So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless. James 2:17 (NLT).
This scripture spoke volumes to me a couple of days ago.
It would probably be more helpful to you if I told you why.
As I stated in “A New Year, A New You“, this year for me is all about allowing God to change my mind about the things that need to change in my life before I exert any more effort in trying to change them on my own.
The biggest change that needs to take place in my life is my weight. It is an issue that God has been speaking to me about for some time. I was really looking forward to doing the Daniel Fast with my church for Lent. About a week before starting the fast, I watched “Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead” for the second time. Combined with watching YouTube testimonials about people juicing for instant weight loss success, I was extremely excited over the thought of just drinking fruit and vegetable juices while watching the pounds disappear.I was ready to turn the Daniel Fast into a Daniel Juice Fast!
I knew I had to catch myself. I did not want the true purpose of fasting– denying self to get closer to God–to get lost in me obsessing over losing weight. Although I juiced twice a day, for the first week and a half of the fast I put more emphasis on reading scripture and praying and less emphasis on working out and trying to lose weight.
It was during one of my afternoon devotional times that God put this in my spirit:
“Faith without works is dead.”
I guess this would be a great place to admit that I had not been to the gym in about a month and a half. This is also something I was once “really excited” about. If I remember correctly, I think I drove past the gym on my way home to have this afternoon devotional time…
*Sheepish grin*
So concerned with maintaining the right focus during this fast, I was content with allowing the restricted eating of the Daniel Fast and praying about losing weight to do the work for me.
Apparently, God saw things a different way.
It’s great that I have faith that God will guide me in my journey to the land of being healthy for life. However, it would be even better if I put that faith to work.
That work includes working out.
Using the Daniel Fast and juicing as a way to allow God to retrain my mind about food was okay. However, I also had to allow God to retrain my mind about exercise as well.
Since then I’ve prayed that God would allow my desire for exercise to grow. I’ve been to the gym three times and I’ve done Zumba once.
I have to admit. Putting feet to my faith concerning this area of my life isn’t half bad.
With God’s help, these “faith-filled” feet will move beyond walking on the treadmill and begin jogging…
Baby steps, Annitra. Baby steps.
So you see, we are shown to be right with God by what we do, not by faith alone. James 2:24 (NLT).
Different by Design 
Published by