While God is sovereign over every aspect of our lives—including the precise number of breaths we will take—He has created our bodies to generally perform better and for longer with a balanced diet and regular exercise.  The better we take care of our bodies through diet and exercise (as well as things like sleep, hygiene, and proper preventative medical care), the longer they will generally last.  We will therefore have more energy and ability to serve the Lord actively for far longer.  

Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance. For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe.
-1 Timothy 4:7-10, ESV
The new year is fast approaching, so the season for resolutions is upon us.  Some of the most common involve losing weight and starting to exercise.  As a result, what I call the “resolution rabble” overwhelms gyms across the country before dying off as most people lose motivation and quit.  People similarly begin diets with great discipline but likewise lose motivation and go back to old habits.  The shape stays a bit round and the pounds stay on.  On the other side, diet and exercise can become an obsession, leading to faithful devotees to various exercise routines, products, diets, and practices.  How should we look at this biblically?  What does Scripture say about fitness and health that can guide us to actually accomplish those resolutions?
A Greater Purpose for Health and Fitness
Arguably the biggest reason health and fitness resolutions fail is a lack of vision and purpose.  Why “get in shape”? Why lose weight?  Without this, people quit at the first sign of adversity.  As part of the futility resulting from the Fall (Genesis 3:18, Romans 8:20), diet and exercise both require effort for quite a while before seeing any results, which leads to frustration that could cause us to quit.  Only a purpose much larger than ourselves and our pleasure can overcome the frustration of seemingly fruitless pain.  Scripture clearly defines that purpose: “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31).  As the first question of the Westminster Shorter Catechism states, our primary purpose is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.  That must be the motivation behind everything we do, including our approach to diet and exercise.  We want to get in shape in order to glorify God.  We want to lose the weight in order to glorify God.  That is the purpose that can turn a resolution that is easily cast aside into a strong habit that produces real results.
Two Wrong Approaches
This naturally leads to two extremes that must be avoided.  The first is to over-spiritualize diet and exercise.  We can come to see particular diets, like the “Daniel Diet”, as paths to righteousness and their opposites as defiling the temple of the Holy Spirit.  Scripture clearly teaches that since the Holy Spirit indwells believers, we are His temple, which is a major motivation to glorify God in how we treat our bodies: “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).  Yet Jesus made it very clear that we do not desecrate that temple through what we eat or drink: “There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him” (Mark 7:15).  He therefore declared all foods clean (Mark 7:19).  Only in sexual immorality does a man sin against his own body (1 Corinthians 6:18) so only sexual immorality desecrates our bodies in which the Holy Spirit dwells.[1]  Junk food, alcohol, and tobacco cannot do that, so diet and exercise are not the path to righteousness.  The same can be said of any attempt to avoid sin through bodily severity:
If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations—“Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.
-Colossians 2:20-23, ESV
No matter how severely we treat our bodies, those habits will not stop the indulgence of the flesh.  Remember, self-control is a fruit given by the Holy Spirit through the vehicle of faith, not by bodily deprivation.  We must not over-spiritualize diet and exercise and therefore overemphasize the importance of our physical bodies.
The opposite error is to disregard diet and exercise entirely.  I have heard people cite Proverbs 28:1 as an excuse for avoiding exercise: “The wicked flee when no one pursues, but the righteous are bold as a lion”.  They also shun any semblance of dieting by pointing out that in the Mosaic Law the fat was holy to the LORD (Leviticus 3:16). They may not sinfully over-indulge in food, alcohol, and smoking, but they partake of these things enough to negatively affect their bodies.  In rightly avoiding the error of over-spiritualizing the body, they under-spiritualize it.  First, they are clearly committing the cardinal sin of bible study by taking these verses out of context.  They ignore the many proverbs against laziness (Proverbs 6:6-11, 13:4, 19:24, 21:25) and gluttony (Proverbs 23:2,21, 25:16,27) and the ceremonial aspects of laws regarding fat.  This, like the “cultural cop-out”, is an attempt to make the Bible say what we want in order to support our desires rather than subordinating our desires to the Bible.
Stewardship and Self-Control
Instead, the concept of stewardship is prevalent throughout Scripture.  As we saw with tithing, all we have ultimately belongs to God.  He entrusts it to us and then charges us to take care of it for His glory.  That includes our bodies.  In commanding husbands to follow the example of Christ with the Church by nourishing and cherishing their wives as their own bodies (Ephesians 5:28-29), he is assuming that we love our own bodies by nourishing and cherishing them.  We must care for ourselves physically, but taking care of ourselves physically must not supersede our pursuit of godliness.
If you put these things before the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, being trained in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine that you have followed. Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance.
-1 Timothy 4:6-10, ESV
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Our opportunities for growth are limited because we have grown comfortable. And in our comfort, we forget the Lord. Obviously we don’t forget him altogether, but we forget what he actually demands of us. Because, in truth, if we hadn’t, we would be doing it. After all, Jesus said, ‘if you love me, you will keep my commandments’ and that includes all those difficult and highly uncomfortable things. We need to take seriously the call of Jesus and make ourselves much more willing to become much less comfortable.

