A Home for God

I am a home for God. If you belong to Him then you are a home for God.

I believe God wants us to take care of ourselves and honor God with our bodies, not just with our words and saying we’re committed to him, but really, truly take care of our physical bodies.

Chances are He has been dealing with us about our eating patterns…if we’re eating good real food so our body can be nourished and function well…our exercise or lack of exercise to keep our energy up…the amount of sleep we get…keeping clean-not only us but our children as well.

The other day it really struck me how much of a treasure our bodies are and God gave us that treasure. A treasure is something we would guard and take good care of and be careful not to lose.

Not that many years ago, I was in the categories listed above…every single one. I was working at an office job, sitting at the desk eating snacks, donuts, working long hours, getting up early, not getting any real exercise and began to ache just about everywhere and felt horrible most of the time. I’d come home, crash and start over again the next day.

I remembered I didn’t used to feel this way and didn’t think I could blame it on old age, 50 is not old, so I began, painfully to walk and exercise a little every day. I began to try to eat better and not eat the donuts every time they were brought in. Gradually I began to feel better and lost over 8 bags of flour worth of weight! If you look at it that way it helps see your progress!

I think sometimes God’s people disregard their treasure and actually despise it, thinking it’s bad or corrupt or going to pass away anyway so why bother. They think their body is unimportant and only their spirit matters. Or they think, ‘God will take care of me, so I can eat whatever I want and do whatever I want.’ They end up destroying their body through carelessness, neglect and bad habits.

If you are in the above category, God wants to help you…help you change the way you see yourself so you can feel well, feel strong and be able to use your body to glorify Him. Take these areas to God and ask Him to change you. He is willing.

God wants to keep us strong and healthy so we can help others and not be a strain needlessly on them….(not talking about things beyond our control)…but there is a lot with in our control that too many do not take control of and they get sick and worn out and cannot function in their God-given capacity.

God wants to meet our needs so we can be able to help meet the needs of others, and if our body is not in good health because we haven’t taken good care of it, or we have no strength because we aren’t using it to keep it toned up, then like anything else that is not used, it tends to wither, lose strength and become useless.

Anything worth having takes effort-hard work….but you and your body are worth it!

“…Don’t you see that you can’t live however you please, squandering what God paid such a high price for? The physical part of you is not some piece of property belonging to the spiritual part of you. God owns the whole works. So let people see God in and through your body.” Says 1 Corinthians 6:19 MSG

 Haven’t you yet learned that your body is the home of the Holy Spirit God gave you, and that he lives within you? Your own body does not belong to you.” I Corinthians 6:19 TLB

Remember too, there is no condemnation in Christ and God is for you- an ever present (now) help in time of need.

Start today…begin to restore your home for God. Tell Him about it.

It’s Just Me…

‘I keep having thoughts that I should go talk to so and so, that I should go help so and so, that I should write an article, book, speak to this person, apply for this job, start this business, but that’s just me and I don’t want to be proud and do what I think, after all, it’s not about me.’ ‘My church doesn’t believe God talks to people anymore so I know it’s not Him…so I guess I’ll just ignore all these thoughts and go about my own way.’

‘Is this right?’

Well, God does use all the ‘ME’s’ out there. He has chosen to use people to speak through, work through, pray through, love through, care though. He doesn’t personally come down and wipe away tears, or sit in the living room and visit with us. He uses us…people. I haven’t heard God speak audibly to me, but now that God lives in my heart, I can hear Him through His word. I may be in a situation and need some wisdom or help, and I say a quick prayer to God, “Help, Lord, I need your wisdom.” And sure enough a verse of scripture many times pops into my mind, or I’ll remember something the pastor said in a message that is the answer to my prayer and everything ends up ok. John 14:26 says the Holy Spirit will bring to our remembrance that which He has spoken to us, so that is what is happening in my life here.   Or, I’ll have the thought to stop by and see someone and it turns out they were in need of something that I could provide; sometimes it was just lending an ear, or walking to their mailbox for them, putting away their groceries or taking out the trash.

If we aren’t careful, we can be so concerned that ‘it’s just us’ that we miss many opportunities to do good to others, because we were afraid of stepping out on a ‘hunch’ we had… that could have been a real blessing to another person.

And I have found when the other person is blessed, so am I. The joy and happiness from helping another human being seems to take away my troubles and I feel light and refreshed inside!

Go out and do good to somebody today!