Three Small Words You Should Never Say

“For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.” James 2:26

Do you have faith?

I’m not talking about the kind of faith that believes in God–I’m talking about rock solid faith that says, no matter what, I trust you Lord; no matter where you lead me, I will follow.

Faith that says, “In your strength I can crush an army; with my God I can scale any wall.” Psalm 18:29

I truly believe that if you listen to someone long enough, you can learn a lot about their faith. The words we say reveal our faith AND our fears. Our language tells the world whether we truly believe God’s Word or if we’re just giving it lip-service.

In our defence, we often don’t realize how the things we say can sabotage our weight releasing goals and keep us from receiving many of God’s promises for us.

For example, there is one phrase that we say that always reveals our intentions (or lack of them). Even if we say we have rock-solid faith, when you use this phrase, it will give away what’s really going on deep down inside. We’re probably all guilty of using this phrase once, or 100 times. I often still catch myself saying it.

Let’s look at it in the context of our health:

• “I need to get to the gym.”
• “I need to eat better.”
• “I need to lose some weight.”
• “I need to spend more time in prayer.”
• “I need to ….” (insert your need)

Regardless of how much faith you say you have, the phrase ‘I need to’ will keep you from achieving your weight releasing goals if you always use it.

Why?

• Because it focuses on what you lack, not your faith.
• It only serves as a reminder of what you’re not doing (and probably will never do unless you develop a plan.)
• It conjures up feelings of guilt, shame and disappointment in yourself for not doing what you want to do.
• It does not take God into account when you say it.
• It does not consider his strength, his grace and his power to help you do the things that you are unable to in your own strength.
• Most importantly, IT DOES NOT LEAD TO ACTION!

The Bible teaches us that faith without works is dead. So my fellow overcomers, it’s time to stop constantly rehearsing the phrase, ‘I need to’ and actually DO SOMETHING.

‘I need to’ will never get you results. Saying ‘I need to’ will keep you in overwhelm mode, in guilt mode and frustration mode. It will continue to erode your faith.

Never mind what you ‘need to’ do, what ‘WILL’ you do?

I’m not saying this is easy for you but the Word teaches us that God’s yoke is easy (Matthew 11:30). He will do the heavy lifting for us. He will do the things that we are unable to do in our own strength when we put our trust in Him. But it will take willingness on our part. We’ve got to take the first step in faith.

Change your language from ‘I need to’ TO ‘I will’.

Instead, say

• “I will* go the gym on Saturday.”

• “I commit to changing my eating habits by eating more vegetables.”
• “I will* achieve my goal weight by December 31st”
• “I commit to releasing weight by exercising for 30 minutes each day.”
• “I will* wake up 15 minutes earlier each day to pray.”
• I choose to stop eating desserts everyday

* Note that if you’re going to use the word ‘will’ instead, it should alway have a specific date attached to it. 

Can you see the difference between using words like ‘commit’, ‘will’ and ‘choose,’ instead of ‘need to’?

When your mind receives the first few words, it sends a cue to take action, it feels inspired and ready to tackle the task; it goes to work looking for solutions to solve the challenge.

But when your mind hears the words “I need to” (again)

• it gets overwhelmed with feelings of guilt for not doing what you know to do.
• it remembers all the times that you’ve attempted to do something and failed and it so you will instantly get flooded with feelings of failure.
• it’s like a form of mental procrastination. It may feel good temporarily to say it but deep down inside, you’re setting yourself to a mental battle that you rarely win.

I challenge you today to get conscious of how many times you say the words, “I need to.”

It’s very possible you might have just told yourself, “I need to read this article again so I can remember this” … haha.

Don’t worry, change will take time. Start slowly with baby steps.

For now, don’t try to stop yourself from saying it. Just ask the Holy Spirit to bring it to your awareness.

By the grace of God, you got this!

P.S. if you are tired of circling the same mountain over and over and want a Christ-centered approach to lasting weight loss without feeling guilty, deprived, or overwhelmed, be sure to sign up for our video course program right away at cathymorenzie.com