Compared to Who? a 10-Day Plan to Improve Your Body ImageSample

It's the first week of January. Every. Single. Year. Turn on your television, and—unless there's a freak blizzard—I promise you this. The weather will not be the lead news story.

Every program's lineup will feature a segment on improving your body.

New year, new you!

Lose the weight, finally!

Is this your year?

I eat it up. Maybe this is my year! My imagination stirs over the possibilities. Life could be so different with a better body.

Have you thought this too?

I know we just met, but I need to confess something. I struggled with my body image most of my life. Diets, exercise fads, miracle pills, and powders: I dabbled with everything I could find to change it. From Slim-Fast to the Thigh Master, I've tried them all. Nothing ever worked.

But a few years ago, God showed me something incredible about my body image struggles: They had nothing to do with my body.

Accepting this truth was difficult. It was easier to believe that someday, like Indiana Jones, I'd discover the Holy Grail of body confidence. Surely freedom would come with the right food or exercise plan.

Yet God prescribes something different. His formula for improved body image doesn't start with a new diet or gym membership. It begins with changing our hearts and transforming our minds.

Today we'll read Ezekiel 36, 2 Corinthians 5, and Psalm 51. In these verses, God tells us how he transforms our hearts. God sent Jesus to be the sacrifice for our sins. Through his death and resurrection, we can be made new in him. If you've accepted Jesus as Savior, God's already done a makeover on your heart!

But when it comes to changing our minds, most of us are a work-in-progress. In Romans 12, we read that our body is a living sacrifice. He instructs Christians to be transformed by renewing the mind instead of conforming to the world's ways.

Though they take a little longer than the makeovers you see on an hour-long morning show, God's makeovers last for eternity. When you allow God to change what you believe and think about your body, you take the first step down the path to finding freedom from body image issues! As Philippians 1:6 reminds: He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it!