How Are You Handling This Important Responsibility?
Gary Keesee • June 30, 2020
Get ready. This statement might shock you:
God is limited to where WE go.
He can't go any farther than where WE—the Body of Christ—go.
So if your body can’t do the job it’s supposed to do, God can’t do what He wants to do. This is where we have to get a proper perspective. We have to know what
and who
we really are.
First Corinthians 6:19 tells us that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit and that we’re to honor God with them.
That means that our bodies carry the presence, the authority, and the nature of God wherever we go.
You've probably read (or heard someone preach)—that your body is a temple—before, but what do you do
with that info?
I mean, I'm sure you realize your body is important, but do you think about your body as honoring God? Do you think of your body in terms of worship?
Most people think worship is about music and goose bumps. But if you want to worship God you honor Him and do what He says, with everything.
So what does it look like to worship God with your body?
Well, Ephesians 5 tells us that we are to respect our physical bodies as Christ respected the Church. He made the body of Christ holy. Your physical body is holy unto God. It is separated and consecrated.
Imagine that you’re looking at the most beautiful building you've ever seen—that’s how God looks at YOU. He bought you with the blood of Jesus. There is no one like you on the earth. He made you radiant. Before you were born again, you were alive, but you weren’t alive in Him. When you were born again, you became radiant. And then, holy and blameless.
We are to keep our bodies holy and blameless. That is our act of worship to Him—keeping ourselves holy and blameless.
Note: It doesn’t matter if you agree with that or not. That’s what the Bible says.
So we see that we have an important responsibility to God to handle our bodies properly. We see that our bodies are extremely important to God.
The enemy hates you, and your body.
So, I’m sure you can imagine why the devil hates the body so much. In fact, he wants to destroy
your body. He wants to dishonor it. He wants you to misuse your body. He hates that you're holy and blameless in God's eyes. He wants to make you filthy. He wants you to hate yourself and your features; to think your body is ugly or worthless; he wants you to devalue yourself. He wants you to defile your body.
Because when you defile your body, you give Satan legal access to your life.
Norville Hayes tells a story about two parents who called him because their son was in a trance. Something had happened to him. He was away at college and he had fallen into this trance and no one could get him out. When Norville arrived, he found out that this young man had streaked across the campus naked, and at the end of the run he had basically became a zombie. Norville began to pray for him. He prayed for eight hours. At the eighth hour, green foam began to come out of that young man’s mouth, and he finally came out of the trance. It sounds like a simple prank, streaking across campus naked, but that young man had defiled his temple and given Satan legal access to his life.
Now the culture will help you with this. They’ll tell you that sexual sin is the norm. They’ll try to get you to believe that mutilation is trendy. They’ll tell you it’s just fun and games to run across campus naked. But you need to be aware.
The culture degrades the body.
We need to be modest. We’re the temple of God. Only our spouses should see us without our clothes on. We need to teach our young people to dress modestly because the world definitely doesn’t teach it.
I know I’m stepping on toes here, but I’m going to take it one step further.
Don't decorate your body with anything you might wish you could change later in life. You need to be wary of those things. Count the cost. Be careful. Your body is God’s. Keep a proper perspective. Don’t just buy into the culture and do what seems cool at the moment.
I’m not telling you any of this stuff to make you feel condemned.
There is no condemnation here.
We all fight this in some way. That’s why one of the fruits of the spirit is self-control. The spirit of God will help you—all you have to do is bring it to him. Maybe you don’t think you have the strength. Maybe you’ve been doing the same things for years and you don’t know how to stop it. Maybe you have a chronic habit. Something is out of whack.
Maybe the Holy Spirit has been dealing with you about it and you’ve been neglecting it.
Ask God to help you. Above all else His desire is to prosper you and be in health.
I want to see you healthy, too. We’re known for teaching you to prosper, but you can’t do that if you’re not healthy. Yes, God is a healer, but He made your body to heal itself and you can avoid a lot of things if you’ll take care of it the way you should.
I know all about that. I've been overweight before. I haven't taken care of myself in the past. I've run on too little sleep. I've enjoyed my share of good Chinese food buffets, root beer floats, and White Castle burgers. I've gotten out of whack.
And when I have trouble, or I get out of balance, I ask God to help me. I know that with God I can do anything, but I have to give my life and my body
to Him.
So do you.
Remember that your body is a member of Christ Himself. Stop doing anything with your body that gives Satan access to your life. Take this important responsibility seriously.
See your body as a temple.
Filter life through that, and make the changes you need to make.
A few quick tips to help you:
- Try fixing your lifestyle before you try quick fixes.
- Find balance in every area of your life.
- If you smoke, stop.
- Think about what you’re eating and when you’re eating it.
- Make changes to your diet. Eat more fruits and vegetables.
- Get out there and get moving. Make exercise a way that you worship God.
- Try to cook at home as much as possible. Home cooked meals have less preservatives and less harmful ingredients.
- Eat regularly during the day. Your body is an engine that requires fuel. You need to fuel your body. Make sure that you’re eating small meals during the day.
- Stop focusing on your weight and focus on your temple. When you are doing healthy things for your temple, you’ll see the results.
You’re in charge. No one has the authority over your body but you.
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