Whose Body is This?

"Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body." (I Corinthians 6:19,20 NLT)

May I have your attention, please? All the things we do to the bodies we live in do not belong to us--they belong to God!

What! You mean, I shouldn't have clogged up my lungs with foul-smelling smoke and poisoned them with nicotine? You mean, I shouldn't have over-eaten for the last forty years all that fried food, desserts, with no vegetables, clogging up my arteries, causing damage to my heart? You mean, I shouldn't have drank those forty-ounces, and tequila shots, or that fifth of vodka a day, killing off brain cells with drug use and abuse and alcohol? You mean, I shouldn't have slept with every Tom, Dick and Harry or Mary Jane, Susie, and Sally that I met, forever incorporating a piece of them with everyone I slept with? You mean, I shouldn't have misused my body to satisfy morbid curiosity by sticking things in places they did not belong? Is that what you mean? Have you identified you, yet in this list of--"I shouldn't haves?"

Wow! The things we do to our bodies when we don't understand they are just "on loan" to us while we are here on earth!

Had we known sooner than we discovered, would we have done anything differently? I'd like to think we would. In fact, had I been introduced to The Word and understood that it is the gateway to my relationship with God, sooner--there are a number of things I would not have done when I was younger.

I wouldn't have started smoking cigarettes and kept up the horrible habit for eighteen years--I'm dealing with the consequences, now.

I wouldn't have been so insecure about who I was because of things that happened to me that were totally out of my control that I did things I should not have done to my body.

I wouldn't have been involved with some of the men in past relationships because they did nothing to provoke thoughts of Godly behavior.

This list could go on, but I think the point has been made. When we know better, we should do better. Now, that I know my body doesn't belong to me--I try harder to take care of it because I realize that it deteriorates naturally with the aging process and it doesn't need my help to destroy what God is doing in my life.

This is the body I need to house the spirit that God has given to guide me and I will not desecrate the temple in which Holy Spirit lives. After all, this is not my body, it belongs to God!

Thank God for second chances! I now know and do all those things that will hopefully prolong God using me in this body!