With April showers bringing May flowers, the spring months are often a period where many families “defrost” from their winter habits and seek to spend more time outside and in activity than ever before. Unfortunately, sometimes this renewed interest in improving physical health can come at the expense of maintaining spiritual health. At times in these first weeks of warm weather, being in a rush to get outside or make your trip to the gym could accidentally come at the expense of quiet time, prayer or studying scripture.
But the beauty of how God created us is that our physical health isn’t detached from our spiritual health, and in fact, both complement each other in wonderful ways! So, as you work to maintain both this spring, here are 5 key steps that can help you bring your faith into your wellness routine to maintain physical exercise as well as spiritual exercise!
The first step to bringing your faith into your wellness routine starts with a subtle perspective change; do you think your body is yours to maintain, or do you view it as a gift to steward? In 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, Paul writes, “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore, honor God with your bodies.”
Approaching fitness and exercise with the perspective that your body was given to you to steward and maintain, not with the perspective that your body is yours to do with as you please, changes everything. It puts the focus on God and the gifts he’s given you and can work to help prevent the accidental idolatry or laziness that either fitness extreme can lead to. By recognizing that our bodies were given to us to steward, it can motivate us to live healthier and work harder without losing sight of what matters. Equally, it helps prevent us from making our bodies’ appearance too important as we seek to glorify God with every part of our lives.
What if our view of worship didn’t end when we walked out of the church doors? Our families will often leave church and continue our “worship” at a different kind of altar: the dinner table and the couch. Wellness is often reduced to diet plans, gym memberships, and maybe “an apple a day.” But Scripture invites us to see wellness differently, not just as a physical pursuit, but as a spiritual one. What if our eating habits, exercise routines, and daily choices were viewed as acts of worship?
Each time you choose activity over something else you’d rather do, you’re presenting your body to God. That hard choice becomes an act of worship, and whether it’s a walk, a workout, or simply stretching with intention, it’s a form of presenting your body to God and maintaining it for Him. These choices cost something, and they should. Sacrifice isn’t easy, but it brings blessing. In viewing wellness as a form of worship and glorifying God, it can be a subtle way to have faith shape not just our routines, but our motivations for them.
How often do we start exercise routines with grand ambitions, starting strong, but eventually crashing and suffering from burnout? Oftentimes, this happens because we don’t have the right view of rest. Rest, too, is part of wellness, but in a culture that glorifies hustle, choosing rest feels like quitting or accepting defeat when it was actually given to us from God to keep us going. So next time you’re tempted to skip a rest day and get back to your routines, remember that your rest is vitally important for the health of both your mind and body.
Rest isn’t just about resetting our clocks or our bank of time to invest, it’s about giving our minds and our bodies reprieves from work and activity. Rest is about being still, about consciously investing our time into stewarding our health by allowing ourselves to “catch up” from the busyness of daily life. When this is neglected, the need doesn’t go away; it just gets reassigned. Every day or week without proper rest only increases what our bodies and minds will require to catch up. Eventually, the load can get too great, and we either physically crash or begin to rest when it’s too late to catch up to the debt that we’ve already accrued.
Sabbath rest and rest throughout the week are bold acts of faith. It says, “I trust God to sustain me, even when I pause.” Take comfort in knowing that rest isn’t laziness; instead, it’s a form of obedience that puts your wellness routine in step with God’s commands.
One component of activity and wellness can be found in clearing your mind and helping it “rest and meditate” during fitness, but where is it that our minds drift to? Another way to bring faith into your wellness routine is to use exercising, especially aerobic activity, calisthenics and stretches, as an opportunity to meditate and fix your mind on God and His Word. Using these types of activities as a time to meditate on Scripture and improve Bible memorization ensures that your spiritual health isn’t being left behind in favor of your physical health.
Numerous studies have proven that meditation during activity can help balance emotions, release stress and focus your mind, and that's only based on secular science, not even including the spiritual power God’s Word has on our minds and emotions! As Joshua 1:8 urges us, “8 Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.” What better opportunity to practice that meditation than when your mind and body are both being focused through activity?
On the flip side, rather than meditation, many people use music as a form of “hype” to motivate them through exercise routines, particularly ones that are physically taxing. There’s nothing wrong with this approach, but the question boils down to what effects this music can have on you. Instead of using secular “hype” music, take this opportunity to explore different genres of Christian music that could fit the niche you’re looking for, choices that will both encourage your workout and edify your soul! There are plenty of energetic, hype Christian tracks that deliver strong rhythms for workouts, keep your pace steady on runs, and energize you while keeping your focus centered on the Lord.
Whether you use these tips to bring faith into your wellness routine or find your own ideas, what matters most is realizing that your physical health and spiritual health are deeply interconnected. Prioritizing one at the expense or neglect of the other isn’t true wellness; true wellness comes from finding a balance with both the body and the soul. If you don’t know where else to find more ideas, consider utilizing Medi-Share's Biblical Wellness program as a resource to turn to for more ideas, encouragement and refreshed motivation!
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