Episode 3: It’s Not about Shame, It’s about Stewardship

Shannan Painter: It’s popular to hear this idea: you should just accept your body the way it is. Now there might be a nugget of truth in that idea, but Erin Davis warns us against taking it too far.

Erin Davis: If I were to adopt that idea a couple of years ago—“I love my body just as it is!”—I would not be here teaching you right now. I’d be six feet under . . . dead.

Shannan: This is The Deep Well with Erin Davis. I’m Shannan Painter. How many times have you heard messages about your finances? Experts and pastors tell us, “It all belongs to God!” What if we applied that principle to our physical abilities?

Erin’s about to do that as she continues in the series “Embodied.”

Erin: One of the words that should mark the life of every follower of Jesus is “stewardship.” The big idea is relatively simple: Everything we have is God’s. It has all been entrusted into our care, so we need to steward or manage or invest or protect or care for it well.

I’ve heard many a sermon on stewarding money well, and we need those. I’ve heard a few sermons on stewarding our time well, and we need those, too. But what about body stewardship? I mean, I am blessed to say that I have more than one dollar entrusted to me—and all of us will over the course of our lifetime.

And while time is finite, we do each get twenty-four hours every single day to use for God’s glory. But we only get one body. Shouldn’t we steward it like it matters a lot? Every Friday I have a ritual. I turn over the page in the legal pad that sits on my desk, and at the top of that fresh sheet of paper (I love doing this!) I write three things every week before I write down my to-do list for the coming week.

The first one, #1 (circle it!): Be with Jesus. He is your Source.

The second one, #2 (circle it!): Love your family well. Sometimes I’ll write, “Give them grace.” Sometimes I’ll write a Puritan quote that I love, which is: “Make your home an incubator for heaven.”

And then #3 (circle it!): I will say, “Take care of your one precious body!” 

Why do those things become first in the list? Because they are mission-critical! They are in the spirit of what I believe Jesus meant when He taught us to seek first the kingdom, and that all other things would be added unto us. We’ve got to get our priorities right!

If that feels like a stretch, I’d like to repeat something I shared in the “Among the Sequoias” season of The Deep Well, because this was really an epiphany for me: everything God has assigned to me (everything God has assigned to you), we must do from a body.

I am supposed to love the man I married twenty-two years ago, “until death do us part,” and I do it from a body. I’m supposed to love the four children God has given me and point them to Jesus, and I do that from a body.

As we talked about in the last episode, we’re supposed to love our neighbor, and that is an embodied thought. I’m supposed to know and live God’s Word from a body. I’m supposed to teach the Bible from a body. We’re supposed to “Go therefore and make disciples,” from a body! We are embodied servants of Jesus!

That means that the same stewardship principles we see in Scripture for managing our time and managing our money apply to our bodies. So what are those principles, exactly? I’m going to give you five.

Stewardship Principle #1: Everything I have is God’s. King David was pretty prone to flowery language, especially in the psalms. But in Psalm 24:1, he cut right to the chase. David wrote, “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all its people belong to Him” (NIV84 paraphrased).

Romans 11:36 tells us that everything is made for Jesus and everything is made by Jesus. It’s all His! This reality helps us live open-handed when it comes to our money and our stuff. . .it helps us live happy and grateful lives because we know God gave it all to us, it’s all His. But it doesn’t just apply to our money and our stuff. It also applies to the stuff we’re made of! What would change in your life if you started operating as if your cells belong to Jesus? Because they do!

Stewardship Principle #2: Everything can be used in the Lord’s service. This is very exciting to me! It’s the principle of the widow’s mite recorded in Luke 21. Here’s the big idea: You take what you have, however small and insignificant it might seem, and you offer it to the Lord as your sacrifice.

I’m fond of saying, “It’s all loaves and fishes!” That’s another story from the gospel, where they have a little bit of bread and a little bit of fish, and what in the world could the Lord do with that?! Well, He could feed a lot of people . . . and there could be leftovers on the ground! (see Luke 9). And the same is true for every part of your life.

You might go, “I don’t have very much money. What could the Lord do with it?” It doesn’t matter what you have, it matters what He can multiply! “I have a little, bitty house; what can the Lord do with it?” He can multiply it! “I’ve got a little time. What can the Lord do?” He can multiply it!

