Many weight-loss plans tell you exactly what to track, what to cut, and how quickly the scale ought to move. But they don’t teach you how to encourage a person with gentleness. The Next Faithful Step begins somewhere different – grace. Your body is not an enemy to fight. It’s a gift entrusted to your care.
Grace does not ask us to avoid the truth. It gives us courage to receive it. That’s why the next faithful steps invite us into two practical kinds of honesty that support the broader value of good stewardship: choosing rewards that support your journey and calculating a daily calorie goal based on your actual activity level.
Faithful Step 5 – Choose Rewards the Support Your Journey
A meaningful reward is personal, motivating, and life-giving. It celebrates a milestone without causing you to stumble. It’s a small but important acknowledgment that, “This work matters. This faithful step is worth noticing.”
Our workbook offers plenty of possibilities: something useful or beautiful you’ve wanted, a night away, time with friends who help you laugh and keep going, a hiking day or sporting event, new workout shoes, a massage, a retreat day, or simply protected time for something you enjoy. You might even choose to celebrate by giving time or money to a ministry serving people in need.
The point isn’t to choose the biggest or most impressive reward, but something meaningful that encourages you along the way and reflects the kind of life you’re learning to live. Choose it ahead of time. Connect it to a particular milestone. Then receive it with gratitude.
Faithful Step 6 – Your Calorie Goal is an Aspiration, NOT a Verdict
A daily calorie goal can be a helpful guide, but it should never become a measure of your worth. Start with a reliable weight-loss/food tracking app and be as honest as you can about the activity level that reflects your everyday life—not the one you hope to reach someday. It can be easy to overestimate how active we are, and when we do, the calorie target we receive may be higher than what supports steady weight loss.
I learned this through my own weight-loss journey. I played soccer and went hiking from time to time. So, I thought of myself as “active.” But, the reality was that I spent most of my day sitting at a desk writing code. Those active hours mattered, but they did not represent the overall rhythm of my days. Once I was willing to see that more clearly, I could choose a calorie goal that better reflected my actual life and gave me a sustainable place to begin.
The goal was never to judge or criticize myself. It was simply to begin with what was true. Honesty laid a solid foundation, but grace gave me the freedom to respond without shame. Jesus meets us in reality, not in the version of ourselves we think we should be. For me, telling the truth became another small, faithful step forward.
Honesty laid a solid foundation, but grace gave me the freedom to respond without shame.
Some Simple Questions for Today
How often do I exercise? How long is each session? Is my work mostly sitting, standing, walking, or physically demanding?
After you’ve taken some time to answer today’s questions, set aside 5 minutest to pray, “Jesus, help me receive both grace and truth. Teach me to care for the body entrusted to me and take the next faithful step today.”
Invitation
Click the button at the top of this page to download our FREE, beautiful workbook, “The Next Faithful Step: A Christ-Centered Weight Loss Journey“.
