What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s. {1 Corinthians 6:19-20}
As Christians we know how important it is in our walk with God to be healthy spiritually. We know we need to take the time to read God’s word, talk to Him, and listen to His voice. But often we forget that our physical body is an integral part of our walk with God. It is important to keep that body healthy. Without our health how can we give God our very best? What if He wants us to be an evangelist or a missionary to a remote country, or live a life that will require much physical labor and much visitation with His people to do His work? How can we give the Lord our best if we’re not well? How can we serve God if we’re constantly sick in our bodies? The scripture states that if we don’t take care of the temple of God, which is our body, God will destroy it. {1 Corinthians 3:16} Of course sin most of all is a great destroyer of our temple. With our body we can fornicate, get drunk, get high, and do or say whatever we feel like doing or saying and defile the temple of God. So it is crucial that we stay away from sin and take care of our spiritual walk with the Lord. But as much as we are mindful of making sure we don’t use our bodies to sin before Christ, it is also important that we keep our body healthy for His work. With health in our bodies, we can give God our very best offering in our lives today. We can make ourselves available to His cause. We can preach, testify, help someone come to the Lord, cook, clean, drive people who cannot drive themselves to places, travel, sing, write a book, you name it. In short, be available for the Lord’s sake by being healthy.
It’s important to be healthy. Without our health there’s really nothing to live for. You can’t really do much when your health is gone. When a baby is born the number one thing a parent desires for their child is for them to be healthy. Health is the key thing to living a happy and long life. It doesn’t matter how much money you have in your bank account or how famous you are in the eyes of the world, if you’re not healthy anymore, you can’t enjoy any of it. If at the end of the day all you can do is watch someone else enjoy your money for you, what’s the point of having all that money? It’s a sad life if after all those years of labor you find yourself unhealthy and dying because you didn’t take care of yourself, and someone else enjoys all your labor. It reminds me of what King Solomon said in Ecclesiastes in instructing us what the secret of life is. He said,
I know that there is no good in them, but for a man to rejoice, and to do good in his life. And also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labour, it is the gift of God. {Ecclesiastes 3:12-13}
But if your health is gone, how can you enjoy the fruit of your labor? If you don’t take care of yourself and are too busy and harried in life to enjoy it, what’s the point of all your labor? It’s all a waste of time and energy. You must take care of yourself first.
Taking care of ourselves and taking the time to be healthy, like eating right and taking a walk, or going off to unwind and unplug from this world is also crucial to our spiritual health with the Lord. It’s important to do this so that we not only take care of our body which is the temple of the living God, but we also take care of our spiritual health and our relationship with the Lord. The body and the spirit go hand in hand when it comes to living for God. They are not separate. Many times we think our physical body is separate from God. We don’t really take care of the body because we think it’s not a spiritual aspect of who we are. Many of us neglect it. But the fact is without our health we can’t really do much for God. If we wait until we’re sick and dying to live our life for God, then what kind of offering or sacrifice are we giving to the Lord when we can’t do much for Him anymore? What if we were meant to write His books and travel all over the world talking about Him, but we can’t because we didn’t take care of our body? What if instead of being able to encourage and be a blessing to His people, we can’t because we didn’t take care of ourselves? We could end up not doing what the Lord meant for us to do if our health is gone.
Our body is His temple. Through it He communicates with us when He dwells in us. Through our bodies the Lord can accomplish His work in our life. Don’t wait to give it to Him when you’re old and tired and can’t do anything anymore. Don’t wait to serve the Lord when your body is all used up to give Him your very best. Especially for those that are still young and vibrant and healthy right now, don’t wait until you’re older or have used up your body to serve the Lord. That is not fair to the Lord. He has given you health and your body for His cause. Give it to Him now while you are strong. Don’t wait until you can’t move anymore to live for God or serve the Lord. Serve Him now while you are still young and healthy, because your body is His temple and He deserves to have a healthy body to dwell in and to use for His work and for His glory.
So as much as it is important to take care of the spiritual life it is also important to take care of our physical body so that we can be truly available to God’s calling and His service. The Lord deserves our best and if we want to be happy and fulfilled in this life, we should not only take care of our soul but also our body, which is the temple of the living God.
Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are. {1 Corinthians 3:16-17}
Prayer
Father, I thank You that nothing is too hard with You. I thank You that Your love for us remains faithful and steadfast until the end. I thank You that You never, ever change in Your love and affection toward us. I love You Jesus. I thank You with all of my heart for Your love for us.
Lord Jesus, please give us wisdom today to know how to serve You with our bodies. Give us wisdom to make ourselves healthy for You and how to treat this temple You dwell in. Let us be healthy for Your calling and for Your work. You are coming very soon and still there is much work to be done in bringing in the harvest for Your kingdom. It is important to make ourselves healthy for You so that we can be ready and available, both in our soul and in our body, for Your calling. Please Savior, help us to give you our very best with the health of our bodies for it is one of our best sacrifices of praise we can give to You. You are worthy of the very best from us. I ask all these things in Your most wonderful and precious name, Jesus. Thank You, Father. Amen.
