Daily Bible Reading: Romans 1:21; 8:29; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20; James 4:8
God spoke to me some time ago about making some changes in my life in order to draw closer to Him, and I’m certain He has spoken to you at times as well. In fact, He speaks to all of us. He wants us all to be conformed more and more to the image of Jesus (see Romans 8:29), and He is working in our hearts to get us to become more like Him.
To be candid, one change the Holy Spirit spoke to me about was how I’d been treating my “temple” — my body. He showed me that I had not been eating the right foods to function at my best physically. In fact, the foods I’d been eating habitually, as a lifestyle, were taking away from my physical productivity and strength.
God’s Word states that our bodies are not our own. That is an absolutely amazing statement! First Corinthians 6:19-20 says, “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.”
Those verses state that my body, which I sometimes mistreat by overeating, eating the wrong things, or refusing to exercise, is not even mine! My body belongs to the Lord!
Think for a moment about the most beautiful church building you’ve ever seen. Your body is more precious to the Lord than that! Your physical body is more valuable to Him than any building made of mortar and brick or stone. Why? Because your body carries within it His very presence!
Now envision once again that beautiful church building. Would you take your trash to this building and just dump it at the front entrance? Would you release termites in the building that would eat away at the structure, eventually causing it to crumble and be destroyed? Of course, you wouldn’t! Purposely disfiguring and destroying such an edifice would be an atrocity!
Yet think about what we do to our bodies when we fail on a regular basis to eat right, exercise, or even get enough sleep. Our bodies are more precious and costly than a building constructed with the finest architectural and structural engineering available to man. The Bible says we are fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14). And our bodies are where God lives! Subscribe to Denise’s 28-Day Journey Email Devotionals! God needs your body on this earth so you can minister to your community and friends, take care of your family, and fulfill the call He has placed on your life. So please stop for a moment and ask yourself these serious questions:
- How healthy do I want to be ten years from now? Twenty years from now?
- What kind of lifestyle do I want to enjoy right now?
- Am I doing things now to increase the quality of my life?
- Am I doing things to my physical body that will eventually catch up with me and affect my mobility and lifestyle?
We can only live one day at a time, and sometimes we have to make changes little by little. Yet one thing is certain. If we don’t have a mindset for change, we will probably be sorry next year about the habits we refused to break today.
I hope you’re still willing to continue reading! I’m not even telling you to go on a diet or join an exercise club. I’m simply asking you to think about these questions in light of First Corinthians 6:19-20 and to pray about what you might need to change. Ask the Holy Spirit, and He will tell you if you need to make adjustments to your lifestyle. God loves us and will always warn us in advance — if we’ll listen — to try to save us from future problems and even tragedies that the enemy would love to ensnare us with.
Another thing God dealt with me about during that same time period was my level of thankfulness. As children of God, we should be the most thankful people on earth — toward Him and toward others!
Thanksgiving can be such a powerful tool in our mouths! In fact, it is impossible to express thankfulness and to complain at the same time. The Bible uses the word “thanks” or “thanksgiving” more than 100 times. So it must be important enough for us to practice it! We should strive to be the most thankful people in our spheres of influence. What a difference it would make in our lives and in the lives of those around us!
Romans 1:21 says, “Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.” You see, refusing to be thankful opens the door for the enemy to operate in our lives. So let’s make this year our most gratitude-filled year ever! How do we do it? One day at a time.
I’m so thankful to you for spending this time with me. I hope this devotional was as encouraging for you to read as it was for me to write. It’s exciting to make the changes in our lives that God asks us to make because we know that the purpose for those changes is a closer, deeper, more intimate walk with Him.
If you have any prayer requests, please contact our ministry because we are here for you! We’re always excited to approach our Heavenly Father in prayer for you. We know that when we pray in line with God’s Word for your needs, He will hear and answer our prayers.
In His great love,
Denise Renner