When we read passages of scripture like the parable of the sower, we see four types of people. And three of those four are not saved. One of them doesn’t accept the Word from the off. But the two others appear to believe but later fall away. One of those falls away as a result of suffering and hardship, which seems to be what we expect. The other falls away because they get taken up with the cares of the world and exactly how that works its way out is interpreted slightly differently depending on who you are listening to.
I think many of us instinctively recognise the first two of those. We know there are those who never believed and those who face hardships and fall away. So far, no surprises really. The third group is often interpreted – often thanks to the more old fashioned ‘cares of the world’ translation – as being those who are consumed with worldly troubles and anxieties that drag them away. I’m not so convinced this is necessarily intended to convey cares as anxieties and troubles necessarily, so much as the things of the world. But because of that interpretation, those who fall away are thought to be those experiencing trouble of one kind or another.
It is this, I think, that makes Deuteronomy 8 so jarring to us when we read it. Here is what vv6-18 say:
6 So keep the commands of the Lord your God by walking in his ways and fearing him. 7 For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land with streams, springs, and deep water sources, flowing in both valleys and hills; 8 a land of wheat, barley, vines, figs, and pomegranates; a land of olive oil and honey; 9 a land where you will eat food without shortage, where you will lack nothing; a land whose rocks are iron and from whose hills you will mine copper. 10 When you eat and are full, you will bless the Lord your God for the good land he has given you.
11 “Be careful that you don’t forget the Lord your God by failing to keep his commands, ordinances, and statutes that I am giving you today. 12 When you eat and are full, and build beautiful houses to live in, 13 and your herds and flocks grow large, and your silver and gold multiply, and everything else you have increases, 14 be careful that your heart doesn’t become proud and you forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery. 15 He led you through the great and terrible wilderness with its poisonous snakes and scorpions, a thirsty land where there was no water. He brought water out of the flint rock for you. 16 He fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your ancestors had not known, in order to humble and test you, so that in the end he might cause you to prosper. 17 You may say to yourself, ‘My power and my own ability have gained this wealth for me,’ 18 but remember that the Lord your God gives you the power to gain wealth, in order to confirm his covenant he swore to your ancestors, as it is today.
Though the Israelites were prone to grumbling when things were not going so well, the greater danger for them was when the Lord had provided all of their needs and more besides. They were far more likely to become complacent and care far less about the Lord when everything was going well. In other words, one of the greatest dangers for God’s people was their own comfort.
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In spite of the fact that a Christian may backslide for a time and that remaining corruption may prevail, yet every true Christian will, ultimately, over the course his life, make progress in sanctification by means of the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit in His heart. Holiness will continue to be perfected in a climate of godly fear. He will continue to press after a heavenly life. And over time, he will grow in evangelical obedience to all the commands of Christ as he becomes aware of them. 

Having been definitively sanctified, the Christian is being progressively sanctified, although not perfectly sanctified in this life. He or she will always battle with remaining sin. But, at the same time, the true Christian will not ultimately be destroyed. In the conflict he will never apostatize, and he will grow and increase in Christian virtue. This is the emphasis of the third and final paragraph of this chapter of the Confession:
In which war, although the remaining corruption for a time may much prevail, yet, through the continual supply of strength from the sanctifying Spirit of Christ, the regenerate part does overcome; and so the saints grow in grace, perfecting holiness in the fear of God, pressing after an heavenly life, in evangelical obedience to all the commands which Christ as Head and King, in his Word has prescribed to them.
A Progress That May Sometimes Experience Setbacks
“In which war, although the remaining corruption for a time may much prevail…”
Consider the experiences of Noah falling prey to drunkenness, Abraham lying about his wife Sarah and putting her in danger, Moses striking the rock, David falling into adultery, as well as covering his sin and delaying repentance for a time, and Peter denying the Lord and giving way to the cowardly fear of man. These are all examples of true believers in whom, for a time, remaining corruption prevailed.
A Progress That Will Ultimately Not Be Thwarted
In all of those examples just given, none of these saints remained in such a sad spiritual condition indefinitely. Each one of them eventually repented and renewed their faith and devotion to God. It is possible to lose a battle without losing the war. When walking up a long stairway, one may fall or even slide back a few steps, but still persevere and advance toward the top. Sometimes sanctification can give the same appearance of halting progress. But as the Confession goes on to say, “In which war, although the remaining corruption for a time may much prevail, yet through the continual supply of strength from the sanctifying Spirit of Christ, the regenerate part doth overcome.”
The Agent and Essence of this Progress
It is through the continual supply of strength from the sanctifying Spirit of Christ who indwells every believer that the believer is enabled to overcome.
The Confession says, “and so the saints grow in grace.” This is a concise way of describing progressive sanctification.
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