There Is No Spiritual Crash Diet
Everyone seems to want to be in better shape these days—at least that’s true of old folks like me!
Some are trying the Mediterranean Diet. Others are giving Keto or intermittent fasting a try. Yoga, Pilates, strength training, and high-intensity interval workouts are popular, too.
Maybe you’ve been bitten by the low-carb bug. Maybe you’re trying to “get in better shape.”
But here’s a question we don’t always ask:
Are you looking for a short-term fix or a lifelong change?
It’s one thing to want to look good for an upcoming event, vacation, or reunion. It’s another thing to ask, “What do I want my life to look like ten or twenty years from now?”
Are you willing to change the way you eat for the long haul? Are you willing to keep exercising year after year, even after you reach your original goal?
Because lasting change usually doesn’t happen through a quick fix. It happens through consistent choices made over time.
And sometimes we approach our faith in much the same way.
We want to get in “spiritual shape.” We hope it will happen quickly—almost magically. And when it doesn’t, we may look for a spiritual version of a crash diet: Is there something I can do that will get me where I want to be right now?
But faith doesn’t work that way.
Faith grows through repeated choices to believe God, trust Him, and obey Him. It is built over a lifetime—one decision at a time.
Faith is a little like a muscle. A muscle doesn’t become strong because we exercise it once. It grows stronger because we keep using it. And as the muscle grows, we can handle greater resistance.
Our faith works much the same way.
God often uses the difficulties and challenges of life as resistance training for our faith. The very circumstances we wish He would remove may become the means by which He teaches us to trust Him more deeply.
That gives a whole new perspective to disappointment.
Sometimes what feels like a disappointment may actually be an appointment with God—an opportunity to trust Him in a way we have never had to trust Him before.
So perhaps the goal isn’t simply to become “spiritually fit.” The goal is to become people whose faith has been strengthened through years of choosing God—especially when choosing Him isn’t easy.
There is no spiritual crash diet.
There is only the daily decision to keep trusting, keep obeying, and keep walking with God.
And over time, those choices become a life of faith.
“Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.”
—Hebrews 11:6
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