In my previous blog, I discussed the war with body image. I was open about the things I still struggle with and then resolved with God as an artist, One who creates our bodies perfectly in the image He as an artist had in mind. In Part II, I will answer with a counter attack against the enemy and his tactics, using the truth that we are a temple.
Hebrews 3:4-6: “For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything. Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s house, bearing witness to what would be spoken by God in the future. But Christ is faithful as the Son over God’s house. And we are his house, if indeed we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope in which we glory.”
WE ARE A TEMPLE, A HOUSE NOT ABANDONED.
Look at the outside of your house. You see a body with fat rolls and strange blemishes, a body that seems like it could never be accepted because of your conception of what it “should be.” Should it be toned? Should it be pure and without freckles, acne, skin tags, hair, patches of dry skin? Should it be thinner and look better in the pictures that are taken.
I must admit that being on the World Race has been the ultimate test on how I perceive myself. I have lost muscle, I have gained some weight, I cannot exercise every day. The constant sweating and change in humidity mixed dirt in the air has caused much acne and scars on my face. My skin has become dark and covered with freckles from the hot sun, some of it a little more damaged than before. I have become a freckle-faced kid again. The pictures that don’t make it on social media are pictures that show my weight gain in the last couple months, the ones that make everything very obvious. God has been showing me just how much I do not prize His dwelling and how much I regard it as unholy. I turn away from it, not accepting it as being enough for me and in turn, not accepting God as enough.
Here’s the truth: God sees a temple adorned of intricate embroidery on our walls and decorations of DNA. He chose to allow the Holy Spirit a home within us. What does this actually mean to be a house?
Consider this – God has accepted your house over Solomon’s temple, over the grandeur and expense that was in His house in those days. The Babylonians came and set fire to the temple, the Lord rejected it and took it away from the Israelites because of their disregard of His splendor and their worship of other gods. How is this any different than the way we disregard God’s present temple and go to worship the “end goal” of a toned body, worshipping what others have and regarding it more sacred than what we already have? Yet, He doesn’t reject your temple. He doesn’t destroy it, He treats it with immense grace and continues to house His Spirit there, despite our wandering eyes and hearts. He continues to accept it and treat it with delicacy and asks to come to Him so He can heal your temple. He deems it as clean, He will never reject your body as a place for Him to live. What does it mean to be a house for God? A house is a home, a place of rest, a place of safety and trust. A house is a shelter from the storm, with many rooms, each door with a different meaning and symbol. We have a place to eat and commune, a place to wash clean, a place to sleep, and a place to rest and enjoy family. Our own bodies cover so much of this symbolism, more than you realize. Even the way our blood pumps, our muscles contract and rest. It all symbolizes God in some way, it screams for His Spirit to dwell, for God to make peace and for Him to make it a true home of shelter. God trusts our temple to be His peace and shelter, so that we may invite others into that peace and shelter. God dwells in us to entice us into the home that is not on earth, that others may find home in the spiritual realm by looking into our eyes and our hearts. God communes with us on earth by knocking on the door of our house. In reality, He is God. He could break that down. But He chooses to knock in humility, accepting OUR invitation to come into the house He built. In reality, it was His house in the first place, yet He allows us to have some authority. He allows us to invite Him into our space. What a humble guy. With this kind of authority and this kind of trust from the Lord, shouldn’t we take care of it? Shouldn’t our rooms always be ready for guests, with the floors swept and the food on the tables? Shouldn’t we show God, our guest the skeletons in our closet so we do not hide anything from Him, so He knows He is welcome here and He is our family now? Shouldn’t we bring to light who we really are by having afternoon tea and conversation with the God who is infinitely more wise than we? In the same way, shouldn’t we invite Him into our shame regarding our bodies and the shame that surrounds it, that our long-term guest may see the genuine hearts that we want to share?
Your body is much more than a temple. It is a home, a place of safety. It is a strength that has God within every muscle and ligament. It is a special place that is inviting. It is enough. It is so much enough, that God chooses to extend His visit for long term, not just visiting on the weekends. Shouldn’t we prepare each room for Him? Shouldn’t we treat the guest room and home with care and consideration?