The one hundred thousand heartbeats you get per day, they can be used in the Lord’s service. The eight thousand steps—and you should be taking eight thousand steps, by the way, at least. They can be used in the Lord’s service, too. 

And the six hundred seventy-two million, seven hundred sixty-eight thousand breaths you will get if you live until eighty, every single one of them can be used in the Lord’s service! Consider Colossians 3:23–24:

Whatever you do, work heartily, as if for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you’ll receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. (NKJV)

Everything you do, however big or however seemingly small . . . 

You know in kingdom math, we don’t know what’s big and what’s small. That’s not how the kingdom works! Jesus was telling us that the first shall be last and the last shall be first (see Matt. 19:30) and whoever sits at the unimportant part of the table is really one of the great ones (see Luke 14).

He takes our little bit of stuff and He multiplies it, so you don’t even know what is a small offering! But Paul was writing here in Colossians, everything you do can be done in the service of your good and returning King. I think the meaning of “whatever you do” here in this text is . . . “whatever you do.”

And ultimately, this idea of stewarding our bodies for the good of the kingdom and the glory of God means. We’re not doing it for toned abs! (which makes me want to roll on the ground and laugh . . . four babies later.) 

That’s not why we’re doing it! We’re doing it to earn a reward from God for faithful stewardship! There are very few words I long to hear more than, “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Matt 25:23 KJV).

But here’s a follow-up question: Have you been faithful with the one precious body God has given you? 1 Peter 4:10 says, “As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace . . .” (ESV)

We use this verse to talk about spiritual gifts, and we should. The reason I’m standing up here with my Bible is that God has given me a gift of teaching, and I’ve used that gift to serve you. 

My gifts belong to you, and your gifts belong to me. But we so often miss the more practical applications. “As each of you has received a gift.” The gift of your body, use it to serve one another!

Isn’t this where the world gets it so wrong!? It says that we are supposed to use our body to serve ourselves! We’re supposed to use our bodies for our own pleasure, our own gain, our own accolades. And here Scripture is saying, “Each of you has received a gift . . .”

In fact, we’ve received many gifts! And the reason you’ve been given those gifts is to live out the primary calling on your life, which is the glory of God, and you’re supposed to also use them to serve one another.

We talk about being “the hands and feet of Jesus,” and yet, we so often live as if we don’t have to use our actual hands and our actual feet. Every part of you, from the top of your head to the tips of your toes, can be used in God’s service. Isn’t that exciting!?

You don’t have to go out and get some fancy seminary degree. You don’t have to be rich. You don’t have to be extra good at something. You can just use the body God has given you to serve Jesus the King and the people He’s made.

My momma was so good at this. (She’s failing. We just put her on hospice, so we’re watching her in her final days.) She would wake up and she would say, “Lord, who do You want me to bless today?” And she meant it!

Then she’d spend her morning whipping up a meal for a momma that just had a baby, or go weeding a garden of somebody who was sick, or go and take a walk with someone who was sad—I mean, every day!

First she sought the Lord, she understood the mission: “This day was given to me as a gift to glorify God and to serve others.” Then she got busy moving her body to do it! I’m so grateful for her example! 

Stewardship principle #3: We are in the business of multiplication. I guess to be theologically correct, I should say that, “The Spirit is in the business of multiplication, and He uses us to do it.” I’ll take us back to Genesis 1. What was the first command and blessing God gave the first image bearers? “Be fruitful and multiply” (Gen. 1:22).

There’s a compounding that happens in the Christian’s life, this perpetual multiplicity. This is what Jesus was talking about in Matthew 25:15 when He gave us the parable of the talents. You know it: a man gave to his servants talents in different amounts, and some of them invested them.

But one of them, in fear, dug a hole in the ground. Actually, his fear was that his master was not good. We don’t steward things well when we don’t trust that our Master is good. And so, instead of investing the resources that his master had given him, he buried them.

Now it’s true that did keep the money safe, but when the master returned, he scolded the servant because he didn’t invest what had been given to him in a way that returned dividends, like the other two servants.

How do we invest our bodies in ways that cause multiplicity? I’d say that this is a pretty strong argument for embracing children as the blessings that the Bible says that they are, in this increasingly anti-kid world. But that’s the macro.

