Devotion: You Are God’s Work Of Art

If any man be in Christ, that is, when a man comes into a basic union with the risen Lord, he is a new creation (II Corinthians 5:17).  Old things, the old life are passed away at that moment of salvation:  all things that are, at the moment of salvation, become new.  This is not talking about anything physical becoming new but a new creation in the spirit.  When you are renewed or made brand new, you are new in the spirit not new in body.  If you were bald before being reborn, you will be bald after being reborn.  The same applies to being overweight, if you overweight before, you will be overweight afterwards.  God has changed your spirit and only deals with the spirit part of your threefold nature of spirit, soul, and body (I Thessalonians 5:23).  He does not deal with your soul, which contains your desire, your will, your intellect, and your mind nor does he deal with “your body.”

You have the privilege of dealing with “your soul” and “your body.”  You must be in control of your desires, your will, your mind, and your thoughts.  You must also be in control of “your body.”  This means that you cannot be bound by the desires of the body of the flesh.

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable (rational) service” (Romans 12:1).

Yes, that is right.  You are to present “your body” as a living and holy sacrifice, the kind that is acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.  When you think about all that God has done for you, this cannot be too much to ask.  We understand that this is a difficult task because you have allowed “your body” to be charge for so long and that it will hard to take back control of it.  We also know this; “your body” will not go down without a fight.  “Your body” will be fighting for its life.  Notice that we did not say the body would be fighting for your life; it will be fighting for its life.

“But I keep under (discipline) my body, and bring it into subjection, lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway (disqualified)” (I Corinthians 9:27).

Like an athlete in training, he will punish his body, treating it roughly, training it to do what it should, not what it wants to.  You must be in control of “your body” and you must train it to do the things that it should, not allow it to do the thing that it wants.  Here is another way to look at this presenting “your body” thing.  When you want to sell your house, you do all the things necessary to present your house in the best possible shape.  Basically, you completely clean your house, from the inside to the outside.  And when you do these things, you do not ask your house for permission, but you do those things that you believe the house needs so that it is presentable to any potential buyers.  You do the same thing with your car when you want to sell it.  You clean up your car inside and out, so that you can present it in the best possible shape.  It is the same with “your body,” the house that you live in; you are to present it in the best possible shape to God.

If you wanted to paint your house or your car a different color, would you ask for its permission before you painted it?  Then, why would you need permission to tell “your body” what to do?  And no, this does not mean that you only put on a “fresh coat of paint” so to speak.  Most of the problems that you have in life are flesh related meaning “your body” is your biggest problem.  Do not allow “your body” to dictate to you what it will do.

We pray that the commentary will be a blessing to you as well as informative.  If blessed by this message, please share so that others may be blessed as well.  Amen.

Enjoy your blessings - KW