“Therefore I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies [dedicating all of yourselves, set apart] as a living sacrifice, holy and well-pleasing to God, which is your rational (logical, intelligent) act of worship.” (Romans 12:1 Amp)
At a recent church service, the pastor was making a point that we can’t take our money with us when we die, and he used different examples of how we might be spending our money – material things in particular. And I agree, our focus should be on the temporal, not the material. But one of his examples he threw out was “no amount of money in the world can buy good health” – another words, we are still going to leave this earth no matter how much we invest in our health while we are here (unless Jesus comes first of course!). And I understood the point he was trying to make. But… there were an awful lot of “Amens” after he made this statement. Perhaps I was reading too much into this collective chorus, but it was almost like there was great enthusiasm from the congregation, like they were thinking out loud – “yeah, it’s ridiculous to spend money on your health, who needs it, I’m going to do whatever I’m going to do, I’m going to eat whatever I want to eat, to heck with my health, I’m going to die anyway, may as well live it up while I can!” I don’t know, maybe I was reading too much into this.
However, as Christians we need to wake up to the truth of how our bodies work and take authority with our health the way God intended. Just as we should not gamble by waiting until we are old to surrender our lives to Jesus, thinking there will be plenty of time, neither should we disregard the responsibility of taking care of our health because “we have to die of something.” This is a reckless attitude to take for both – our spiritual health as well as our physical. Here are some thoughts to ponder this week in regard to whether we as Christians should take care of our health.
Does a sick body glorify God?
“So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”
(1 Corinthians 10:31)
We are to be the walking example of Jesus, being His hands and feet on this earth – carrying on His Great Commission. Did Jesus ever take off work because He was sick? Did He expect others to carry out His assignment because He couldn’t? Was the Healer ever sick Himself? If we proclaim Jesus as the Healer, and He is, then what does that look like to others who either don’t believe in Him at all, or believe that He heals, if we are perpetually walking around burdened with self-induced chronic diseases upon us? And yes, 70-80% of chronic diseases are preventable and self-induced due to our poor lifestyle choices, including the foods we eat and the lack of exercise, water and rest we render upon ourselves.
Now I know we live in a fallen world, and for whatever reasons we might not know until we get home with Him why some people don’t receive healing this side of Heaven, but don’t we at least have the responsibility to do our part and take care of our health and our bodies?
Does eating foods that contribute to sickness and disease glorify God? Does wasting our time and finances on earthly things glorify God? Does even walking around depressed, anxious, angry or a multitude of other negative emotions glorify God? All of these are representative of an unbalanced, unhealthy life and body. But the good news is we can take authority over these things and aim to glorify God in all that we do.
We are called to be good stewards
“And the Lord said, “Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom his master will set over his household, to give them their portion of food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions. But if that servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed in coming,’ and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and get drunk, the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know, and will cut him in pieces and put him with the unfaithful.”
(Luke 12:42-46)
We quite often hear this mandate to be good stewards as it applies to our finances. And it is true, we are. Regardless of how much or how little we have, He has blessed us with it and we are not to squander it. Nor are we to squander anything else He has blessed us with. And the fact of the matter is, everything we have is from God. Our health, our bodies, our relationships, our earthly possessions, our time, wisdom, knowledge, gifts, talents, skills – everything. And we are to be good stewards of it all, including our wholistic health.
All things that He has blessed us with we are to utilize it for His glory and His purpose. He did not bless us with all that we have simply for our own selfish pleasure, or worse, to abuse the things He has blessed us with, but we are to use it for His good. This is what gives us purpose and meaning here on this earth. When we are irresponsible and abuse our bodies, we simply are not being good stewards of the vessel He has given us to use for His good.
We should be the example of Christ
“To put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”
(Ephesians 4:22-24 ESV)
Those who are “of the world” and not of the Kingdom of God are always looking for ways to criticize and judge the body of Christ. We are called hypocrites and even accused of not really being a “Christian” because by their worldly standard a real Christian wouldn’t do this or do that. Most of the time that is simply the darkness trying to overcome the light, and we just need to keep walking as Christ walked – in love and righteousness. But there are other times, that the world’s judgement of us is correct.
So, let’s not give them any more ammunition and reason to not step into the Light. Let us be examples of how Jesus walked this earth in every way – including taking care of our temples. I wrote a whole blog series on how Jesus lived His life wholistically. And if He did, so should we. Here are those blogs for some examples of how He lived His life balanced – mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually:
Did You Miss the “Jesus Lived a Wholistic Life” blog series?
“Truth Sprouts from the Earth”
“Jesus was Healthy Wholistically”
“Jesus Led a Balanced Emotional Life”
“Jesus Led a Balanced Physical Health Life”
“Jesus and His Spiritual Health – Stating the Obvious?”
Our bodies are literally housing the living Christ
“Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20 NLT)
When I first became a fundraiser for a women’s ministry, I was tasked with writing a grant requesting monies for new blinds in the living room of the house the ladies resided for 12 months during their recovery time. At first, I couldn’t wrap my mind around how I was going to ask a foundation for monies for something so seemingly frivolous like blinds when there were people going without more basic needs like clothes, food and housing. But then my director explained to me that when we bring these women in off the street from a life of abuse, abandonment and shame, leading to a life of addiction, we had a great responsibility to change their mindset of just how valuable they really were. Just how loved they really were – not just through our eyes and by us, but more importantly through the heart of Jesus. And we had to truly put action behind our words – not just by telling them they were valuable, but by showing them. One of the ways we did this was by inviting them to live in a beautiful, well-kept home that they were worthy of. Not an uncared for, abandon building; or a dirty, trashed out house without functioning utilities that they were familiar with. And that included beautiful blinds as well.
We need to treat our bodies the same way as that beautiful home, not as the abandoned, trashed out drug house, but a welcoming home of love that is treasured and cared for. Our bodies should be treated as a home “fit for a King.” After all the King of kings literally resides on the inside of us 24/7. In fact, He owns that home – it actually belongs to Him. He created it, He built it – and not just as an inanimate object, but a living breathing life force that He made with the greatest of love for it. One of the many ways we can give Him the honor that is due Him, is by taking care of our bodies, the body He created – mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually.
Health to Fulfill Our Purpose
“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10)
God created us for a purpose – to be His hands and feet here on this earth, to draw others unto Him and to glorify Him. We each have a unique, divine reason for being here. But we need strength, stamina, energy, and clarity of mind in order to fully be able to do what He has called us to do. One of the greatest tools we have to achieve these things is to take care of our health – wholistically.
How many times have you found yourself saying “I wish I could have helped but I was sick, I have bad knees, my (fill in the blank with the chronic disease you are plagued with) won’t allow me to do His work by serving others.” Your time, finances and attention on your sickness and disease has taken the place of fulfilling your purpose. But by taking authority with your health, you can overcome these things and walk out into all that God has called you to be and do for Him.
In Summary
These are just some of the many, many reasons we as Christians should take care of our health and need to be healthy. This is not a matter of legalism that to be a Christian you can’t eat this or don’t eat that. In fact, it’s the total opposite. When we as Christians take care of our health we are given the freedom to glorify God to the fullest; to be a good steward of the miraculous creation He made us to be; to be a true example of Him and walk and live like He did; to house Him in a body that is healthy and whole; and to fulfill our purpose for Him with strength, stamina, energy and clarity of mind – just as He is.
I give a whole presentation to show you how you can restore your body back to good health using natural approaches, wholistically.
go to : https://jackiemckool.com/schedule-jackie/
Want to Dive Deeper into How to Live Life Wholistically?
Pick up a copy of …
“Are You Being Deceived About True Wellness?”
