Devotional: Caring for What God Has Entrusted
Intro
Are your neglecting your health while also asking God for energy? Maybe you are neglecting your hair or your skin because you just “don’t have time” 🤔 Well Sis (or bro), it’s time to shake things up. In this devotional (plus a Bible study reading plan for beginners below), “Caring for Your Body, God’s Temple” isn’t optional – it’s Biblical.
It’s time to stop praying over bad habits and start honoring the Lord by honoring the body He gave you.
Caring for your body as God’s temple is what helps you to truly reach any physical goals you may have. You’ll always be a work in progress but putting in the work is worth it.
The Apostle Paul said in Philippians 3:14 “ I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” So, that will be the scripture focus for today’s devotional.
The verse ties heavily into honoring and caring for your body as God’s temple because it provides us with the motivation to keep pushing toward something that doesn’t come naturally to us and is also not easy to achieve
Scripture Focus
I like to share different versions of the scriptures in our devotionals. Take a look at these 3 from Philippians 3:14:
I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.. NIV
I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us. NLT
I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. KJV
According to the scriptures, there’s a prize awaiting us when we press into what God has called us to do. In 1 Corinthians 9:27 Paul goes on further to say how he “buffets” his body to keep it under subjection. In other words, He drives it and trains it to do what he wants it to do.
We must have that same tenacity to care for our bodies as God’s temple.
Reflections
As I sat to write this devotional, it actually hit home for me as well. I can’t recall the number of times I’ve pushed off a wash day, didn’t get enough sleep or skipped a shower because I was too tired or just didn’t feel like it. Or, in the case of not enough sleep, I was focused on other non-important things.
The problem is when we skip out on those tasks and routines that are meant to keep our bodies in tip top shape, we often blame the devil or we don’t blame anyone and run to God to fix “it.”
Encouragement
God longs to take care of us. I was going to add a “but” after that but (no pun intended) I don’t want you think that you have to work for God’s love and care.
What I do want to highlight is while God longs to take care of us, it’s also honoring to Him when we take care of what He’s entrusted to us. In this case, our physical bodies. Our spirits should be taken care of as well but for this devotional, we are focusing on the body.
Related: Bible Study Printable: Discovering God’s Will for Your Life
Free printable Bible study reading plan for further study
Honoring your body as God’s temple may be easier said than done. Sometimes the best of intentions don’t spur us to action.
So, how about doing a deeper study on the topic? It will help you to feed your spirit so that you become stronger and more capable of actually doing what’s necessary to actually:
- see your body as God’s temple and
- honor it as so
Here’s a free Bible study reading plan for beginners that you can download to help you in this journey. Sign up for the Faithful Living Newsletter to download it for free by clicking on the image or here. You’ll also receive the complimentary notes page (in 2 designs) for journaling through the scriptures.
See Previous Devotional: Hair Shedding: Spiritual Lessons of Loss and Renewal Devotional
