WHY to Fitness
The WHY to Fitness podcast is dedicated to supporting Christians in achieving peace of mind and heart in all areas of life because every aspect of life affects our health and fitness.
Hosted by Aaron O'Connell, an IFBB Professional athlete actively pursuing a Ph.D. in Counseling and Psychological Studies, the podcast's goal is to assist Christians in discovering their divine purpose while triumphing over spiritual, mental, and physical challenges related to their well-being.
At the core of this journey is the belief that God serves as the ultimate WHY, i.e., the ultimate driving force behind existence.
In this context, fitness is our ability to overcome the obstacles standing before the goal. It extends beyond exercise and nutrition to encompass relationships, mental health, finances, spiritual growth, and life experiences.
Tune in on a biweekly/weekly to access valuable insights, mindset strategies, theological discussions, interviews, and more to achieve success, which translates into attaining peace of mind and heart across every facet of life.
WHY to Fitness
10 Practical Ways to Offer Your Body as a Living Sacrifice
Imagine waking up every morning with renewed purpose and dedication to living a life that honors God. In this faith-filled episode of the WHY to Fitness Podcast, I, your host Aaron O'Connell, am thrilled to guide you through ten practical steps to transform your life into a living sacrifice for God, starting with dedicating your daily decisions to Him. We'll explore everyday practices, including healthy eating habits and how good sleep hygiene impacts your ability to serve God and others. Discover the significance of being intentional about our health and fitness and learn how serving others and pursuing holiness can offer our bodies a living testament to our faith.
As we journey, we'll delve into the power of being a living witness for Christ through our actions and words. We'll investigate how standing up for what is right can profoundly impact and reflect Christ's love and grace. You'll gain insights into the transformative power of scripture in guiding our decisions and actions and the unifying strength found in worship and fellowship with other believers. This episode is not just about spiritual health; it's about an ongoing conversation with God through prayer and living a life dedicated to worshipping Him in every aspect. So, join me, and let's embark on this journey together to live a life that truly honors God.
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your true and proper worship. Welcome to the Y2 Fitness Podcast. I'm your host, aaron O'Connell, and today I will be giving you 10 ways to offer your body as a living sacrifice to God. In Romans 12-1, the apostle Paul urges Christians to offer their bodies as a living sacrifice to God, which is a metaphor for living a life dedicated to God's service. So I want to give you 10 practical steps to embody this teaching. To start it off, devote your daily life to God. Begin each day by dedicating your actions, your thoughts and decisions to God. This could involve prayer, meditation or reading scripture to align your day with God's will. I really love how the message version puts Romans 12-1. He says so. Here's what I want you to do God helping you. Take your everyday, ordinary life your sleeping, eating, going to work and walking around life and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for Him. Your sleeping, your eating, going to work, walking around life we need to offer that to God. That is our true and proper worship. So how can we go about doing this?
Speaker 1:One thing that I have all the people that work with me that want to find peace over their health and their physical image is I have them log their food, and the way that I put this in perspective is a lot of us have been taught let's pray over our food. Let's pray over our food. Dear Jesus, thank you so much for this meal blessed to our needs. Jesus' name, amen, kind of thing. What are you blessing to your needs? What are your needs? Your body is a temple, as Paul says to the Corinthians. What does your temple need? Your eating? Let's offer that to Christ.
Speaker 1:A lot of people that I work with say oh, I eat really healthy, I eat really healthy. And then when they start logging their food, they start bringing it to God, their little details to God. They realize they're gravely mistaking. They're under eating protein, they're under eating nutrients. They're fibers in the dirt. Their calories aren't anywhere near what they thought they were. You're sleeping. Are you sleeping well? Have you dedicated it to God? A lot of people are struggling to sleep, yet they haven't brought God into that. Before they go to bed, they're consuming their social media, they're on the phones, they're watching Netflix, and then they're wondering why they can't sleep right.
Speaker 1:Colossians 3.17 says In whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and Father. Through Him, we need to take all of our lives. Let's bring Him into all of our lives. This is just one way we can offer our body as a living sacrifice. The second way is we need to serve others. We need to look for opportunities to serve and help others. This can be through volunteering, acts of kindness or simply being present and supportive for people in need. Serving others is a way of serving God.
