Part of being a good minister is stewarding the body God gave you. When you get toxic, you can’t think good and most of the time we get sloppy. This is dangerous because when we get sloppy, the people around us often love or respect us so much they don’t always tell how boring our sermons are getting or how lame the vision has become. Instead, they pat us on the back and say, “I’m praying for you.” Our sermons get boring, our smiles get weary, our attitudes….well, the fruit of the spirit is wilting. Toxic bodies hurt all of our relationships. Our family relationships suffer the most from a toxic mind that over reacts and gets easily irritated.
God could have said that your body is the HOUSE of the Lord. He could have said, it is the BOAT of the Lord, or even the VEHICLE of the Lord. But instead, He said, “your body is the TEMPLE of the Lord.” That is significant!
The temple had 3 compartments:
Outer court (This represents our flesh)
Inner court (This represents our soul)
Holy of Holies (This represents our spirit)
As the temple of the Holy Spirit, our bodies require alone time with God to function at our maximum spiritual potential. Tired and toxic bodies have a hard time praying, reading and staying focused. Instead of disciplining our bodies in pray, fasting and other spiritual exercises, we over indulge in things that shut our brains off like TV or over eating, or sleeping too much.
A toxic body filled with junk food, no vitamins and no exercise can become a downfall in ministry and create a void that becomes a vacuum for temptations. Tired bodies have little will power. It sets us up as emotional and physical targets.
Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. God is serious about that – shouldn’t we be serious about that too?
