Does God Care If We're Fat?

Hopefully you know the answer to this question is yes. God knows the number of hairs on our head (Matthew 10:30). He cares about every aspect of our lives. I truly believe God wants us to be healthy in every way. He wants us to be healthy physically, socially and especially spiritually.

Let's take a look at a few verses and see what God has to say about being healthy throughout His Word.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 "Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body." Two things I see from this well-known verse. First, Paul compares our body to a temple. A place where God is worshipped and where people take extreme care to make it look nice. Second, Paul says to glorify God with our body. How many of us glorify God with our body, whether it's what we look at, say or put into our bodies?

1 Corinthians 10:31 "Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God."  Paul is a little more obvious with this one. "Whatever" we do should be for His glory. If we are constantly eating, without any thought of what it can do to our bodies, we are not glorifying God.

Galatians 5:16-17 "But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please."  What pleases us does not always please God. I see sexuality, a lust of the flesh, as being very similar to over-eating, also a lust of the flesh. If we cannot control our eating habits, how can we be expected to control other habits that separate us from all that God has to offer. The verse at the end says the things that we "please". The opposite sex can be "pleasing" to the eye, but there is plenty in the Bible to be said about lust. The sight of food can be similar when we give in to over-eating. The buffet is "pleasing" to us, but we do not glorify Him when it causes us to be lazy and tired.

This is just a very small sample of what God has for us in the area of over-eating. In some ways you can insert smoking, drunkenness, laziness, anger, etc. into the same points. If we are overweight, we cannot do the things for God and other people that we are capable of doing. How much more can we accomplish if we are healthy and full of energy. He may not care if we have "washboard" abs, but He definitely wants us to have a full and abundant life!