Here is some advice that has stuck with me through the years – when you decide to work out and eat healthy, consider that you are doing this to take care of your holy body, the home of our Lord. You are taking care of God’s dwelling place, cleansing it and making sure it is at it’s best as a sacrifice for the Lord. Exercising and eating right is an every day sacrifice that is never in vain, a statement to God that you are willing to fight the battle of the heavens. You are willing to sacrifice to build up your body and become strong for Him.
1 Corinthians 3:16 – “Don’t you know you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?” 1 Corinthian 6:19 – “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own.”
THE BODY AND THE BODY OF THE CHURCH.
Don’t you know dear friend? Your body is a dwelling place for the body of Christ. You are created to be a church body with others. If one part of the body is loathing itself in the disease of shame, the other parts of the body will suffer as well and become infected. It is essential for you to be overcome with the antibiotic of hope and you will be a light to your community. You are meant to be an essential puzzle piece that is the church body. Shame will fight against you and keep you from finding your puzzle piece and placing it in the slot it belongs. The body of believers is the most incredible army this world has ever seen when placed together. The enemy wants you to be isolated from this, for then you will not stand on your own and a part of the body will be destroyed. If you think for a moment that you will never be enough to others because of the way you look, you have placed in your mind that you cannot lead others to Christ, that you don’t possess the Lord’s light enough. Who does this lie come from?
In the same way, you must guard your mind against the shame of weight, or your own body will also crumble. You are stronger in unity with others and you will stand firmly on your two feet when you find unity with your mind, body, heart, and soul. Do not allow body shame to isolate you from others. Allow it to be a change in your community! Allow it to be a victory you can overcome as a body of believers!
1 Corinthians 12:17-19 – “If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be?”
OUR LIES MATCHED WITH A PRAYER.
Why should weight determine whether I am loved or not?
Weight is something we all try to do on our own without inviting God in. We say lies to ourselves: “If only I could lose this many pounds.”
“I will diet and exercise every day for a few weeks. That will fix me.”
“I need determination.”
“I don’t like exercise.”
“I don’t have the motivation to get out of bed.”
What if we just need Jesus? We don’t invite him into that process. God gives us will power and determination. Do we believe God could tranform our bodies tomorrow? And He doesn’t need an elliptical or diet program to do so. He can do it by the work of His hand. Our American culture LOVES throwing the “lose weight in 2 weeks!” card at us. This journey goes so much deeper than how you look on the outside. It’s a spiritual journey that involves the sacred dwelling place of God. It requires us to let Him in.
We lie to ourselves and say “I need to be stronger.” What is that doing? It is putting yourself down again, implying that God has given you no strength or discipline anywhere else in your life. This is a giant lie of the enemy. Christ came so you don’t have to be perfect. He came so we could receive salvation, not wrath. I have spent my whole life thinking God would punish me if I did something wrong, that I needed to figure everything out on my own and then come and lay it down at His feet. The most beautiful part of the Lord is He will never give us a snake when we ask for bread. He delights to help us when we are at our wits end.
So why don’t our prayers in the body battle look more like this?
“Lord, I truly cannot do this alone. I have no motivation, I hate working out, I hate vegetables. I have tried and tried in vain, with no avail. I want to love myself. I want to be free from the shame and guilt I place on myself. I want to love the work of Your hands and see what You see, to see that it is good. I truly cannot do this alone anymore. I need you to get me out of bed, to remind me that I am making sacred my temple everytime I want to feed my body unhealthy foods. I need you to remind me the battle I am in, that I am only strong because you give me strength. Only your grace and mercy can change my mindset of how I see myself. Only You can give me motivation and determination to get into this routine and actually love it. It is by Your hand, not my own. Get me out of this prison cell. I do not want to be placed here any longer. Help me Lord, You are the only One who can. Help me truly and fully love myself, that you may be glorified and your light may shine even more freely and brightly. Amen.”
This kind of humility is truly freeing. You have given back what was His in the first place.
Romans 8:6 – “The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.” Ephesians 2:22 – “And in Him you too are being built together to become a dwelling place in which God lives by His Spirit.
May your broken heart be binded. Pray for me as I struggle especially hard this week with shame. May you all be guided in truth and love, experiencing freedom from the disease of shame.
With love,
Mary Beth
