…Therefore honor God with your body

“Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.” [1 Cor 6:18-20]

Therefore honor God with your body. You know as we look at worship I wonder how many of us consider how we are [act, behave] with our bodies as part of our worship . When we think of worship as a physical expression (or how we use our bodies IN worship rather), often times we look at different worship positions, such as raised hands, kneeling, clapping, etc. But we may not necessarily be thinking how we use our bodies the rest of the time [when alone, when with our unsaved friends, when at work, when at play, how we talk, what we laugh at, how we interact... you get the idea].

My dad recently told me that a friend of his often sends out jokes over the internet that are sometimes of questionable content. This guy is a great man, he is a new believer and is very open about his faith and his new relationship with God. My dad received another “dirty joke” the other day and he really felt convicted to talk to his friend about the kind of humor he was sending to people that he was also sharing his faith with. The man had no idea that he was sending mixed messages and because it’s all new, there maybe hasn’t been that ‘renewing of the mind’ that Romans speaks about [below]. All in time, but it’s something we really need to consider. We can’t speak out of two sides of our mouths, nor can we act in conflicting manners. If you’re struggling with this, ask God to show you where you need His help and allow Him to lead you on this journey – you aren’t alone…

But, we are called to a life of holiness … and seeing that obedience is our response to God in worship, holiness is something we can definitely give to God… it’s honoring to Him when we behave appropriately. When we pursue a life of Christ-likeness. Right?

Check out Romans 12:1-3…

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual[a] act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.”

The world worships something much different than we do and the world behaves in ways that can be tempting, but are definitely not God’s ways…As Christians, worship leaders, worshipers, and most of all as God-lovers, we really need to step off the stage and check our lives from the inside, out.

Sin is subtle and it creeps in slowly, but there’s no point to bringing music and songs and leading the throngs of people in worship if we aren’t bringing our lives before Him in the quietness of our own hearts. If our bodies aren’t being offered to God as living sacrifices [worship] and if our hearts are far from Him, then our songs don’t mean much, do they?

We can do it – we are not slaves to sin and God is more impressed with the condition of our hearts, than what we do. He has asked us to be holy, to be pure. To walk humbly, to love justice. He has asked us to love and respect others and to be honest and live with integrity. We can choose righteousness and peace. Because of God’s grace we have access to all that the cross represents – but we have to choose it.

Yesterday the kids got out early from school so along with some friends, Cliff and I and the kids went to one of our favorite haunts for lunch. This restaurant has tvs positioned around the place and at one point Levi started squirming… closing his eyes and looking around uncomfortably. I didn’t have to turn around myself to know what was going on. You see, Cliff and Levi have made ‘eye covenants’ with God and to each other that they will not look at things that the Bible says specifically for us to stay away from.

When we’re walking through the mall, or flipping through a magazine, as a family we don’t give ourselves license to stare. Even if people are seemingly asking for attention, or looking to be noticed, we are developing discipline with our eyes (among other things)… the men of our home don’t use the freedom they have to ’stare’ or ‘gawk’ – they use their freedom to pursue the things of God. How exciting it is for me to see that character in my 11 year old boy and it’s a great testimony to have a husband who doesn’t have his head on a swivel.

We don’t deny the fact that there are plenty of things vying for our attention, but we deny them power in our lives through the blood of Jesus Christ, alive and at work in us! Sweet!

…Therefore honor God with your body [1 Cor 6:20] and offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship [Rom 12:1].

Try something new in your pursuit for God – today…choose new ways to live purely; walk in the righteousness of Jesus – He paid the price so that we could – so that we can be right with Him. It will take discipline everyday but we can do it! Ya gotta try. It doesn’t just happen…it takes work… and with God’s help you can do it!

Godspeed,
♥er