Speaker 1:Colossians 5.13 says you, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free, but do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh. Rather serve one another humbly in love. Unfortunately, too many Christians are using their freedom to indulge the flesh. They're eating all that they want. They're getting unhealthy from all the crappy food they're eating from their laziness, and then when they are called to serve, they can't. They get overheated in the Florida heat. They're unable to go that extra mile because they don't have the energy to do so. They're too busy having to take medications and how sick they're constantly getting, they're unable to serve others, let alone truly looking for those opportunities to serve others. Jesus didn't come to be served. He came to be a servant, and when we serve others, we are offering our body as a living sacrifice. Once you start finding freedom within your health and fitness, you'll be able to help others find that same freedom too. That is what my whole program is about with the Y2 Fitness is to help Christians find freedom over their health and their physical appearance. So then, after you find that freedom, you can help others. You can serve others, find the same freedom that you have found.
Speaker 1:The next thing of how we can offer our bodies as a living sacrifice is to pursue holiness. We need to strive to live a life that is moral and ethically aligned with Christian values. This includes being honest, kind, forgiving, avoiding behaviors that are harmful to yourself and others. As 1 Peter 1.15-16 says but just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do. For it is written Be holy because I am holy. We need to be kind. We need to drop that anger. We need to be forgiving. When we forgive, we set ourselves free, regardless of whether they accept the forgiveness or not. We can be unhealthy if we're unforgiving people and cause major damage just on our bodies. If we're unforgiving. We need to be honest, because if we're not honest and we're lying and we're fibbing just a little bit and just taking the next leg to get up, it's going to affect our health, it's going to affect our bodies. If we're being stingy with our time, if we're being selfish, if we're being a glutton and eating too much, this is not being holy.
Speaker 1:Next one is study and apply scripture. I shouldn't have to even say this, but we need to regularly read and study the Bible. We need to seek and understand the teachings and apply them to our life. This will guide us in making decisions that honor God. 2 Timothy 3.16-17 says All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. Do you have any issues that you're struggling with? Are you going through a hard time? Do you need more knowledge or wisdom to figure out, to make a decision in your life of what's the next thing to do? Are you looking for your purpose? Are you struggling with anxiety or depression? If so, we need to dive into our Bible, read it regularly, study it, meditate on it and then apply them to our lives. Too many people think, oh, I don't need to read that, and they don't spend time in the word, and then they're wondering why they're struggling. If you're searching Google before you're searching the Scriptures, your priorities are backwards.
Speaker 1:The next thing that we need to do is we need to worship and have fellowship. We need to participate in communal worship and fellowship with other believers. This helps us to strengthen our faith and provides a community of support. Hebrews 10, 24-25 says let us consider how we may spur one another towards love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day approaching. We need to meet and have fellowship. We need to have fellowship together. Where two or more are gathered, surely God is there. The Scriptures say it will provide you that strength when you have that community around you. When you are weak, they may be strong, the areas that you are weak, and they will be strong. It's another reason to find a mentor or someone to help you if you're struggling with your health and fitness, because they'll be able to see your blind spots, on the days you don't feel like doing what must be done. They will get in your corner and be your personal cheerleader. They will remind you of the why you're doing and the why behind you're doing it, the deeper reasons that it's not just for selfish gratification but it's to celebrate God and all that he has done for you to serve others, to be in fellowship with others, to live holy. All those different reasons.
Speaker 1:Next one is to pray continually. We need to maintain an ongoing conversation with God throughout our day. We share our thoughts, our concerns and thanksgiving with Him. Verse Thessalonians 5.17 says pray without seizing, or pray continually. It shouldn't just be a in the morning thing or just night at night or before food. No, it's like your best friend. Talk to him daily before the meeting. Say, Lord, give me the words to say before you hop into the grocery store. Say, lord, help me make good decisions. Before you eat. You bless the food and you dedicate it to Him. You have Him eat. You make sure that you're doing all that. You're not eating it just for emotional gratification, but you're doing it for a way to fuel your body so you can fulfill the purpose that he has given you. When you're going into a conversation with anyone, pray to Him to give you the ability to listen more than you speak, because that's what the wise do. Proverbs say let's pray continually.