The micro, or the smaller, the everyday application is it means that the way we invest our limited energy should multiply in the lives of others. Rather than simply protecting our limited resources and burying them in the backyard, we say, “God, I’ve got this many hours today. I’ve got this much energy today. I’ve got two legs that are working today, two hands that are working today.” Not everybody can say that.

But whatever you’ve got, we say, “God, I want you to multiply what I have in ways that are going to give You glory and are going to serve Your people.” Speaking of God’s glory . . .

Stewardship Principle #4 is: For the Christian, it’s not about rules, it’s about God’s glory. It’s time to head back to 1 Corinthians. (I called it the Body Book in episode 1.) Think about your body and your stewardship of it in light of these words, 1 Corinthians 10:23–24. I’m going to read it to you from the ESV and then the NLT.

“All things are lawful,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful,” but not all things build up. Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor. (ESV) 

Remember the context. Paul’s writing to Christians in a church that has forgotten that their bodies matter and the other principles of the body that he taught us. He says, “‘All things are lawful,’ but not all things are helpful.” Now listen to it from the NLT: 

You say, “I am allowed to do anything”—but not everything is good for you. You say, “I am allowed to do anything”—but not everything is beneficial. Don’t be concerned for your own good but for the good of others.

They were trying to understand grace. They were trying to understand that if Jesus paid the price for their sins at the cross and they didn't have to follow all the religious rituals anymore, what did that mean? And as we tend to do, they swung a little too far in the wrong direction. They were saying, “I can do whatever I want! I’m covered by grace!”

And Paul’s saying, “Yeah, I guess technically that’s true. But even though everything is permissible, it’s not all good for you.” And then he points us back to this principle we keep talking about: don’t be concerned for your own good but for the good of others.

So let’s say the question on the table is, “Should I eat the donut?” Of course, eating a donut is well within the realm of Christian freedom. It has nothing at all to do with your worth to God or your salvation through Jesus. Eating a donut—eating a box of donuts!—is totally lawful and permissible.

But Paul gave us a stewardship question here: “Is it helpful? Is it beneficial? Does it help me love others?” How about, “Do I have to exercise!?” You can never lift a barbell your entire life, and God’s love and your robes of righteousness are never going to be in question. But is that approach helpful? Is it beneficial? Does it help you love your neighbor?

Last Stewardship Principle, #5: You always (always, always, always) reap what you sow. Look at 2 Corinthians 9:6–7. Again, this is Paul writing, and I’m trying to help you understand that Paul writes his continuous thoughts.

We put chapter headings in and verses and that’s good, that helps us navigate things. But these ideas are all interconnected. The Bible is an echo chamber in the best possible way. It’s affirming itself; it’s affirming God’s truth. So this is Paul writing here in 2 Corinthians 9:6–7.

The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

I hope right now what is rising up in you is, “Erin, I count on you to teach Scripture in context!” And this is a passage about money!” You should count on me to teach the whole Bible, and when I don’t, you should hold me to it.

But every text is part of a context, and the context of this chapter of Paul’s letter is that the church needs to be ready to take care of each other. Keep reading, verses 11–14: 

You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God. For the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints [remember that’s the context, he’s talking about how we take care of each other] but is also overflowing in many thanksgivings to God.

By their approval of this service, they will glorify God because of your submission that comes from your confession of the gospel of Christ, and the generosity of your contribution for them and for all others, while they long for you and pray for you, because of the surpassing grace of God upon you. 

Paul says in verse 11 to be generous in every way. There are many kinds of generosity. Should you give your money for the good of the kingdom? Yes, you should. Should you give your energy for the good of the kingdom? Yes, you should. 

Should you give your giftedness for the good of the kingdom? Yes, you should! You should be looking for ways to be generous in every way for the glory of God and the sake of the gospel and the good of the saints.

One idea that keeps tumbling around in my mind is that the world offers us such opposite ideas on this. It really can feel kind of schizophrenic if you think about it. Either, “Your body is flawed, but if you eat the right foods, you take the right vitamins, you do the right exercises, and you drink the right electrolytes, you can transform it! And in transforming your body you can transform who you are!” 

