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While you may strive daily to look and feel your best, what really motivates you? Is it that size 4 dress you have been wanting to get into for years, your upcoming high school reunion, your brush with a weight-related medical condition or perhaps your desire to feel young again?
There are hundreds if not more reasons that could be noted for taking care of your body. How often, though, do you stop to think about the fact that you’re not your own? That your life was purchased with a price and you, if you are a professing Christian, are to glorify God in all you do – including what you do with your body?
May I suggest to you that before any other reason, this should be the first reason that you take the time and energy to care for your body …
Caring for your body glorifies God, it demonstrates a good testimony to others and it gives you the energy that you need to do God’s will, spreading the Gospel.
In 1 Corinthians 10:31, we are told to do whatever we do to the glory of God. In Isaiah 43:7 we are reminded that we were made by God to glorify Him. That is our primary purpose in life — to glorify God. If you choose to not follow a healthy lifestyle, to not eat in a healthy manner, to not practice self-control, to not exercise, and to not care about your body, you are choosing to not honor God.
The Body Is a Temple
“Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?” – 1 Corinthians 3:16
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When Christ went into heaven, He told us that He was leaving something very valuable for us: the Holy Spirit. The third Person of the Trinity resides within us. God’s Holy Spirit lives inside of every believer, making our body a temple. You wouldn’t walk into your church and dump trash all over the place, would you? Think about this as you choose how to eat and in what other ways you can honor the temple by how you live your life.
We Are Called to Do God’s Work
We are called to share the Gospel and to be the hands and feet of Christ. We can’t do this very effectively if we are burdened by lifestyle conditions. To be a willing vessel for God is one thing, but to be a healthy willing vessel that God can use is a totally different thing. You never know what God will call you to do and where He will call you to go. Being prepared physically and spiritually for any task the Lord gives you is always best.
We Are a Witness
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” – Acts 1:8.
In Acts, we are reminded that we are to be a witness to others. How we live our lives matters. We are called to be good representatives of the Christian faith. It is imperative that we be mindful of all aspects of our lives, including our health.
God Gives Us Help
Making your health a priority is sometimes difficult. God understands this, and provides us with many Scriptures of encouragement in His Word. Here are just a few:
Isaiah 58:11: “And the LORD will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.”
Jeremiah 29:11: “For I know the plans I have for you … plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
2 Timothy 1:7: “For the spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.”
1 Peter 5:7: “Cast all of your anxiety on him because he cares for you.”
