God's Dwelling Place

This morning I logged on to my email and read a devotion (devotions@proverbs31.org) I subscribe to...and the author wrote about our body as a temple.

She referenced 1 Corinthians 3:16-17 16Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you? 17If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him; for God's temple is sacred, and you are that temple. (NIV) and the Message version says this 16-17You realize, don't you, that you are the temple of God, and God himself is present in you? No one will get by with vandalizing God's temple, you can be sure of that. God's temple is sacred—and you, remember, are the temple.

I meditated on these verses while I was getting myself and my kids ready for school....stopping now and then to read them again...taking time to write the words in my journal...reflecting on the meaning...we are God's dwelling place...God lives with in us...and the Message says "no one will get by with vandalizing God's temple".

How do I treat this temple...not just with food or restricting food...or taking laxatives to feel empty inside...but also how do I talk about myself...do I curse my temple...the one that God resides in? Do I deny my temple nourishment...the one that God resides in? Do I "vandalize it"?

And then sitting in the dentist office waiting room, I pull from my purse the book I found at the thrift store the other day...the one God put on the shelf just for me...the one I can't believe my eyes found...and I open it to the page I left off...I read. The book is called Who Calls Me Beautiful by Regina Franklin

Rarely do we draw a connection between the words we say about ourselves and the fact that we are speaking about God's temple. We would never consider vandalizing our local place of worship, but we don't think twice about damaging ourselves with self-deprecating thoughts and words. The impact is the same....Scripture is clear that the Spirit of God does not dwell in buildings made of brick and stone but in the flesh and blood created in His image. Paul wrote "Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? (1 Corinthians 3:16) (pg 67)

Do you think God is trying to tell me something???!!!!!

This book is full of highlighter and underlines and stars in the margins.

God dwells in us...His temple...and what do I do to it...I curse it...I beat it up...I treat it poorly...I let it become unbalanced and broken down. Would we go in to a church and treat it like this...God's house...and he actually resides in us not in the walls of a building...but we treat the church with love and care...do we treat the place God lives with love and care? This book is challenging the way I think and behave and convicting my motives.

My challenge for us all today is to be reminded that God resides in us and we should strive to have a temple that is healthy and renewed....not just our physical body but our words and our thoughts. The only way we can do this is by choosing who we are going to serve each day...God or the world. And this means keeping our eyes on our Creator!

Even though every day God shows me His love for me in such personal ways....it still awes me each time. God adores each one of us. He gave me this message so clearly from two separate sources...He showed me a book I would not have seen otherwise...He takes care of every single need and I have to remember to QUIT worrying and forgetting that He always shows me what to do and when...why do I forget that? And He knows my thoughts and what I need to restore so that I can fully serve Him in the way He is calling me.

Take care of your temple...God's dwelling place.

Have a fabulous day.
We have 2 more days of school!
Love, Teresa