But there are plenty of fit people who have no idea that their identity is in Christ, not in their fat percentage, so this can’t be right. 

But then the culture swings the other way—there’s this alternate message we hear, and that’s body positivity: “You should love your body just as you are!”

Close, but no cigar, because many of our bodies do in fact need work. If I were to adopt that idea a couple of years ago, “I love my body just as it is,” I would not be here teaching you right now. I’d be six feet under . . . dead from a heart attack or a stroke. I needed to change my body, not accept it.

It was not about shame; it was about stewardship. The first episode of this series I talked about this health crisis, and it forced me to rethink my theology of my body. Before I assessed my diet, and before I set my feet on a treadmill, and before I could begin to look for ways to use my one precious body for God’s glory, I needed to repent.

Because for the first forty years of my life, I did not steward of the gift of my body that God has given me very well. Now I know this is audio, I’m grateful there’s not video. But if you looked at me now, you would not see a woman with toned abs. Autocorrect on my phone always changes “and” to “abs” which cracks me up. Do I look like a woman who would type “abs” a lot? No! I’m not! I’m not a poster child for fitness, and I don’t want to be. I want to be wrung out like a washcloth for the sake of the gospel. I want my body to show, “She is being used up for God.” Which means I’m not trying to look like I did when I was nineteen!

I’m trying to be squeezed out; I’m trying to exert myself for the glory of Jesus, and I wasn’t doing that. I didn’t know it, but I had a “disembodied” theology. I’m not being overly dramatic here, though I am prone to drama. It nearly killed me! 

I wonder if any of you need to repent? I want you to hear me say that I love you! I stand up here and think of you, I dream of you. I think, What is she doing as she’s listening to this? Is she in the car? Does she have a carful of kids? Is her house empty and quiet? Is she cleaning the toilets? Is she rage cleaning with the earbuds in her ears? What’s she doing? Is she a new follower of Jesus; is all of this brand new to her? Has she been walking with the Lord for fifty years, and still she can’t believe what God is showing her in His Word? What’s she like?

I love you! And it’s because I love you that I want you to listen to the Holy Spirit right now if what you feel feels painful. If it feels like conviction—not shame; shame is what Satan offers us—but conviction is so painful but so good.

The analogy I always use is splinters. Our boys will occasionally get splinters, and they have to come out. They don’t want the splinter to come out! “Daddy, please don’t, please! This is going to hurt! Please don’t take it out!”

And their daddy has to take out the splinter, because if he doesn’t take out the splinter, it will fester, and they will get very sick. Your Father loves you, and so when He exposes sin in your life, it’s in love, so that it won’t fester.

So, in love, as you’re feeling conviction as you listen to this, I would call you to repent. 

• Is it because your relationship with food has not been filtered through the grid of stewardship? 
• Is it because you don’t move your body because you think it doesn’t matter? 
• Is it because you’ve let one of the countless messages the world offers about your body take hold instead of the Word says about your body . . . and, frankly, it shows?

There’s grace . . . and there’s still time!

Ask Him. Ask the Holy Spirit who lives inside of you. Ask Him to help you steward your one precious body well, and He will. Let’s pray.

God, we love You, and You love us. Holy Spirit, we invite you to do a convicting work in our hearts. Lord, where we have not stewarded the gifts of our body well, bring conviction. We invite it. And then, help us to obey. And, Lord, this is bigger than any one woman listening, so I’m going to pray something boldly, and I mean it.

Lord, convict the American church where we’ve gotten this wrong. Help us to be salt and light because we have stewarded our bodies well. We need You; we trust You. I ask for a revival of our bodies so that there could be a revival of our churches, so that there could be a revival of our world. It’s in Your holy, holy, holy name I pray, amen.

Shannan: Imagine if all of us were to do everything for God Himself, using our bodies as vehicles to give Him glory. The results would be amazing! If you’ve gotten a lot out of Erin’s teaching, I think you’ll also enjoy learning from Erin through her writing, and her book Fasting and Feasting would make a great follow up to this teaching.

Erin, between the books Seven Feasts; Fasting and Feasting, and now this series, "Embodied," it seems like God has you on a journey learning about food. 

Erin: Hmmm, you picked up on that theme, did you? Yes, I guess there is a bit of a theme there in my writing. My writing is an extension of what the Lord is doing in my life. Fasting and Feasting is special to me because God’s Word talks about both of those things. 

