Seeking God’s vision requires us to take care of the practical aspects of our lives. One of those areas is developing and maintaining a healthy lifestyle, which allows a person to have strength, energy, and consistency for the journey ahead!
Healthy Lifestyle
Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20
Our bodies, His temple
One of the ways we honor God is to value the temple the Lord has given us and to develop a healthy lifestyle. Many Christians disassociate their physical bodies from their spiritual lives. They think that their acts of worship, prayer, and obedience are spiritual matters, but their bodies belong to them to do what pleases them.
The temple that God directed the Israelites to build had three parts with an outer court, an inner court, and the holy of holies. Interestingly, every item in the temple had a purpose, and it was intentional. The temple belonged to the Lord, and it was meant to be honored as a habitation of God. The Lord has also created man as tri-part being made up of body, soul, and spirit. Similarly, the believers’ bodies are the temple of God and a habitation for Him. Therefore, we need to be intentional about what we put in it.
The truth is that anything we allow into our bodies, will eventually have an impact on our minds, emotions, and will, and they will in turn impact our spirit man as well. Our body is a gateway, and we cannot be passive about what we consume in the form of food, drinks, music, movies, and entertainment. That means we need to stop doing things that are harmful to our bodies such as eating unhealthy food, drinking unhealthy drinks, using all forms of drugs, etc. We also need to exercise, eat healthy meals, get enough sleep, and develop a plan for losing any excess weight.
Evaluate your habits
If you were to evaluate what you consume on a regular basis, what needs to be cut out? Is it sugar, fast food, high calorie drinks, etc? Anything that the Lord shows you, make a list, and then put a plan to eliminate it. You may not be able to give them all up at once, but start by tackling them one at a time, and give each food group six weeks to break its habit of consuming it. Then celebrate your accomplishment and start tackling the next one.
Exercise and Keep a healthy weight
Are you overweight? Do you have physical problems due to the fact that you are carrying too much weight? If that is the case, prayerfully consider changes in your life. This is not about having an unrealistic worldly standard for shape or weight, but it is about having a healthy weight for God’s design for you. Ask a friend or a family member to hold you accountable to the changes you intend to make. Begin a exercise program, which could be as simple as walking 20 minutes a day. Then continue to increase the time and the intensity as your body and your time allows you to do. Keep track of your progress.
Get enough sleep
Do you get enough sleep? What factors cause you to lack sleep? Are you overcommitted? Do you have hard time saying no to others? As we age, we may require more sleep.
Managing Healthy Lifestyle
Our health in some ways is similar to managing our finances. When we don’t take care of our bodies it is like getting into debt and presuming upon the future. On the other hand, a healthy lifestyle makes good deposits in the body, which keeps it in shape and strong. A healthy lifestyle is able to deal with aging better and can handle recovery from various health issues faster.
Change is a necessity
Changing lifestyle habits is hard but not changing them is even more difficult over the long haul. If you want to have strength and energy to go after God and do the things He leads you to do, then keeping and maintaining a healthy lifestyle is an important part of that process. You only have one body and you want to do what you can to keep it in good shape and avoid problems for the future. Don’t procrastinate until you actually have a physical problem before you start changing your lifestyle. If you need help and direction on how to start, feel free to message me.
Image by Photo Mix from Pixabay