I find the following quote to be a very thought provoking statement from the Apostle Paul on management of the body.
“…dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him” Romans 12:1, NLT.
What does it mean to “give your body to God?”
The human body is human thought, so to “give one’s body to God” is to let thought be guided and governed by God. When thought is reflecting God’s intelligence, love, wisdom and joy, it’s going to feel good, and have a healthy effect on the body.
To give our body over to God and experience the good effect that comes from serving God, our thought can’t be serving other gods, for instance, the temporal gods of sugar, salt, drugs, alcohol, caffeine, or nicotine—or fear and disease!
We are not helpless mortals that cannot resist temptation. We are immortals, divinely empowered to be spiritually minded, to think and act rightly, and to serve God with our whole heart, mind and strength.
Choose to serve God and prosper! It will bless the human body and keep it in a better place.
Inspiring!!!
thank you very much, Evan for explaining what it means “to give ones body to God” namely to let my thoughts be guided and governed by God expressing all those wonderful qualities of God. Yes, that`s what I want to do.
But must admit that I like sweets and good cake very much, and I also need salt in some soups or other meals, and regrettably I drink coffee and tea. Excuse please, is that realy sin if I like that? Ok, I could leave out the coffee and could diminish eating the sweets.
For instance yesterday I was at a birthday party, and we had very nice cake and I had two pieces and coffee. We had a nice day.
Yes I choose God – and I am very grateful and love today`s inspiring SpiritView very much, thank you dear Evan!
Having a little trouble with the lumping in of salt with your list. Isn’t salt a seasoning? Maybe you could embellish Evan. I know no one who serves a salt addiction. Sugar addiction I have seen. Salt makes good food taste better. Appreciate your thoughts on this.
You can search the internet and find a whole ton of scientific info to support what Evan is mentioning.
Yes, while seasoning with salt can be just like adding sherry to a recipe (nothing to fear), I assume what Evan is alluding to are those with a weight issue or who struggle with the seeming inability to stop eating certain foods. America has an obesity epidemic and sugar, salt and fat are used to satisfy the brain’s endorphin and pleasure system- short term. It’s why many can eat a whole box of sugary cereal, popcorn or carton of ice-cream in one sitting while mindlessly watching TV, a movie or reading – and wonder why, or later feel guilty only to repeat the action. Portions are larger than ever and appetites insatiable. Evan has given great solutions (here and in the past) to correcting this from a spiritual approach.
I’ve been known to binge on potato chips!
Salt does have a role to play in seasoning food. But there are many people who pick up a bag of salty processed food and believe they can’t stop eating it. They may eat a whole bag of potato chips, or crackers, or other heavily salted snack foods, and then wonder, “Why did I do that?”
I’ve read about food manufacturers intentionally heavily salting foods to make people want to eat more of them. So, that’s what I’m referring too. The out-of-control eating that is not tempered with discipline and moderation.
Wow! Did I get a lot of push back from mortal mind this morning about this blog! But thank you because it brought this statement to mind where Mary Baker Eddy writes,
“The nature of the individual, more stubborn than the circumstance, will always be found arguing for itself, — its habits, tastes, and indulgences. This material nature strives to tip the beam against the spiritual nature; for the flesh strives against Spirit, — against whatever or whoever opposes evil, — and weighs mightily in the scale against man’s high destiny.”
(Mis.119:10)
I’m grateful to be reminded of this fact.
Thank you for all you do for us… me
Veddy Interesting…….. I think coffee, tea, and all the other stuff mentioned above have only the power we give them in our thought. It’s just like with Medication…..if we take a pill and think it’s going to heal us…..it probably will! If we think coffee will keep us awake….it will. If we think sugar gives us a “High” it will. I think everything in moderation and eat what is set before you – knowing that no material substance can really have power over you!
I don’t think Evan is suggesting we shouldn’t use salt or sugar; just don’t make “god’s” out of them by fearing what they can or can’t do to you. This applies to all foods, as well as diets and exercise programs, protein drinks, etc. We always need to ask: What’s my motive for eating or not eating or doing this? Is it to “supplement” Life, God? We need honesty, wisdom and moderation in all things.
Another great Evan post.
