Taking Care of God’s Temple

“Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought with a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.” (1 Cor. 6:19-20 NIV)

Maintaining good health can be a real struggle. We get stressed out over inter-personal conflicts in ministry and at home. In attempting to deal with situations our emotions can get the better of us. We try to fuel our bodies with the wrong kinds of foods, praying the Lord will use “this bag of Cheetos and Dr. Pepper to nourish our bodies.” Exercise is a foreign concept to us. Sure we make a resolution to start working out in some way but the motivation we begin with quickly fades away and we come up with a myriad of excuses for not getting out.

Since the Holy Spirit resides in us we ought to give Him a strong, healthy and vibrant temple in which to operate.

Diet – The more raw, unprocessed foods we can eat, the better. “Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.” (Genesis 1:29 NIV)

Cleansing – The body needs a chance to detoxify. As long as we keep putting food into us, the body needs to direct its energy toward digestion. As Baptists we haven’t been very well known for fasting and this is an area I feel we do need to get into. It not only allows us to seek the Lord at a deeper level but it also gives the body the time it needs in order to remove toxins. A good habit we can get into is to finish eating by 7:00pm each night. This will give our body eight to ten hours to do a work of detoxification.

Pure Air and Exercise – We need to get outside on a regular basis – at least three times a week for an extended period of time – to get our heart rate up and take in copious amounts of fresh air.  The body needs oxygen in order to help us mentally and emotionally, and to give us increased energy.

Water – We need to drink lots of water to neutralize toxins, to flush wastes from the body and to hydrate skin cells from within. Raw fruits like watermelon, or vegetables such as cucumber are excellent sources of pure water.

Stress & Rest – Having a good diet consisting of more raw foods raises the alkalinity of the body and soothes the nerves. Practice deep breathing, laughter, stretching and meditation. Make sure to get an adequate amount of sleep on a regular basis.

Emotions – Eating an adequate amount of living foods will provide a nutritious source of blood sugar to feed the brain.

Please contact me with any thoughts on this article.

Let me conclude with this passage of Scripture “Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well.” (III John v2)