  You see dear friend, the issue isn't that there are lost people out there (though that is a problem) the issue is that we are not being obedient to follow Gods call to go to "all the nations".

  I said that I was reminded of these truths because I had heard them about three months prior in my Intro to Christian Missions class at Boyce College. I had a passion for the Lord when I was in that class! I wanted to follow him no matter the sacrifice! I was willing to go! ... or was I? That feeling soon died down. But, I have learned that it shouldn't! We shouldn't determine what to do and where to go simply by feelings! If Jesus had done that then he certainly wouldn't have died on the cross for our sins! Remember in Gethsemene right before he was arrested, he prayed, "My Father, if it  be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will but as you will." Jesus didn't want to die. He was fearful! But, he did it anyway because he knew that that is what God wanted to happen.

  So, how do we do this? How do we obey? Well, we do exactly as Jesus said in Matthew! We go! No hesitation! We do it! Jesus also told his disciples later on in Gethsemene to, "Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation."

  The reason I put those numbers above was to get you thinking. Maybe God has called you to go overseas. Maybe he hasn't. But, I would advise you to pray about it. The subject of "calling" is a very delicate matter. We don't want to go where God does not want us. Nik Ripken reminds us in his book The Insanity of Obedience that in Matthew 10:16, Jesus tells us that he is sending us "as sheep among wolves". He says that Jesus' disciples were told this, not to test their earlier commitment to him, "after all, they had already answered His call, obedience to Him was the necessary next step." So, do you see what I am getting at? God calls us to "Go". That is no question. The question is "WHERE should I go"? That is what you must pray about. 

  One other thing that Ripken mentions in his book is that if we aren't passionate about sharing the gospel where we are now, it wont change over seas. The thing is, if you cant share the gospel to those you love the most and in such easy circumstances, you wont be able to do it under pressure of persecution somewhere else.

  One more thing that I would like to stress greatly is that we NEED to pray! Prayer is and absolute necessity! Not just for finding our won "calling" but to be involved in other's lives. We need to be praying for missionaries over seas that we have never met before, for people groups that need the gospel, for our churches to see the needs in front of them, for our communities to hear and receive the gospel, and for our friends and family members who do not believe. We need prayer. 

So, In conclusion, here are some ideas and verse as well as application to help you think about what I have just said:

- Pray for God to start up this fire inside of you and burden your heart for the lost around you. I would suggest reading the gospels and the old testament prophets. You'll see the compassion of Jesus Christ toward a broken people and how we got to Jesus by the prophesies of the prophets. Galatians 1:15-16; Ephesians 3:8-12

- Pray and ask God to show you how you can take the gospel to people where you are right now. Deuteronomy 6:6-; Proverbs 3:5-6, 16:3

- Pray for those missionaries either in the US or overseas. Ask your pastors for resources available for aiding prayer. Ephesians 1:15-23

-  Be active in your church and seek to be an encouragement to the believers. We should be "making disciples" (Matthew 28:18-20) which means that we should be teaching them the word even after they have been saved.

- Seek to learn of ways to share the gospel. How, when you get to talking to the person, will you change your conversation to sharing the gospel? How should you go about sharing the gospel to an atheist? A Hindu? Someone who claims to be a believer? Someone with no conviction at all?

- Be creative! Find ways to get out there! Do weird things! The friends in Mark 2:1-12 took off a roof to get their friend to Jesus!! You could give tracks to the cashier at the store, intentionally have a conversation with your neighbor, invite a friend to church, and there is so much more! God gave you creativity! Use it for his glory!

- And last but not least, check your own personal relationship with God. Luke 12:34; Psalm 42:1-2; Psalm 63:1-8; Jeremiah 9:23-24

Resources:

Joshua Project, Radical, International Mission Board, Unreached of the Day

The Insanity of Obedience: Walking with Jesus in Tough Places by Nik Ripken