Faith for Good Health Without Works Is Dead

By Jeanine Hamilton:: EEW Magazine Bi-weekly Fitness Column

I used to be a lazy couch potato. I didn’t like to exercise, which meant sweating out my hair. And I didn’t even think of giving up my favorite greasy favorites. My casual approach to fitness, in some ways, was inherited from my mother.

No matter what her doctor told her she needed to do, she would listen for about five minutes before reverting back to her old ways.

Whenever I’d say, “Mom, you know you’re not supposed to be eating that!” she would reply in between chews. “Child, I’m grown and we all gone die of somethin’ or other.”

Her “somethin’ or other” was complications from diabetes. She was 63 and I miss her like crazy.

After my initial mourning period following her death, I noticed that I was on the same path that ended her life too soon. Somehow, some way, I would find an excuse to keep up my pattern of inactivity and over-indulgence in everything bad for me. But I would be the first one running to the altar for prayer whenever health issues surfaced resulting from my personal abuse of my body.  

One day, when my very blunt physician told me, "God helps those who help themselves," it wasn't that his statement was profound or new (I'd heard it before.), it just struck me differently.

I knew the excuses had to go if I didn't want to go to an early grave.

As a busy woman, working out and taking care of your body may seem next to impossible some days. Constant demands: work, business, ministry, family, errands and appointments, make it hard to find down time, let alone free space for cardio and strength training.

When you’re already doing so much, cooking often feels like just another chore. So, millions of wives, moms and working women grab takeout and satisfy their hunger with foods high in sugar, fat, and cholesterol.

The constant cycle of busyness, makes regular exercise feel like just another impossible-to-do chore.  

But, by not eating right or exercising, you place yourself at higher risk of obesity-related illnesses like diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke, and heart disease.

Statistics show that 58-68% of African American men and women are either overweight or obese. Families are suffering from preventable illnesses and dying far too soon.

In our churches, prayer requests pour in from those needing healing for their bodies. 

While God is a prayer-answering, miracle-working and yolk-destroying God, breaking cycles of bad habits, irresponsible choices, and self-destructive behaviors is something we are responsible for doing. Thus, God helps those who help themselves.

Christian fitness guru and author of Witness to Fitness, Donna Richardson Joyner, tells EEW Magazine, when it comes to praying sickness and extra pounds away, “The Bible says faith without works is dead. Yes, I’m gonna pray with you,” she says, but no one can do the work for you.

Richardson-Joyner, who is a member of the President's Council on Fitness, Sports & Nutrition (PCFSN), shares a time when a woman said to her, “Donna can we pray for these cottage cheese thighs to go away? And another lady was like, Donna can we pray for this little muffin right here on my stomach to go away?”

The 55-year-old tells EEW, “I said, look y’all, we gone pray. But y’all gotta get rid of that fried fish and fried chicken, and gotta put on your sneakers, and y’all gotta do [more than] praise and worship a little longer than 4 minutes or 5 minutes. And, yeah, we gone pray, but you all got to take action.”

Richardson-Joyner’s message is simple. “It’s really teaching them how to fuel their body and soul with daily physical activity and daily nutrition. I always say, ‘You have to treasure your temple, not trash it.’”

In 2013, if you have been praying for health and long life, while trashing your temple, make a change. As 3 John 1:2 NIV says, “Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well.”

Pick up some weights so you can drop the weight. Put down the junk food so you can drop down a few dress sizes.

Your life depends on it.

RELATED: Donna Richardson Joyner says Anything Is Possible!