Weight loss can be frustrating.  When I first started trying to get healthy, I often prayed and asked God to help me lose weight. One day a thought occurred to me: is my weight something I should pray about? With all the lost souls and suffering in the world, does God care how much I weigh? That question is more loaded than a baked potato with a pound of bacon. I believe the answer is a resounding paradoxical both NO and YES at the same time. Today we’re going to look at the NO side of the answer. Next week we’ll look at the YES.

No: God doesn’t care how much you weigh. He doesn’t worry about how tall or short you are, how pretty or plain you are, or how your butt looks in those jeans. God makes it very clear in the Bible that he’s concerned with who you are inside, not outside.

Jesus was not handsome; he “had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him” (Isaiah 53:2). King David’s brothers were handsome enough to make you drool, but God chose David because “people look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7). Jesus reprimanded the Pharisees for worrying about appearances but not being concerned about their wicked hearts (Matthew 23:25-28). Peter encouraged Christian women to worry more about pleasing God with their attitude and actions than about their hair, clothes, or jewelry (1 Peter 3:3-4). God doesn’t care how much I weigh. He wants me to use Jesus Christ, not a scale, to measure my life and my worth.

Besides, when we get to Heaven, God is going to give us new bodies that will live forever. (1 Corinthians 15:42-44) The bodies we have now are temporary, so relax! God doesn’t love you more if you’re skinny and less if you’re fat. He loves you as you are right now, no matter weight…I mean what. He won’t love you more if you lose weight and he won’t love you less if you gain. Let that sink in for a minute.

Does God care how much I weigh? NO. Is it okay to pray about my weight? Yes, because God cares about it too. Don’t let that part sink in: paradoxes will mess with your mind.

Are there any verses that have encouraged you with your own weight loss journey? Please share them in the comments below.

“So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable.” 1 Corinthians 15:42