Honor God with your body – Week 2
Ezekiel 5:11 “As surely as I live, says the Sovereign Lord, I will cut you off completely. I will show you no pity at all because you have defiled my temple with your vile images and detestable sins.”
In the Old Testament God was angry with the Israelites, they were committing serious sin, defiling God’s temple, God’s sanctuary by worshiping idols and practicing evil within its walls.
In the NT, we learn that God makes his home within those who are His – a new covenant was made. Our body is God’s temple!!!! When we become Christians, the Holy Spirit comes to live in us, therefore we no longer own our bodies. Many of us think “this is our body, we can do with it as we please.” We may defile God’s temple today by allowing gossiping, bitterness, lying, gluttony & drunkenness. Many of these things give us pleasure, but are they enslaving us to our own desires? I believe with the power of the Holy Spirit within us, we can keep from defiling His temple, our body.
1 Corinthians 6:19-21 says “Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you for a high price. So you must honor God with your body.”
In verse 20 when it says – “You do not belong to yourself, God bought us for a high price,” Paul is explaining that Christ’s death freed us from sin and death, but also obligates us to God. We must honor God with our bodies in All that we do!!
On a simplistic level think of it like this, if you rent a beach house for a week over the summer, like many of us do, we take care of that home, do not damage it or violate the property. We will treat a beach house better than we treat our own bodies. When we become Christians we now belong to God and our bodies belong to Him also, we need to take care of it!
I am focusing on food and our bodies in this blog, but there are so many ways to honor God with our bodies.
We are all different and we each need to find a way of eating and exercise that will be good for your particular body and lifestyle. What I do may not be right for you, but it is time to educate yourself and find out what works! What makes you feel healthy/good and what does not?
I have learned from scripture and teachings that God does not love us more if we eat healthier. He loves us NO matter what! But, I do know this, when I am eating healthy clean food I am in a better state of mind and physical health to help build the Kingdom.
I also know this for sure…fruits, vegetables, whole grains, seeds and nuts do make me feel REALLY good! These are real unprocessed clean foods! If you are searching for health, please google plant based eating lifestyle and learn. When we eat clean and natural we will gain energy and health we have been missing!! I can testify to this!
Diet!!!
I really do not like this word! From my blog last week you can see why, I failed every time I went on a diet.
The definition “to Diet” means… “Of or relating to a food regimen designed to promote weight loss in a person or an animal, having fewer calories, designed to reduce or suppress the appetite.”
My definition is… DIE with a Capital T.
What I know for sure is that diets do not reduce my appetite, they actually make me want to eat more! For me, diets do not work for long term. I have actually removed DIET from my vocabulary and my healthy lifestyle.
Why do we start diets on Monday and only Monday? Well… Sunday evening after a real big dinner and a really full belly, we say I am going on a diet tomorrow. Your belly is full, so of course we say, “ let’s do this!”
Monday goes okay, you make it through the day eating very little and go to bed early. Then Tuesday rolls around and you are hungry, like really hungry especially by lunch. You get tempted and you see the donut at work or your kids want to go to McDonalds or your bible study decides to have an ice cream night!!! UGH….
Then…the little voice starts talking in your head, “it is okay, just eat it Lisa, do you really need to be on a diet anyway?” Boom – you give in and figure you blew it so the rest of the week is a wash!! Then it is Sunday night again and the cycle repeats itself. Can anyone relate?? Remember what I quoted last week in my blog from 1 Peter 3:19 –
“ You are a slave to whatever controls you.”
1 Corinthians 6:12 says “You say, I am allowed to do anything – BUT not everything is good for you.” Freedom is a mark of Christian faith – freedom from sin and guilt, and freedom to use and enjoy anything that comes from God. Many believe that freedom means doing whatever we want. We truly think we can do whatever we want to our bodies with food and no exercise. But, in my opinion, Christians should not abuse this freedom and hurt themselves. Gluttony of food can lead to obesity and unhealthiness. Lack of exercise makes us physically weak. We often give into our own sinful desires and become enslaved to what our bodies want vs need.
I am not perfect when it comes to food and exercise, but I do make it a priority. A few years ago, I prayed to God to help me release the idols around weight & body image. To allow me to love myself as I am and to fully glorify Him in all I do. I am not writing this to judge or tell anyone what to do. I was not real good with food or exercise in my younger years, but I have learned over the years about eating and living healthy. My hope is if you currently struggle with body image or food addiction my story will inspire you to want to become healthy.
Living a healthy physical lifestyle may seem impossible, but it is achievable!! We must take it all one day at a time. Some of you may be on a path to healthy living currently and I hope you gained some encouragement. Share your story with us!!
We are all at different phases in our lives spiritually and physically – so start where you are – but START! We will continue to grow and learn, but there will be some planning, execution, and hard work that will be required!
Let us remember to honor God with our bodies in ALL that we do!
Next week I will talk about exercise.
Love you all! ❤️
Lisa
#rooted #healthy2020
