We can’t talk about the battle that takes place in our minds over weight loss without talking about the fiercest opponent we will ever face: Satan.
He is lying in wait to tempt you in any way he can. He wants to knock you down and keep you there by distorting the truth and playing tricks with your mind. He carefully crafts lies to keep you unhealthy—to keep you from making progress down the field of life and reaching your goal.
As Jesus says in John 8:44, Satan was “a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.”
You are his target, and he wants to destroy you. The sad fact is that if you are slowly killing yourself with a knife, a fork and an ice cream spoon, you are helping Satan accomplish his mission—you are doing his dirty work for him. This is why you have to stop. You have to recognize the lies that he is using to keep you from getting healthy and strong.
One of Satan’s deadly lies about weight loss is what I call the “Failure Lie.” Have you ever found yourself saying, “I’ve tried everything to lose weight in the past, but no matter what I try it just doesn’t work for me”? Or how about, “I just blew my diet for this week, so perhaps I’ll have better luck if I try next week”?
If so, these are lies that Satan is using against you to keep you focused on your past failures and prevent you from moving forward. He is whispering, “Why try? You are just going to fail.” He wants to keep you in bondage and stuck in the mentality that you can’t do it. Don’t fall prey to this lie and get discouraged. Don’t focus on the past. Quit looking in the rearview mirror of your life. Keep your focus and attention on the future and on Paul’s words in Philippians 4:13: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
Maybe you haven’t succeeded in the past because you have been going about it in the wrong way. You have to keep in mind that it takes more than willpower to gain long-term success. When it comes to improving your health, a diet isn’t going to bring about long-term change—it’s going to take developing a healthy lifestyle plan built around eating less and exercising more. And you can’t do it halfway. You have to be sold out for change. You have to be determined, and you have to create a sustainable plan of action.
Once you come up with your plan, you also have to stick with it. In Luke 14:28-30, Jesus says, “Which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it—lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish’?”
Quit allowing Satan to tackle you and make you think you are going to fail. If you create a healthy lifestyle plan built around the principles found in God’s Word and stick to it, you can’t fail!
Steve Reynolds is the senior pastor of Capital Baptist Church in Annandale, Va. He is the author of the books Bod4God and Get Off the Couch. He is also the creator of the Losing to Live Weight-Loss Competition. Steve has lost more than 120 pounds and has led his church to lose over nine tons of weight.
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