Romans 6:13 Do not go on offering members of your body to sin as instruments of wickedness. But offer yourselves to God [in a decisive act] as those alive [raised] from the dead [to a new life], and your members [all of your abilities—sanctified, set apart] as instruments of righteousness [yielded] to God.
We must not be engaged in sin in any area of our lives. Our body, soul & mind must be in line with God’s Word. God created our bodies: every cell, every molecule, every fibre, every organ, bone & marrow, muscle & joints, so we need to honor God with our bodies. Sometimes we may not be aware of how we dishonor our bodies and be unknowingly sinning by indulging in acts of overindulgence or gluttony. Other ways in which we can dishonor our bodies are: lack of exercise, too much exercise, not enough food intake, not enough nutrients, eating poorly, staying up late instead of getting enough sleep, not being properly hydrated, not listening to our bodies when we need to rest etc…Our minds also have a role in maintaining a healthy body: stress, anxiety & depression can have a huge effect on the health of our bodies
Offering ourselves to God, every part of our being, each and every member of our bodies with all our abilities, as instruments of righteousness to God, we can have health and wholeness in body, soul & spirit. This is honoring God with our bodies. To live well and have life in abundance, we need to feed our bodies well, nourish it, be active, rest it, give over our stress, anxiety & depression to God (continually), and choosing to be thankful every day, communing with God and meditating on His Word.
Our bodies must be solely dedicated to God as a living sacrifice. We need to care for our bodies because we are the temple of the Lord. We also need to take care of our minds—being mindful of the kind of talk we listen to, or the kind of things we read or what we watch on T.V. Another area we need to be mindful of is our ‘self-talk’. What we believe about ourselves needs to be aligned to the truth of God’s Word so that our self-talk will be truth, not the lies Satan whispers in our ears.
Keeping God central in our lives gives us less time (and desire) to focus on self—gratifying the flesh and giving into temptation, dwelling on negativity and giving into anxiety or depression. We can know and live in God’s peace every day! It’s a matter of being intentional by offering our bodies as a living sacrifice to God.
