Should I Exercise? Exercise, the Bible, and Body Image Issues

Do you love exercise? Do you hate exercise? Today we're talking about what a healthy relationship with exercise looks like and what a healthy theology of exercise is. What does the Bible say about exercise explicitly, and what can we extrapolate about exercise from the ways God designed our bodies? Here are some things we dig into in today's episode:

1. Does God command us to exercise? Did he design our bodies to move?
2. How can we apply grace to our views of exercise? How can we think about exercise in a way that is healthy and holy according to the Bible?
3. Are there other ways that we are moving our bodies naturally as a part of using our gifts? Can this "count" as exercise?
4. If exercise is a triggering word for you, what would it look like to remove the word exercise from your vocabulary and just get moving in service of the Lord?
5. How do we listen to our bodies around exercise instead of listening to guilt and shame that comes from culture's expectations around exercise?
6. How do you know when your relationship with exercise has gone bad?
   • Exercise Bulimia
   • When exercise becomes an idol or your treasure
   • When exercise becomes too important of a priority in your life or an idol
   • What happens when God asks you to lay down a specific form of exercise
   • Figuring out your motivation for exercise
   • When you're working out too hard and overexercising
   • When exercise is stressing you out too much in already stressful seasons
7. If exercise is an addiction or a problem: Ask why you are working out so hard.
8. Thinking about body kindness as it relates to exercise.

Here's the pelvic floor program, Tighten Your Tinkler, I mentioned in today's show that I talked about last Fall on the show.

Check out Jimmy Pena's testimony at prayfit.org .

What does the Bible really say about the importance of physical exercise? Check out 1 Timothy 4:1-8 and think about its implications of spiritual fitness versus physical fitness.

Do you need extra support for your body image journey? Consider coaching with Heather. Learn more at www.comparedtowho.me

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