“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:13, NKJV)

Dear friend,

In this week’s Q&A we had some real, in the messiness-of-life questions. It was powerful and impactful. Questions like, How do make your habits stick—especially in the midst of hard circumstances and real emotions?

I get it. We all deal with hard situations in life. With hard situations come real emotions that we have to navigate in a graceful way on a daily basis.

Is it possible to maintain our faith and health routines despite these things?

Let’s go to the Word together, and look at this from a spiritual perspective and how this fits into our life in a practical way.

Q: Developing new habits and making them stick! It’s easy to let everything go in just one day and break from my routine. 

The way I look at my routine is that it’s preventative. If I miss a day, I’m ok with it and I don't label myself as a failure. I don’t get emotional about it, I don’t condemn myself, and I just move on. I’ve renewed my mind to see myself as healthy and that I make healthy choices. Everyone can do this!

If I allow myself to have the mindset of, “I missed a day, so I’m a failure and I’m never going to be healthy,” then I’m not going to try again tomorrow. Our thoughts are a self-fulfilling prophecy (Prov. 23:7). One day will turn into two days, which will turn into a month, and then a year. Before I know it, I’m 60 years old (and a little wiser by then), and I’ll either have to force myself to start making better choices or deal with a shorter lifespan and a poor quality of life.

Our choices are progressive and as we age, our bodies begin to show the weight of our choices increasingly (no pun intended). So if I’m maintaining my health now, then by the time I’m 60 it’ll be much easier to support a healthy lifestyle and steward my health. But if I’m unhealthy for 60 years, then the weight of those choices will be evident—it’ll take a toll on my spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical health. It will require a lot of focus and diligence to overcome the effects of all those years of unhealthy choices. But you can do it. Our bodies are created to heal themselves when we take care of them.

I don’t want to get to where I’m 50, 60, 70 years old and realize that I need to start taking better care of myself. It’s so much easier to steward our health at a young age and maintain our wellness now, so that we don’t have to make up for 60 years of bad choices.

If we look at this from a spiritual perspective, then let me ask you a question: How do you get saved and receive God’s grace of salvation?

We receive salvation by faith. “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,” (Eph. 2:8, NKJV). It’s not by works and doing everything right. We access salvation by faith.

God’s saving grace is available to the whole world, but not everyone is saved and walking in His light. Why is this?

Because not everyone has mixed their faith—believing in their heart and confessing with their mouth—that Jesus is Lord. Faith (or believing) is required to receive God’s gift of salvation.

The Bible tells us in Colossians 2:6 that the way we receive Christ (by faith), is the same way we have to continue to walk out our life (by faith). As we grow in knowledge of the Scriptures, we find that salvation through Jesus Christ is far more than just eternity in heaven—which is going to be absolutely amazing.

We find that Jesus also paid for us to be rescued (saved) in our life on earth—for us to be redeemed from the curse of sin, bondage, sickness, poverty, anxiety, all types of destruction, and fear. Jesus came to give us life and life more abundantly (Jhn. 10:10)! He came to give us health, healing, prosperity, freedom, and all of God’s precious promises so that we could partake of His divine nature and goodness in this lifetime (2 Pet. 1:3-4). If this is new to you, please read my book Hello, New You because it will go into a lot more detail about this.

Just as God’s gift of salvation requires our faith to receive, so also do all His promises require our faith in order to walk in them. Every day, we must use our faith in our health, finances, routines, relationships, and careers in order to access the promises that God’s grace provided.

But, it doesn’t stop there. Faith without works is dead (James 2:26).

I can have faith that I’m going to live with good health and prosper financially all the days of my life, but if I don’t put actions to my faith—and steward my health and finances according to God’s guidance in Scripture—then I’m not going to see those promises in my life. Our part is to take the truth in God's Word, believe it (mix faith with it), renew our minds to it, and let these truths become action in our life in practical ways.

It’s not our works that gain us acceptance with God so He’ll be pleased with us. No. He’s already pleased with us, and our faith accesses God's forgiveness, salvation, and acceptance. Thank you, Jesus!

Faith with action and application benefits you and the people around you. You will see and feel the changes in every area of your life and so will the people around you. People will see the goodness of God in your life—in your finances, your health, your career—and you will prosper in all that you do.

So if you miss your routine one day, you have to learn how to be ok with that, and not see yourself as a failure—just like if you mess up one day and sin, you wouldn’t think you’re going to hell. If we don’t do that with our salvation, why would we do that with any of God’s promises? Your faith is what makes you whole, not your actions. But, your faith PLUS actions is what causes you to enter into God’s promises in this lifetime. That includes your health and your daily routine. Yes, God cares and He wants to help you!

When you get up in the morning, use your faith in everything you do. Believe God’s promises that you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you (Phil. 4:13), ask God for help in your routine. Then, put action to your faith. Get dressed, show up at the gym, and rely on God's grace and strength to workout, eat healthy, and use self-control on a daily basis.

This is absolutely positively how I accomplish everything!

If you need help in a certain area, surrender that area to God! God’s strength within you can only be made perfect through your surrendered weaknesses (2 Cor. 12:9). It’s ok to be weak! Let God turn your weaknesses into His strengths.

Here's a practical list of things you can do to create a lifestyle that sticks—for life!

• Ask God to help you and then take a step of faith—every day!

• Create a simple daily and weekly routine, starting with 1-2 habits and build from there.

• Create a checklist to track your progress. Accomplishing small goals and crossing them off releases feel-good chemicals in your brain, so it's a win-win to keep a tracker!

• Invite a friend to join you! Being healthy with other people helps you to stay motivated and encouraged—you're not alone in this journey.

I pray that this strengthens you as you trust God with your health and wellness routine FOR LIFE!

Here’s the full list of questions that we answered in our live Bible Study:

• How do you develop new habits and make them stick? It’s easy to let everything go in just one day breaking from my routine. 

• I’m walking through a grieving season and need encouragement on staying with this challenge on days I don’t feel like it.

• Erin, what do you eat in a day?

Watch the full Bible study to learn more and hear all the answers! Watch here!

Special Announcements!

Don't forget! Beginning July 1st we're starting a book study! Every Tuesday night at 5:30pm MT, you can join us live on YouTube as we journey chapter by chapter through my book, Hello, New You! We’d love to have you join us! You can get my book on NewYouMinistries.com, which is now available in eBook!

My new book, Healthy Habits Made Simple, and the companion devotional habit tracker, The Faithful Year, will be released this September! Stay tuned for all the details!

Thank you, partners, for your financial and prayer support! Remember that God gives back liberally to those who sow into the Kingdom!

“Yes, God is more than ready to overwhelm you with every form of grace, so that you will have more than enough of everything—every moment and in every way. He will make you overflow with abundance in every good thing you do” (2 Corinthians 9:8, TPT).

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I'm cheering you on in faith and wellness!

Love you,
Erin

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