Take care of that temple!

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “A fresh start in a new year”

Our Bible verse for today: “Don’t you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought at a price. So glorify God with your body.” 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (CB)

Our thought for today: “Take care of that temple”

I have an old friend who is a medical doctor. Once I was visiting with him in his private office and I noticed on the bulletin board next to his desk a newspaper cartoon he had cut out. The scene was in a doctor’s office. On the examination table was a very old man – bent, shriveled, and in obvious pain and discomfort. We are left to imagine what his ailments are – probably all the aches and pains common to advanced old age.

The doctor is standing next to him and he says, “For all the decades that I have been your doctor you have been telling me about the extra effort you made to take good care of yourself so that you might get an extra ten years of life. Well, these are them.”

Granted, that’s dark physician humor and it is funny, but it also helps to reinforce the point that as we age our bodies decline until eventually, they stop functioning altogether and we die. No matter how well you take care of yourself, your body will become increasingly frail until someday you will die anyway. True, but is that a good reason to not take care of ourselves? Of course not. We are to do our best to stay as healthy as we can for as long as we can.

There are many reasons that makes good sense. For one thing, being healthy feels a lot better than being unhealthy. You should want to be as healthy and mobile as possible so you can enjoy life to the fullest. And no matter your age, there are things we can all do to be as healthy as possible at every stage of life.

Also, your family and loved ones need you to take care of yourself. There are few things in life that cause us more anguish than to witness the premature diminishing health and/or early death of someone we dearly love. Your loved ones need you to take care of yourself!

Beyond that, your physical body is a gift from God that is to be cared for and used properly for His purposes. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 reveals that your physical body is actually a temple of God’s Holy Spirit. Yikes! A temple of the Holy Spirit of God! That’s serious business. And that being the case, we must have a serious responsibility to take proper care of that temple, wouldn’t you think? The answer is “yes,” we have a responsibility to care well for the temple of God’s Holy Spirit.

We will come back to this passage and this truth tomorrow and explore it in greater depth. In the meantime, do you have at least one New Year’s resolution that involves taking better care of yourself physically? I hope you do. There are some pretty good reasons that you should.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

(If you like what you are reading in these daily devotionals, and if you would like more content from Oak Hill Baptist Church, join us on Sundays at 10:00, in-person if you are nearby or, if you are geographically distant or if you just can’t make it, online at www.YouTube.com/@oakhillbaptistcrossville

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