19 Or don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you? Don’t you know that you have the Holy Spirit from God, and you don’t belong to yourselves? 20 You have been bought and paid for, so honor God with your body. ~ (1 Corinthians 6:19-20 – CEB)
It’s hard to grasp the idea of the Spirit of God dwelling inside our bodies, especially if we’re out of shape. Body shame is real and affects countless people from all walks of life. Because we can be so hard on ourselves, we quickly lose the connection that our bodies are a temple and residence for the Spirit of God. Unless we learn to love and respect our bodies, we will struggle spiritually. The body is the temple of the soul; (the soul is defined as our mind, emotions, and will). We must learn to treat our bodies like a temple and not a trash dumpster.
A wise man once told me, “It’s hard to do good when you don’t feel good” ~ Lewis Trotter. What a true statement; when our body is weak and ill, it affects us spiritually. Our minds, emotions, and willingness to stay focused on loving and serving God and others are compromised when our bodies struggle. The body is like our vehicle; it’s what gets us from point A to point B. If we don’t change the oil, rotate the tires, and keep up with the essential maintenance, our vehicle is not long for this earth; the same is true for our bodies.
Aging is a part of life, but how we treat our bodies will make a big difference in how our lives turn out. It’s easy to get down on ourselves as we age for not taking better care of ourselves. It does us no good to dwell on the past; instead, we need to focus on what can be changed today. We must ask God to help us to see the changes in our hair, the aging of our face, the sagging of our skin, the accumulation of age spots and skin tags, not as signs of our decline, but as the markers of growth, well-earned wisdom, and a celebration of years well spent walking with God.
It’s never too late to clean up your house, and it’s never too late to clean up your body. If you smoke, STOP! If you eat more calories than you burn, STOP! If you don’t exercise, START! And if any other hurts, habits, or hang-ups compromise your body and health, GET HELP, and STOP! It’s time to start treating your body like a temple and honoring God in all that you do, including taking care of your body. You can do this, and you need to start TODAY!
Lord, more than anything, help me be at peace with my body. Would you please release me from envy of the hair, face, skin, abs, arms, legs, thinness, tanness, physical “perfection” of others? You stitched me together in my mother’s womb. You chose my shape, my DNA and knew how I would develop and age through every stage. Would you please help me be at peace with this body so that I might find life and protect myself from the envy of others that might rot my bones? In Your Spirit and Name, I pray these things. May Your will not mine always materialize, now and forever. Amen. (Prayer adapted from Marie Osborne)
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