Meditation: Honor the Body

 

(c) Deborah Evans

Do you honor your spirit, your will, your imagination, your mind, your dreams?

Honor the body in which all of these reside.

The Bible doesn't teach of a resurrection experience that involves humans becoming angels  or disembodied spirits flying through the air. Certain artists have crafted these images, but you can't find this concept in the Bible.

Genesis teaches us God literally breathed the "breath of life" into the human body. Genesis also teaches us God shaped the human body intentionally. Read Genesis 2:4-7.

Regarding the resurrection, Paul the apostle writes this in the New Testament: "So it will be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown (buried) is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body." (Read 1 Corinthians 15:42-44).

Here, Paul describes the truth that many of us will be buried with weak, sick, and broken bodies. Some of us will die in totally destructive accidents. Some of us will be cremated because our bodies will be too damaged for a traditional funeral service. Some of us may be victims of violent crimes and our bodies may never be located or identified.

No matter how we leave this world, you and I will be raised not just as spirits, but we will be raised with a spiritual body.

When you honor your body as a creation of God, it will become easier to reject the messages of the world that constantly tell us there's always something wrong with our bodies: too fat, too thin, too old, too young, too pretty, too ugly, too dark, too light, too short, too tall. On and on it goes. By the standard of the world, no one's appearance is ever good enough. If you happen to be "good enough" today, you have no guarantees for tomorrow. Reject this damaging, dishonest perspective.

When you honor your body as a creation of God, you will think and act differently about how you feed your body: what you eat, what you drink, how much rest you choose, how deeply you breathe, how much you exercise, etc. 

You are not a random arrival. You are a unique creation of God.

This week, meditate on how you will honor your body as a gift of God. We were all created to inhabit physical bodies that reflect the image and glory of God.  This is true for time and for eternity. Don't think of your body as something to escape, deny, destroy, despise, or reject.

When you honor your body as a unique creation of God, you connect with and affirm what is true.

This week, tell yourself "I will honor my body as a unique creation of God."