All tagged body
In my devotional reading today, Pastor E. M. Bounds wrote of two prayers; the petition of faith and the prayer of submission. Praying in the Word and praying in the Spirit; both are incredibly important... praying in the Word is conveying our thoughts and needs using biblical constructs, while praying in the Spirit conveys the longings of our very souls. Pastor Bounds used Abraham's prayers for Sodom as an example of both petition, and submission, when he wrote these words:
This morning we will study a subject that often perplexes those who are spiritual. My devotional reading today addressed the question "why is it important to pray for my bodily health and worldly matters?" E.M. Bounds reasoned that these things, albeit lower than the spiritual, have much to do with our religion. He went on to say that worldly matters, and our health, affect how we think and this makes them subjects of prayer. Through the years I have prayed for healing many times; not just my own healing but also that of others. Although I can't remember an instance in the Bible where Jesus prayed for His own healing, He healed the bodies of others so there is precedent for this.
Do you have your body under control? Have you let yourself separate your spirituality from the physical manifestation of that faith by which your body represents itself? By this I am not asking if you treat yourself as a narcissist, but do you do those things that are godly and good with yourself, and treat your body as a temple of God? Our spiritual and physical portions walk hand in hand in faith, and in our bodies we find the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit.
I am lost in thought this morning regarding the gift that was given us from the cross. As believers we all know that Jesus suffered, died, was resurrected, and ascended into heaven, to release us from sin and death, but there is more. Through our faith and relationship with Him we will be resurrected and receive a glorified body just as He did. Are you ready to glow, just as the scripture we discussed yesterday revealed that Jesus did while talking with Elijah and Moses?
How do we reconcile our physical and spiritual selves so that they both mirror Jesus? Sometimes we are so wrapped up in conforming our physical selves that we forget the spiritual side of who we are... or vice versa.
We fell from grace in the Garden of Eden, and yet God didn’t give up on us. He was merciful towards us, and continued to lead us, and teach us of the way to righteousness, and Himself; He showed us His love. Then, He sent His Son Jesus Christ to redeem us, and to defeat the sin that had found its home in us. Through Jesus, God returned to us the fruit of the tree of life which we lost long ago when driven from Eden. This tree is Jesus; It’s fruit is His body and the blood which we consume, and they restore to us the eternal life we once lost… we are given life through our faith, His grace, and the love of God.
Scripture tells us that our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, and this is an incredible statement, and blessing for us. Once we understand what it means for Him to desire us to the point that He wishes to live within us there should be no greater longing than for us to love, and please Him always. As you go about your life do you keep the temple, your body, in good repair, free of sin? Do you maintain the sanctity of God’s residence and keep it Holy? We are not proclaimed to be a warm and comfortable cabin in the woods, a bright and fun vacation bungalow on the beach, a shack on the wrong side of the tracks in which we suffer, or the grandest of houses where we are pampered and waited on continuously by servants… we are a temple, meant to be a place of worship, a Holy place like none other, where we glorify the God of all creation, and serve Him righteously, all the days of our lives.
When you opened your eyes this morning, and you wiped the sleep from them, did it feel like you were pulling back the curtains in God’s home, and cleaning the windows of His temple? Did you feel like a child who was doing his morning chores before being called to the breakfast table where he would run into his Father’s arms? Well, our bodies are the dwelling place of God, and also His temple, so this is a good way to think of how we should approach the earliest moments of our day.
To be with God, and Jesus Christ, we must be changed. Laying aside, for a moment, the spiritual transformation we have been undergoing throughout our lives of faith, we are meant to be changed physically as well. This bodily change will not be a lifelong process, but occur in an instant, in a moment, and take place when Jesus returns to claim us. Are we prepared for that instant of indestructible foreverness?