I think it all depend on what we are looking to do. If we are happy with a false sense of existence and are looking to manage our conditions– moderation is the way to go. However, if we are looking for the Truth, the whole Truth and nothing but the Truth– we must put off the “old person.” To put off the old, we must give up every “thing” (visible and tangible; invisible and tangible) for God; this means everything bad and good.
To know the Truth we must understand ourselves Spiritually and rebuke the testimony of the finite senses. Remember the fall from Eden is one bite of an apple from one of “those” trees (duality; matter and mind); there is no tolerance for error. Foods that produce cravings undermine the ability to sense Spirit (unity; invisible and intangible) the sustaining Infinite. Eat real food but prey on the Divine. Good day to all!
Slightest use is abuse
Mis 289:2-4
Interesting that following yesterday’s thought starter we are applying it to the consideration of a causal power of matter and cravings. According to Mrs. Eddy the body has no intelligence so cannot produce cravings, nor can matter if it is not real. Jesus always pointed to Spirit and thinking (Matt. 15, Mark 7) as cause, thus craving for life, love, sweetness, joy, security and prosperity come from thoughts of lack, and we invert the process by seeking the spiritual benefits from the physical sense symbols of breath, “spirits”, smoke, nicotine, sugar, salt and money or weapons etc. and reinforcing the association into habit and belief that it is the lack of what is a symbol we most fear, causing our brief satisfaction and wondering why we experience the law of the word as manifestation of dis-ease. If we study cause and effect, the metaphysical meaning of the symbols, and regard them as Jesus did (ritual food laws, salt honey, wine, money etc.) we come to celebrate God everywhere, and divine wisdom has no interest in bingeing or abusing. We have the power and presence of God within us and Jesus Christ showed us that Spirit, mind and body are one.
Thank you so much—I love the explanation. Whenever anything takes over our thought—a craving for a certain food, fear of a disease, love of something or someone—so that it becomes dominant, we are making a god of it. When we challenge that dominance and replace it with a thought about God, it will leave us. I experienced that in a healing with my foot where I was watching where I stepped or how I stepped so I wouldn’t experience pain. When I realized that my foot was in my thought more than God it suddenly hit me that I was breaking the First Commandment. I decided then and there that every time my foot came to thought I would replace it with a truth about God. That broke the mesmerism. I never thought about my foot again—I was healed!
I am back from my reading room service today. And I found a suitable passage in SH by Mary Baker Eddy on page 232: 19 “Jesus never tought that drugs, food, air, and exercise could make a man healthy, or that they could destroy human life,… He referred man`s harmony to Mind, not to matter …”
And there are several more helpful passages in SH about this theme.
Thanks for your interesting comments, and Love to you all and to Evan!
Mis289:2-4
Thank You, Uta! That’s the ticket!! Food and Drugs have only the power we choose to give them and nothing more! Do we believe matter or Mind is Cause? If it is Mind, then we can have no ill effects from matter food!
I loved this story and the comments.
Kept reading, expecting to have someone mention something Mrs. Eddy wrote about salt, namely, “To quench the growing flames of falsehood, once in about seven years I have to repeat this, –that I use no drugs whatever, not even coffea (coffee), thea (tea), capsicum (red pepper); though every day, and especially at dinner, I indulge in homoeopathic does of Natrum muriaticum (common salt).
Thank you so much, Evan, for your wonderful sharing.
Joyce in Australia
Oops! I didn’t put in finishing quote marks. Or tell where to find the quote. It is Mis. 348:17.
Joyce
I am thrilled to read this blog. It is one of the things I’ve had difficulties in CS with. I am an alcoholic and food addict. If I start eating sugar I can’t stop. It’s a drug for me. Though I’ve been free from alcohol for 37 years, sugar is still a problem, as is caffeine . Most of my friends in Science look at you as though you were a heretic if you don’t eat the pies and cakes at a dinner, and I’ve been told I give them too much power, and a true Christian Scientist can eat whatever they want and give it no power. But it only works for me by abstaining from them. Thank you Evan for pointing out that we have created a dependency on excess food and sugar, coffee and tea, and we don’t need to indulge them. Cynthia
“Whatever intoxicates a man”…(anyone) …”stultifies and causes him (or her) to degenerate physically and morally.” Mis. 288:32
“intoxicates – verb – causes to lose control of their faculties or behavior”
“stultify – cause to appear foolish or absurd”
“degenerate – to decline or deteriorate physically, mentally, morally. corrupt”