Body Blessings: Scriptures to Praise God With Your Body

The following Scriptures are taken from Body Blessings: A 30-Day Journal to Praise God with Your Body Through Prayer, Intuitive Eating, and Joyful Movement.

We believe the best way to let these truths sink in is to pick up a pencil and participate in working out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you (Phil 2:12)!

As you write in faith, you will see the Lord speaking in a new way, deepening your relationship and enlightening your eyes, the heart of how you see yourself, through the way God sees you. We encourage you to grab a blank journal and write down your prayers and thanksgivings and give space for the Lord to respond with His Word.

Here is a sneak peak at the journal content, along with a few more bonus Scriptures to dwell in. Walk through each step out of your bad body image day and into the joy of the Lord!

Give God Your Body Image Anxieties

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in all things by prayer & petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God and the peace of God that transcends understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus” Phil 4:6-7

What are you anxious about? Free your body from stress hormones by working them out on paper, giving thanks to God and telling your Father what you need. Even if you aren’t sure what you’re anxious about, write whatever comes to mind. Just get it out of your head and cast your cares on the Lord. He will transform them into something beautiful.

What Does God Say About Your Body?

I sought the Lord, and he answered me

    and delivered me from all my fears.

Those who look to him are radiant,

    and their faces shall never be ashamed.

Psalm 34:4-5

Patterned after the Psalms call-and-response prayer, after you write down your needs, write down His response. Search more Psalms for more examples! Let Him speak personally to you through His Spirit, confirmed by His Word.

“So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.

And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”  Genesis 1:27-28

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men, yet they cannot fathom the work God has done from beginning to end. Ecclesiastes 3:11

You are altogether beautiful, my love; there is no flaw in you. Song of Songs 4:7

Close your eyes and ask the unseen God how He sees you, His daughter and beloved redeemed one. He will give you eyes to see.

Praise God With Your Body

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. Psalm 139:14

Let us turn our praise to God for the gift of our body. We didn’t earn our body, it was given to us! We have nothing to be entitled about and everything to be grateful about!

Use this time to give thanks for everything that is going well. So many systems and cells have to work together for good for us to function, to even see and read these words. Let us be thankful for his wonderful works.

“Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom he has redeemed from trouble.” Psalm 107:2

“I will walk before the LORD in the land of the living.” Psalm 116:9

Let’s explore the many ways we can praise God with our body, and learn gratitude as we walk through the gates of thanksgiving.

Move joyfully

Even when we don’t feel grateful, we can live out His commandments by doing them, and receive the blessings of His presence and joy along the way.

“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” Romans 12:1

Our spiritual act of worship is our physical surrender. Let us praise God with our body with joyful movement. The Bible is full of people putting feet to their faith! Here are a few specific to our body:

Legs: “I will run in the way of your commandments when you enlarge my heart!” Psalm 119:32

Arms: “She dresses herself with strength and makes her arms strong.” Proverbs 31:17

Face: “To you I lift up my eyes, O you who are enthroned in the heavens!” Psalm 123:1

Don’t forget to protect your heart with His armor:

“Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness arrayed, and with your feet fitted with the readiness of the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” Ephesians 6:14-17

Give Thanks for Christ’s Body

When in the throes of a bad body image day (or season), consider Christ. He is the living example of what it means to put on flesh and live in the Spirit. He was made perfect through suffering, all for the joy set before Him of getting to not only set us free from shame, but to dwell with us forever.

This is Christ, who lived and died and rose again:

"And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth." John 1:14

“For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.” Colossians 1:19

"And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross." Philippians 2:8

"But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed." Isaiah 53:5

"For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." 2 Corinthians 5:21

"Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted." Hebrews 12:3

Take a moment and bow your head to your heart in surrender to the One who gave His body up for you, so you can be a walking witness of thanksgiving for Him.

Thank God for the Body of Christ

In Christ, we are part of one body. Not only are we not alone, but we are now a part of God’s family. When you have a bad body image day, reach out to your fellow brothers and sisters, knowing that we get stronger as we lift one another up with the strength of the Lord.

"And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent." Colossians 1:8

“...[S]o in Christ we who are many are one body, and each member belongs to one another.” Romans 12:5

There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. Ephesians 4:4-6

"Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love." Ephesians 4:15-16

Give thanks for those God already put in your life to bring awareness of the present help in a time of trouble. Write their names down, and if you feel prompted, reach out to them with a text, a loaf of banana bread, a fresh cutting in a mason jar from the outdoors.

Take Action to Praise God with Your Body Today

Considering how you have so much to give thanks for, write down how you can praise God with your body.

“He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God.” Psalm 40:3

"So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." 1 Corin 10:31

"My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the LORD; my heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God." Psalm 84:2

"Sing to the LORD, all the earth! Tell of his salvation from day to day." 1 Chronicles 16:23

"For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’" Matthew 25:35

Share your testimony, eat, drink, sing, or serve in gratitude. By doing so, you’ll be getting out of your own body image script and into the real life pages of the gospel.

Still Feeling Bad About Your Body?

Remember that this too shall pass. God’s love for you does not. His Word will never pass away, so keep storing it up in your heart!

There are so many more verses in the Bible that lift our eyes from ourselves and onto the Lord, who in turn heals our vision so we can see correctly. Keep searching the Scriptures for who God says He is, and who He says you are in Christ! I would also love to hear your favorites, if you’d like to add them in the comments.

Let’s wrap this up with the other arm of Psalm 139 in a big ole body image hug. Stop what you’re doing, and pray this to the God who has already searched you and loves you:

Search me, O God, and know my heart!
Try me and know my thoughts!
And see if there be any grievous way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting! Psalm 139:23-24

Improve Your Body Image with our Body Blessings Course

God designed our bodies with care, how wonderfully He made us! We can practice praising God by re-learning how to trust our bodies. He blessed us with internal cues for regulating hunger and fullness, cravings to signal nutritional needs, and taste buds to provide enjoyment in eating.

We have an entire course to help you connect with how God has made you through the prompts and Scriptures from this blog post so you can glorify God and enjoy your life to the full.

We hope is blesses you as you praise God with your life, including with your whole body!