Creating a God-Centered Self Image

Prayer is key! And when it comes to your health journey, having a God-centered self-image is your foundation. God at the center will drive your approach to your health. His will is the best way to develop your “why” and sustain your health journey long-term.

Let’s start with where you are today.

Who Came Up with Your Ideal Image?

It’s hard not to be influenced in some way by the diet culture. Advertising and social media push us to subconsciously tie our self-worth to how we look or what size we are. We have internalized the message that being thin takes priority over being healthy, and we’ve used unhealthy crash diets in hopes of a quick fix.

But an artificial goal based outside of our relationship with God won’t motivate us to be healthy versions of ourselves. Just the opposite! This type of ideal puts us on an other-directed treadmill where we chase a constantly moving carrot. There’s no true bliss point.

Do You Have an Abusive Relationship with Your Body?

It’s not just our culture that’s hard on us. Too often we are seeing ourselves from a blurry, or even bitter, perspective. We might tell ourselves cruel things like:

• I am too fat
• being thin defines me
• I hate the way I look
• I can never manage my blood pressure/diabetes/weight
• eating healthy is not for me
• healthy food will be horrible
• starving myself is worth it

Would God ever be so unkind? Yet many of us have been talking to the mirror this way since we were little girls.

Sometimes our negative relationship with food stems from the fact that we have lost our true self in some way, and we are trying to fill that void with food.

Put Yourself on Solid Ground

Having a God-centered self-image combats these unhealthy ways of thinking and grounds us in the stable force of God’s unconditional love. It allows you to look more toward how God sees you rather than shaping how you see yourself based on an ever-shifting fad, current culture, or false self.

Made in the Image of Your Creator

It’s also insecure to have a self-image based on what we did right—our accomplishments—or what we did wrong—our failures and weaknesses. Developing a Godly self-image is not based on what you do or have done but who you are in Christ. It is understanding that you are “fearfully and wonderfully made.” (Psalm 139:14) This statement is an unchangeable fact and doesn’t require that we do (or don’t do) something to gain value. Coming to rest in this concept is the validation you need to internalize—on a soul level—that you deserve to be healthy.

A Motivation that Won’t Quit

This foundation is the fuel we need to endure and overcome obstacles on the journey toward healthy living. Keeping yourself fit for God’s purpose for you also gives an unshakeable “why” to keep going and make healthy choices as a long-term lifestyle.

Seeing yourself from God’s perspective will cause you to develop goals around your health that truly serve you spiritually and physically. Through prayer, you can bring God into the steps of your health journey that are challenging and sometimes painful. God helps you identify your limiting beliefs, which then opens you up to make tangible changes toward your health. Through prayer, we take what we know we need to do to get healthy and move to action.

Ending the War with Your Body

Praying for a God-centered self-image allows us to embrace God’s love. This spills down to an unconditional acceptance of self, because we identify with God’s description of us rather than the fleeting opinions outside ourselves. Knowing we are accepted and loved by God pushes us to define our self-image beyond shallow concepts like sexy, fit, or slim. Now we can be elevated to value the divine that lives within us. We can strive to be stewards of our health because God has placed such high value on us.

A Shift in Perspective = The Power to Change

When we have a healthy self-image, we value ourselves enough to challenge what we put in our bodies and how we view our health. We strive to live out God’s best as it relates to our health. We cherish the body God gave us and act as stewards of our health.

Praying specifically for a Godly self-image is being intentional about shaping the narrative of who we are. It taps into the idea that our bodies are the temple of God. (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)

Are you inspired by how praying for a Godly self-image can empower you to make positive changes to your health? Then we would love for you to join A Prayer for Your Health 4-Day Challenge.