Cassie“I’ve been so considered with exalting my own life, body, looks, goals, and personality that I forgot that I am meant to allow the Lord of my life to exalt Himself through me.”
Do you ever think about how much more time you might have if you didn’t have to sleep, dress yourself, or eat? What would we do with that time?
I remember being maybe six years old with my family at Marineland, an amusement park, and loving all the rides and attractions and never wanting the day to end. When we stopped for a picnic, I remember thinking, Wouldn’t it be so much easier if we didn’t get hungry or have to eat? I could be spending all this time on the rides! Eating is inherently good; a creation of God. Food is for the stomach and the stomach for food, but God will destroy both one and the other (1 Cor. 6:13).
And I’m sure all of us have considered the idea of the time we’d have if our bodies didn’t require sleep. But rest is good. I lie down and sleep. I wake again because the LORD sustains me (Psalm 3:5).
And in this world, of course we must wear clothes, for obvious reasons. If we didn’t we would be of course visually exalting ourselves. But do not worry about your body, what you will wear (Matthew 6:25).
What are we truly and inherently meant to do with our time?
For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live. ROMANS 8:13
The world wants to come at me with all sorts of things to fill my time with. Jesus’ grace for the way I have spent HIS time, HIS money, and HIS thoughts in the past is one point that is overwhelming. And in part with understanding that never-ending grace, knowing that we’re forgiven, we return to Him and consider the past no longer, we yield the flesh to Him and He takes over. He shows us when to think about food and clothes and sleep in ways that are not stressful and simply serving, and leaves space for what we’re meant to be doing; serving the Lord Jesus. Where these temporary things fall in to the background.
Even if the world tries to make me a VICTIM through struggles such as idolization, I know that I am not the victim, but rather taking the beatings entirely for Lord Jesus, as I am a member of His body.
“Ok, Jesus. I want to produce your fruit. I want to be good. I want to put off the flesh… I’m trying so hard, because I really do love you… but I can’t. It’s not working. How can you forgive me?”
It’s who HE IS. It’s what HE DOES. And no, none of us can rid the impulses of flesh, the old man, the sin. We hinge and are meant to live out of His strength, because His Spirit can do it, and does do it. We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us (Phil 4:13). What a beautiful thing, to be a family, taken care of by other members for one common, eternal, most beautiful purpose: Jesus Christ.
Let Him flood you with that peace. Relinquish the control that is all fabricated, and hand it to Him.
“Christianity is not death to sexuality, not death to eating, not death to sleep, not death to the eyes and looking at things, not death to talking…. your body is GOOD! God made it, and He made it with all those things for a REASON! But He, in all His power, was meant to rule it, and coming into that Truth makes you the happiest person on earth.” –Eric Ludy
{Meditation written by Cassie Wolfe, adapted from sermon “The Body” by Eric Ludy}