It talks a lot about fasting in the Old Testament and New Testament. Many of those that we would hold up as people we really admire in the faith from Scripture, they fasted. But the Bible also talks a lot about feasting. 

I really want all of us to know and love our whole Bibles. I want us to know what it says in a holistic way that reflects God’s heart. He has a lot to say about food, and it’s not one or the other. So that became that little book, Fasting and Feasting.

Shannan: Thanks, Erin. 

To order a copy of Fasting and Feasting, you can visit ReviveOurHearts.com. And when you’re at ReviveOurHearts.com, would you scroll to the bottom of the page, click on “contact us,” and let us know what you appreciate about The Deep Well?

Erin Unscripted / Shannon Unscripted

Erin: Shannan, usually we have Erin Unscripted, but I also have a habit of turning things around. I want to have Shannan Unscripted.

You know a lot about health from your work foryears as a personal trainer, a fitness instructor, and now you’re coaching Christian women like me on a health journey as a way to glorify God. If people have been listening to this and they say, “I’m ready. I want to begin stewarding my body well.” Where does a woman start?

Shannan: Well, Erin, you did a great job of giving us some good theology. We want to build our foundation on good theology and understand why we’re doing what we’re doing. From there, there are a lot of ways to apply that practically.

I’d say one thing is: we want to eat more food that God made than not. We have a lot of processed food available to us, convenience food. There’s nothing that’s off limits, but not everything is beneficial. And so the more we can eat food that God made, the better our bodies will be.

God created us to move. Movement is good. You don’t have to do a high intensity, super-competitive workout class, but it is good to go for walks. You can play with your kids, you can go on a bike ride. There are a lot of great ways that you can move your body that don’t have to be overwhelming or intimidating.

Erin: And speaking of walking, I wish we lived closer! We’d be walking buddies. And so, we’ve talked about how much our bodies were moving, what we were eating. I have a trip coming up this week. I don’t know what I’m going to eat or whatever the challenges are. So I would also just say, “resource yourself.”

Obviously, yes, you said it. We go to God’s Word first. We trust His Spirit to do the work. We want to know the right thinking behind it. But then there are practical applications. And the ministry that you serve with, Fit for the King, has been a real blessing to me.

I know some women are going to go, “Where is it?! How do I find out more?!” So, Fit4TheKing.net is a starting place. It’s not the end-all be-all, nothing probably is. But it is going to help you continue and take this next step of, “The reason why I want to steward my body is because I want to be fit—not for me, but for the King!” So, it’s been really useful in my own life.

Shannan: And God is so faithful when we take a step of obedience, to provide for us and to bring us resources. Keep asking Him for that and watch for what He’ll provide!

Erin: Yes. I don’t think we’ve really told our story yet in the podcast, but I was in this health journey, and I’d done about as much as I knew how to do—which was the basics. I was still trying to get off of my heart medication. (By God’s grace I’m now transitioning off of it.)

But at this point, it seemed like no end was in sight, like I was going to be on all these meds forever. And I was praying, “God, help me! I really do want to honor You. Help me!” And you were at a TrueWoman conference. I was at a True Woman conference. The Lord had our paths cross. You so graciously said, “Hey, I’d really love to walk this journey with you.”

My hands were open, because I wanted the help of the Lord and the Lord’s people, and it’s just been so fruitful. I know the cycle of it, “Uhh! I’ve tried and failed!” or “I’ve gotten fired up about this before, and three weeks later I was right back where I started.”

You need the Lord; you always need the Lord! Ask Him, “Would You bring me a friend that’s on the same journey?” or “Would you bring me the right resource?” or “Would You bring me a ‘Shannan.’” And I just can be a testimony that He will, because He wants your good even more than you want your good. God really does want to equip you to be fit for His glory!

Shannan: Amen! 

Erin: What do you imagine eternity being like? On the next episode we’re going to look at the Bible and help make sure that that imagination includes a physical body.

Shannan: Please be back next time for The Deep Well. 

The Deep Well with Erin Davis is part of the Revive Our Hearts podcast family, calling women to freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ. 

*Offers available only during the broadcast of the podcast season.