Speaker 1:Number seven. The next one is use your talents for God's glory. Identify your unique talents and gifts and find ways to use them in service to God and others, whether it be through your career, your hobbies or even volunteer activities. First, peter 4-10 says each of you should use whatever gifts you have received to serve others as faithful stewards of God's grace in its various forms. What are your gifts? What are the great things that God has given you? Where are you at? Within your work? No matter what you're doing, no matter what your job title is, you can use your talents for God's glory. If you're a mother, be the best mother you possibly can. If you're a business person, do everything to serve others with excellent quality. Look for the little person and bring them up. Work harder than everyone else. There's so many ways to use our talents. If you're a drawer, draw pictures and celebrate God. Don't say, look at what I did, look at the talents that God has bestowed upon me. When we use our talents for God's glory. That's another way we can offer our body as a living sacrifice.
Speaker 1:Number eight which this one may be the biggest one for a lot of people we need to practice self-discipline. We need to exercise control over our desires and impulses. This includes disciplines like fasting, controlling your temper, being disciplined in your use of time and resources. Paul says with Church of Corinthians and 1 Corinthians 927, no, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave, so that after I have preached others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize. I'm in fear for all the Christians that are going to be disqualified for the prize because they just go to so many different controls, things that give them satisfaction. They can't help but eat the dessert every single night because it's the one thing that makes them feel good. They have such a control over their lives. Or they're lusting after women or men, they're in sexual sin, or they're temper flers, or they use their time just to self-gratify themselves, when we only have oh so much amount of time here. We need to practice self-discipline. When we do that, when we do it for God's glory, he will come and reward us for that proper worship.
Speaker 1:Second last thing is we need to embrace the lifestyle of simplicity, live a life that's not overly focused on material possessions or worldly success, but focus on what is essential and valuable in God's eyes. Matthew 6, 19, 21 says Do not store up for yourself's treasures on earth where moths and vermin destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is there, your heart will be also. Where's your focus? Is your focus on getting more, more money, more fame, more power? Are you constantly focused on winning your friends over what other people think? Where are your treasures? There, your heart will be also. Are you focused just on your body all the time and what you're eating? Ask yourself when does most of my focus go? If most of your focus is going to God, you will live an abundant life. Your health will be increased, your wealth will be increased, your friendships, your love that you're experiencing will be increased. But unfortunately, we're so sucked in to the social media, to this mundane distractions of this world Netflix, anything, internet, work, whatever. It is just wanting to compete for your time. Where your treasure is there, your heart will be also, so let's embrace a lifestyle of simplicity.
Speaker 1:Last, but definitely not least, we can offer our bodies of living sacrifice by being a witness to others of our faith. We need to share our faith with others through our words and actions. We need to live in a way that reflects the love and grace of Christ. Matthew 5.16,. Jesus says in the same way let your light shine before others that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. Just be a witness. That doesn't just mean talk about your faith and walking up to be like hey, do you know Jesus Christ? Or yelling at people saying, oh, you're a sinner. No, just go through your actions. When someone gives you too much change back at a store, go back and give it back and then point it to Christ while you're doing it.
Speaker 1:Don't gossip when people start talking about another person and say hey, I prefer not to talk about other people, let's talk about something else. And if they make fun of you, you tell them why. You tell them why it's bad to gossip. You tell them what you learned in the Bible. God doesn't need a lawyer, he just wants a witness, and the strongest thing we can do is be a witness of what God has done in our own lives. If you were lost, but now you are found. If you are depressed and now you have joy. If you lacked friends and love, and now you have love and plenty of friends. If you, the shortest witness of Jesus Christ is right there in the Bible. I was blind and now I can see. That's it. What has God done for you? Where have you been and where are you now? Let people know that I was distracted and now I'm focused. Let's be a witness to our faith.
Speaker 1:These 10 things are how we can offer our body as a living sacrifice, which is our perfect, our true and proper worship of how we worship. It's not just singing on Sundays. We worship in everything. God sees everything, everything has. A living sacrifice is about a continuous daily commitment to live in a way that honors God, rather than a one-time act. It involves every aspect of life, from personal habits and relationships to how you interact with the wider world. So the question is are you going to live for yourself, for your own desires, for your own gratifications, for your own comforts, or are you going to offer your body as a living sacrifice to God?
