What A Body!

My husband always says "I can't wait be a fat ugly old man and have you as my still drop dead gorgeous wife!"

Of course to make his dreams come true requires a lot of work. I need to take darn good care of myself now so I can still benefit from my hard work later on. This means I need to eat right, exercise, maintain good hygiene and be sure to have good health care. Taking care of myself takes effort, and lots of times I just don't feel like it. When I am beat, the last thing I want to do is exercise or stay up an extra 5 minutes to brush and floss before bed. To have a healthy future, however, I need to make that investment.

As I was considering this, the Lord began to speak to my heart about HIS body. Doesn't his body require the same sort of care and effort? I came to understand a few key things that we must understand as part of His body in order to nurture it.

First and foremost, just like the human body, many problems start at the cellular level. Until the individual cells have health, the body cannot be healthy. That means we must be sure each individual is healthy before looking to nurture the body as a whole. The best way to start is to examine myself and gauge my own spiritual health.

Am I healthy? I need to look at the following things to make sure.

First, am I eating right? It is fairly obvious what is healthy for me in the natural because of progress of science. We eating wrong is bad for us, but how did they figure that out? They looked at the negative effect that eating certain things has on the body, essentially, what is reaped from what was sowed. In the same way, I know what is bad for me spiritually by its fruit in my life. If listening to certain music, reading certain books, watching certain shows, or hanging out with certain people produced bad fruit in my life spiritually, I need to go on a "diet" and cut them from my life. On the other hand, we know eating good things can improve our health as well. If we avoid the bad, but never partake of the good, it's just as bad for us. I need to make sure I am feeding my spiritual self with God's daily bread, His Word. Jesus said He is the Word and He is also the Bread of life. If I feed on God's bread, the word, I know I will be spiritually healthy. If I maintain good spiritual nutrition, I will see good fruit in my life and I will have a positive effect on those around me.

Secondly, do I exercise regularly? Just like in the natural realm, exercise in the spiritual realm can be unpleasant, especially if I am out of shape. God was showing me that spiritual exercise is simply being active in my faith. Am I doing what God asks me to do whenever He asks? Am I working to fulfill His mission for my life? If I am just sitting around doing nothing, I will become lazy. The longer I remain idle, the more difficult it is to get going again. Just like physical exercise, once you make a habit of it, it feels great. You have more energy and endurance to keep going. The bible says we need to run with endurance to finish the race set before us, and the only way to gain endurance is regular exercise. Exercise is vital to the ability to continue on toward the finish line.

Thirdly, am I sure that I have good health care? If I get hurt, I need to make sure I see a doctor so I can heal. Since God is my Great Physician, when I am hurting, do I seek him out for my healing? It does me no good to whine and complain about my broken arm if I refuse to see a doctor about it. It is important to note here, that not only do I need to see the doctor, I must also follow his instructions carefully, which of course means I need to LISTEN carefully. Not following his instructions could delay my healing or even cause more injury. Many times, it's easy to ask the doctor for a quick fix solution, but more often than not, healing takes a lot of time and care. Most people would not call their doctor and complain that their broken arm is still broken the next day. I need to seek God to heal my hurts, follow his instructions, and wait patiently for my healing to come.

Lastly, do I have good hygiene? In the natural, good personal hygiene is essential to keeping the body clean and healthy. Am I keeping my spiritual self clean? The bible talks about looking in a mirror and seeing a smudge of dirt on one's face, but never doing anything about it. When spiritual dirt is pointed out to me, do I do nothing about it? Do I continually surrender myself to the Lord to allow him to apply his cleansing blood to my soul? This is perhaps one of the most difficult things to do, but like regular personal hygiene, once it becomes a habit, it is very natural, and it is essential to good health.

As I said before, where we start is with ourselves, on the "cellular" level. We are responsible to keep an eye out on the rest of the body as well, but unfortunately, like in the natural, we can't force others in the body to be healthier. Each person makes their own decisions about what they eat and how much they exercise, see their doctor, and take care of themselves. The best thing we can do is live a healthy lifestyle and testify about the good benefits of being healthy. We can lead others by our good example and pray for each person to desire spiritual health.

As my husband makes very clear, a nice body is attractive. We aren't spiritually healthy if our lives aren't attracting others to Christ. I want to be a beautiful bride for both my earthly husband and my Husband, Jesus Christ.

Don't you?