YouVersion

I have always had the YouVersion Bible App on my phone, even with my blackberry. It has about every translation of the Bible as well as devotionals. I have always read from it every now and then. But, this week I started 2 devotionals on it and also have learned how to bookmark and add notes which I can even make public to share with others. I can also find others' notes. It is a great App and I definitely encourage you to use it. Anyways, one of my devotionals today focused on keeping our bodies as a temple for God. I ended up really digging into the topic and made a note about it. I didn't know how to directly share it from the site so I am going to copy and paste it.

"Don't you know that your body is a temple that belongs to the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit, whom you received from God, lives in you. You don't belong to yourselves. You were bought for a price. So bring glory to God in the way you use your body."

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (GWT)

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 is such a convicting statement. So many times as humans we indulge in numerous sins with our bodies whether that be gluttony or sexual immorality. Also in simple ways we don't show God through how we use our bodies. Through dance moves, by dressing up with the only motives to impress others, and even not feeding our bodies the way we should, we are not keeping the temple of God how we should.

This is such a hard concept to actually put into action within our word. So many aspects of today's world tell us that immodesty and indulging yourself with food is a normal, if not encouraged, act. It's hard to step back and think "No. I am not doing this to please or impress others. I need to do this to uphold the dwelling in which God lives by his spirit (Ephesians 2:22)."

The part that really sticks out in these two verses is that we were bought for a price. Okay, so now you can think of it in today's terms, you know, because it says bought" and we are so caught up in consumerism. Let's think about it this way. If you buy a present for someone and later see it torn up or damaged, doesn't that hurt your feelings? That was your gift to them and they abused it. In the same way don't you think God looks at us like that. He didn't use mere currency as his way to pay for us, but the death of his son. HELLO! What are we doing? Someone died for me and I can't return the amazing favor by taking care of myself or resist the many temptations of the world?

I know God doesn't expect us to be able to hold strong against every temptation (even though all things are possible through God (Matthew 19:26)). Yet, He wants for us to strive and desire to be better for Him.

"Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God- this is your spiritual act of worship."

Romans 12:1 (NIV)