Your Body: Temple or a Trashcan?

 Do you not know that your bodies are temples 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 bodies.

- 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

Today I'm starting a series about something that we typically push into the corner. Kind of like "the elephant in the room" if you will.

This series is all about how we treat the bodies that God has given us.

Do we treat them as a temple (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)? Or a trashcan?

Do we fill them with things worthwhile? Or things that do not bring honor to the Lord?

This series will cover three topics:

1. Mind

2. Body

3. Spirit

We will cover what the Lord says about these things, and how he desires us to respect what He has freely given to us.

We will talk about our daily habits and how they are helping us or hurting us.

We will talk about how we can use these free, priceless gifts to further his kingdom. 

Today let's talk about the first one, our minds. Take a minute and ask yourself what you think about most often. And I'm not looking for the Sunday school answer "Jesus", but really, truly...what do you think about most often?

Our minds are heavily influenced by what is around us, our everyday activities like work, what we watch on TV, and what we listen to. 

Have you ever thought that maybe you consume those things as you watch/listen? 

It struck me recently that my mind is literally absorbing these things and influences me greatly. 

"A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of." 
-Luke 6:45

When I read this, it really spoke to me that whatever is inside of us is going to flow out. If I'm listening to music that curses than a cuss word is more than likely to pop up in my head when I stub my toe. 

If I watch shows where the actors are not bringing glory to Christ, how will that reflect in my behavior? Will I start to think "oh well that's not so bad since everyone else is doing it." It will start to challenge my morals since " I'm not as bad as THAT person over there." (which every sin is equal in God's eyes, but that's for a whole different post.)

But what I have been learning is that what God has given us, we are to treasure. We should love, respect and protect what He has given us. 

So the conclusion I have come to is this: 

We are to treat our minds as a temple. Why would we fill it with things that Christ would want us to throw away in the trash can? Our minds should not be trash cans, sweet friends. But rather, a place to reflect on the majesty of our creator. To use our minds to think about all His many gifts and stand in awe of His creation.

Lets use our minds, this gift, to bring glory to the Lord today, this weekend, this upcoming week, and forever.

Have a great weekend!

xoxo,
Lace