Breaking Free from Body Shame: Dare to Reclaim What God Has Named Good

by Jess Connolly

When and how are you most tempted to treat your body like a project?

I'm tempted to view my body as a project in the mornings–it's something that must work and earn its keep. That's exacerbated further when I view social media accounts of fitness buffs or even when I scroll through Strava or YouTube workouts. It's all calling me to do more and be more.

the energy that goes into worrying about my body and “preparing” it would be so much better spent preparing my heart.

How can you actively stop agreeing that women’s bodies are open for objectification in your life?

I need to be more discerning over the media I U. because much of it at least I'm social media is objectifying women's bodies. I also need to fight back with truth,To spiritually engage the lies of the enemy for the thoughts of my own head about my body or other women's bodies when I see them.

Where and how can you seek to give God glory with your body?

I can seek to give Him glory in the mornings–acknowledging from my first breathe of the day that I am His and the usage of my body is for His glory. I can also do so in running and athletics, fighting to use these hobbies to celebrate this body instead of punish it out desk with anxiety in unhealthy ways.

What’s the truest thing about you?

I need to pray more about this for sure

Ask God to give you vision for something bigger than yourself that does not involve making your body acceptable to the culture. Ask Him for a calling, a task, or a prayer to which you can devote your energy. Go back to an important moment from your past, when you treated your body like a project. Ask God for eyes to see it the way He did. Ask Him for the ability to notice where He was and how ready you were, regardless of how your body looked.

To journal on!

My body was collateral damage in my quest to be someone worth knowing, someone worth loving.

I believe God wants good for your body. I believe He wants healing and restoration for you. I believe He wants freedom and wants you to experience the wholeness He purchased for you on the cross of Christ. But I don’t believe that means you’ll look like you’ve always hoped to look. I don’t believe restoration is defined by experiencing the bodies we idealize here on earth; rather, I believe it’s a far greater vision than that.

I believe that when my heart is surrendered to God, with Him on the throne, and His kingdom as the cornerstone of my worldview, I am able to see just how right and good my body already is.

if I believe that God created my body good, then I’m not working to make my body good but endeavoring to see it restored to its original creation.

like Peter, I look down at my physical circumstances and become obsessed with shelter. I get hung up on my physical body, even with God’s abundance available to me. When I do, I miss out on seeing Jesus and listening to Him. I miss the worship opportunity that’s right at my feet. I miss the memo straight from the mouth of God: “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!” Listen to him when He says your body is good. Listen to him when He says you are meant for restoration. Listen to him when He says the shelter is not the main event here—far from it—and when He invites us to behold the glory of Jesus instead of getting tripped up by our earthly bodies.

What if our driving mission, our deepest why, was no longer about trying to prove ourselves but about seeing what God can do and giving Him glory?

What if you declare war on the enemy of your soul, who wants you to think your body is a trophy, a marker of your righteousness, or a project to be completed, and you decide instead that your body is a place to see the goodness and glory of God restored and displayed?

Your body can rest; you can take a deep breath and stop participating in cycles of improving, tinkering, and provoking your body.

Worship is any act that allows us to be more in awe of God, more aware of God, or creates a space for us to give Him praise.

Are you open to God changing your mind? Is God allowed to change your mind, not just once, but in an ongoing process to help you see yourself and the world the way He does? Do you want to think about yourself and others the way God does? Are you willing to work at that—capturing the ideas you have held to, holding them up to His truth, and shifting them so your life can be continually made new?

Is God allowed to change your mind about what a good body looks like? Is God allowed to change your mind about what it looks like to actively love and care for your good body? If He’s not allowed to change our minds, I’d argue that our connection with Him is not worship. And if it’s not worship, we can’t experience restoration.

When you live in worship, you love what God loves and start to see everything the way He does, including your body.

many of us may come to this work wanting to be better, to be someone new, to grow past or out of our current realities. But the restoration we experience when we worship is what our souls and our communities need most.

Have you ever thought about why you want healing or restoration in your body?

My reason for wanting to heal or improve my body physically is all too clear too me–I want to have a controllable object at the source of my worth. But even that is impossible bc I can fully control my body, and the barometer of worth in my head arbitrarily changes. 😞

want

I want to grow because i want to be free in Christ! I don't want my physical body to impede my relationship with God and others any more!

If God Himself declared the war of condemnation against our souls over, why would we continually attribute this condemning, conditional message to Him?

We live in the kingdom. And the Lord looks at the heart. Your body is not a marker of righteousness, and it cannot and will not be used by God to determine your worth. What’s more, it should not be used by anyone else to determine your goodness, readiness, or value in the kingdom or on earth.

humility says I can learn from anyone about anything. But in an area of my life as fragile and as precious as the way I perceive my body, where I have experienced extreme hurt and miraculous healing, I do not consent to be taught by people who do not have a kingdom-minded mentality.

What if moving wasn’t about fixing your body or provoking it or treating it as a project? What if moving was about taking care of the vessel He’s placed you in and using those moments to praise Him, thank Him, and glorify Him with what you’ve got?

The most important question you and I may have to answer is this: Do we want to be a part of the revival that will take place when the women of our generation begin to believe their bodies are good and start acting like they do?

We all get to choose whether we’ll play a part in the journeys of the women around us as they come to see their bodies in a kingdom light or whether we’ll contribute to the cultural soundtrack that is keeping them in bondage. We all get to decide, with every conversation, with every worshipful move we make with

our own bodies, if we’ll be a spark of light in a dark place.

If we don’t pause and tell God we’re sorry for how we haven’t lived and believed as if our bodies are good, we won’t experience the refreshment that will keep our souls pressing forward. And if we simply try to modify our behavior instead of surrendering our hearts, we won’t see the kind of true and lasting fruit that will motivate us to keep going.

Your body is not the world’s to weigh in on. Your body is not a project or a marker of righteousness. Your body is neither a trophy nor the best thing about you.

Your body is good. The world is wrong. The enemy is a liar. Rest and restoration and revival are yours for the taking. Let’s get after it.

As it pertains to women’s bodies and their worth, would you rather things stay the same? Do you enjoy the status quo? Do you benefit from it? What do you stand to lose if women begin to believe their bodies are good?

This is a good yet hard question. I kind for revival and to be a part of it! That is a strong passion of mine! Yet I will lose the sinful level of pride I take in being "better" than others. For of women start to view their bodies as good, my shaky foundation shifts.

God help me want to see You more than I want to see my body fit into some culturally acceptable mold. Help me want You more than I want my body to seem good to others. Help me believe what You’ve said about my body.

When we wade into the waters of repentance, intercession, and revival—when we get so deep that we’re caring not just for ourselves but for others, we can’t help but let the mercy of God wash over us.