Yesterday I started what I hope is going to be a real and lasting attempt at an regular program of exercise and diet to lead to weight loss and better health. I have needed to do this for years and just have not wanted to get started. I pray I did last night and that I stick to it. I committed to it last week, but it was not until last night that I think I figured out why. It is not just for my benefit (but in the case of personal health, that is a darn good me goal), but it is truly a Kingdom goal.
God gave me this body and this life here on earth, I now pursue His will. How could I seek to do it without planning to have the maximum energy level to do it with? With the best possible health I can manage? (Ultimately leaving the decision of what that level is to Him, with me just doing my part to maintain it the best I can)
So for me, I need to think of exercise as a Kingdom goal, for it is quite clear I am not one of those unbalanced people who actually enjoy working out.
I hope I am up to the task He has given me, for I have let Him down before. But if the focus is Him and not me, it should be a whole lot easier to try to run this particular race.
Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Hebrews 12:1-2 (New King James Version)
