Exodus 25: 1-9 "Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 'Speak to the children of Israel, that they bring Me an offering. From everyone who gives it willingly with his heart you shall take My offering. And this is the offering which you shall take from them: gold, silver, and bronze; blue, purple, and scarlet thread, fine linen, and goats' hair; ram skins dyed red, badger skins, and acacia wood; oil for the light, and spices for the anointing oil and for the sweet incense; onyx stones, and stones to be set in the ephod and in the breastplate. And let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them. According to all that I show you, that is, the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all its furnishings, just so you shall make it."
Pastor Chuck Swindoll was preaching on this passage this morning (the day I wrote this) as I was coming to work. He was talking about how we are to be willing givers. We are to tithe but to do it willingly. As I thought about this passage my mind went a different direction. How does this apply to my battle with weight and does it relate to I Corinthians 6: 19-20 which states "Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefor glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's."
I want to be careful not to read into scripture but I do think this can apply. So here is how.
As believers we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, as Paul tells us in I Corinthians each one of our bodies are a temple because of this indwelling. This is a fundamental belief that if you don't grasp then the rest of what I am about to say means nothing.
First we are told to give willingly. I think that without too much stretch we can say we are to willingly care for this personal temple that God now indwells. We have talked about the ineffectiveness of believers who can't control there eating habits in past studies well without a willing heart not eating certain foods become a chore and it is not a pleasing offering to our Savior.
The second thing we can take from this is that God then spent 6 chapters explaining a detailed plan on how to build the temple. This tells me that I too need a detailed plan. This plan includes foods, both meal planning and snack planning. It includes a plan for water consumption and finally it includes an exercise plan for strength training and cardio.
I know that as Ecclesiastes says in 3:2a that this is "a time to be born and a time to die", however, I also know that when I sin there is consequences for that sin. The last thing I want is for my consequence for poor living is to be taken from this earthly world before my perfect time because anything less than perfect timing would not glorify God.
So here is the 4 step application:
1. Set a workout goal. For example, I will walk briskly for 30 minutes 4 days a week.
2. Meal and snack plan for the week.
3. Know the amount of water you need to drink daily (half your body weight in ounces of water) and then break that down into drinkable amounts threw out the day.
4. Start a food, drink and exercise log.
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