Why Is It Taking So Long To Reach My Fitness Goals?

 Do you ever feel like you’re doing everything right, but you’re not getting the result you want? Like you’re praying for answers, and they are not coming? What are you supposed to do when you’re working on your goals, but you do not see the results you’re hoping for how are you supposed to keep going?

Here’s what’s going on…

When You’re Working On Your Goals, God Is Working On You

God is working on you and He’s checking your heart motives. While we are focused on the goal, the numbers, and often are body parts, He is looking for our motives to be Godly, not fleshly.

Works of the flesh don’t work. They are weak, frustrating, and fleeting at best.

This is a good rule of thumb. When you’re working you’re little heart out, and nothing's working, you’re in the flesh. Oh, how I feel this, sometimes in the middle of my day I’ll stop and be like, Oh Lord, yep that’s me, not You! Let me sit here at your feet for a minute and get my heart right.

I pray this…

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart Be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my strength and my Redeemer. Psalm 19:14

God is working on you. He’s showing you Fitness is like the Christian life; it’s a test of faithfulness, grace, and persistence, and we can’t do it successfully apart from God.

You Only Fail When You Stop Trying

I find it shocking how we go all-in eating God-made and exercising, but we quit when we don’t see exterior, outer, superficial changes and ignore the internal changes.

Why does failure so throw us off? Is it the perfect images we are inundated by, the idea that people out there can live on rations of food in Tupperware, and we’re just too weak to live that way?

I’m telling you: been there done that, and it didn’t bring me one step closer to success. I’ve learned failure is part of success. It’s training for who you’re becoming; the Godly woman you want to be isn’t shaken when she blows it. She recognizes it was a moment, not her identity, and gets back on track.

We fall down and get back up, don’t stay down too long, dear sister. YOU ARE NOT ALONE.

It was good for me to be afflicted so that I could learn Your statutes. Psalm 119:71 

You only fail when you stop trying. It’s almost like we give up on God, and we stop believing because we don’t see. But this is where we must dig in our faith high heels and believe without seeing.

Timing Is Everything Sweet Friend

Let’s learn to spot this trap! Our faith moves from belief to doubt when we don’t see the results we hoped for, and the devil is like, “yes, I’ve got her.”

Let’s just be real - does it even make sense that eating right and working out won’t work?! No, over time, it’s going to work. As my daughter would say, FACTS! Let’s not grow weary in well-doing, AMEN?

God is working on you through His timing. He is preparing you for what He has prepared for you.

When the time is right, I, the Lord, will make it happen. Isiah 60:22

God's perfect timing does two things: It grows our faith as we are forced to wait and trust in God, and it makes certain that He, and He alone, gets the glory and praise for pulling us through. This is a real struggle with fitness because our world depicts fitness in body parts, not health, but with your heart set on God, He will make it happen!

My times are in Your hands...Psalm 31:15

At the right time, God will provide for your need. He will answer your prayer, and He will give you His best! If you keep going with God, you will look back one day and see why you need to go through what you’re going through to get to where He’s taking you.

I know your works. See, I have set before you an open door, and no one can shut it; for you have a little strength, have kept My word, and have not denied My name. Revelation 3:8

He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, Out of the miry clay, And set my feet upon a rock, And established my steps. He has put a new song in my mouth—Praise to our God; Many will see it and fear and will trust in the Lord. Psalm 40:2-3

Life Is A Journey, Not An Event!

Life is not about what you can achieve; it’s about what you can become. It’s a journey, not an event.

Now I’ve heard that success is in the journey, not the destination, a million times. I even have a coffee mug with that on it, but this felt different. Because life isn’t about a goal weight or an achievement, it’s about what we can become…as a daughter of the one true KING!

The goal weight or body isn’t the prize, it’s the journey with God, and how He is with you, and healing your relationship with food, with yourself, with your body, and how He strengthens you and grows you that is the prize.

So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord. Deuteronomy 8:3

I learned that the Israelites couldn’t store this manna because it would rot, so God wanted their complete dependence on Him and the same goes for us. Fitness is a place where we tend not to depend on Him, but as John 15:5 says, apart from Him we can do nothing! We must Abide in Him, yes, even in our fitness.

Here’s a sister-to-sister truth, you’re going to doubt, you’re going to skip workouts, eat cake, gain muscle, lose weight, gain weight and through it all, if you remain faithful and keep getting back up, refocusing on Jesus, you will win!

Faith Fuel For Your Week!

Jeremiah, say this to the people of Judah: This is what the Lord says: You know if a man falls down, he gets up again. And if a man goes the wrong way, he turns around and comes back. Jeremiah 8:4

God will help you catch yourself. He will help you when you fall, get back up when you eat foods you didn’t want to, and He will turn you around.

The righteous may fall seven times but still get up, but the wicked will stumble into trouble. Proverbs 24:16

I promise you this. If you get up every morning and get into the Word and prayerfully dedicate your life and your fitness to God, and act in faith without doubting, this time next year, you will be shocked!

Faithful steps repeated can accomplish anything!

Let’s Pray, Friend - 

Dear God,

Help me lay aside everything that weighs me down and help me live with endurance this life you died to give me. Lord, at this moment, I fix my eyes on Jesus and remember to fan the flame of motivation in me, knowing that I may not always feel like it. Bring to mind the reason I started this journey. Help me see the purpose behind your plan. Provide me with the necessary grace to accomplish my goals. Keep me set on my path to find strength for the next step and discover the faith to keep trying. I pause at this moment with you and hope to be revitalized. In you, I can finish strong!

In Jesus’ name, amen.