Stewarding our Health

Last week our Stewarding series was our parenting. This week we will cover our health. Our health is vital in our daily living and our bodies are to be treated as it being the Lord’s. But how can we steward our health? Well sister, let’s find out together.

“Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”
1 Corinthians 6:19-20

We must now enter in today’s episode with the continued series, on stewarding our health. Helping both our mind and body. I don’t know about you, but I love coffee. Both iced and hot. I can drink it all day. And I came to a point in my life where I did. I “survived” on coffee, as most of us mamas say. Until I didn’t. I ended up getting sick.

Friend, our bodies are not our own. They were bought with a price. Jesus purchased our bodies by dying on the cross and because Jesus did this, and because we follow His lead, we are to treat our bodies as such. Special. A prized possession. And that we are. But how do we treat it? How do we eat? How do we mentally clear our heads? How do we rest? What do we consume in both our minds and bodies?

These are the questions we need to ask ourselves.

“How we treat our bodies and what we fill our minds with should glorify the Lord, not the other way around.”
SheWalksHisWay

lets talk Food first

Now please don’t get what I am writing in this section and think I am perfect at this or that I judge you. Friend, I only share because I have seen how sick I have gotten, my family has gotten, and how it wrecked me both mentally and physically. I share this because what good will it do if I withhold this information not sharing what God has, and still is, teaching me? It wouldn’t be very Christ-like of me to keep it to myself. What I do know is what we consume, our health habit choices, from toxic foods to toxic chemicals being used, it all destructs our bodies.

Now Sister, I’m not saying to go all vegetarian, stop all coffee drinking, nor am I saying to ban restaurants. What I am saying is, what we consume in our eating and drinking habits is important to our bodies. We can’t expect our health to be great when we consume fast food 5 times a day while buying coffee twice a day. There is a reason God has told Adam at the very beginning to care for the garden. God cares for humanity by supplying farmers with wisdom and knowledge on caring for their land, their fruits, their vegetables.

Let me share my story for a second before proceeding on. I began getting sick. I could not understand the pinpoint of what it could be. I kept searching and crying to the Lord, asking Him for help in this area. I asked for healing, I asked for wisdom, I asked for a word of what I am dealing with. Now, I was not eating properly. Buying coffee every other day, eating sugary foods daily, eating out constantly as I was always on the run having to tend to this appointment that appointment, etc. But I felt it. Deep inside something was wrong. Then one very early morning God woke me up at 3am and said one specific word. I looked it up and I knew.. He answered. He told me what was in my body that was making me sick. All from consuming too much processed foods, coffee creamers, etc. I wept in joy that He answered but in sadness that I neglected my body so much that now I was reaping what I sown into my body.

When I was little I would always hear my parents say, “you are what you eat.” And this couldn’t be more true. What we eat now, how much we consume now, it may not affect us right this instance, but it does indeed catch up.

We wonder why we are breaking out, why we have eczema, why ADHD and ADD is up, why allergies are occurring when we never had them before, or how our mental state seems to be fogged up. There is a root to everything. And what we eat matters. What we drink matters. Even what we think matters.

“If you have found honey, eat only enough for you, lest you have your gill of it and vomit it.”
Proverbs 25:16

God created such wonderful foods to eat. But overdoing it we become what Proverbs 25:16 tells us. We become over indulgers. We must learn how to limit our capacity of indulging our eating and drinking habits. Primarily seeing it as a gift. Friend, these things are good that God created, but even the good things can become bad when it’s overused and abused. We can enjoy a coffee from the coffee shop, there is no wrong in that. But if we continue to buy and buy and buy, not only are we not being wise in our spendings, we are also becoming gluttonous not seeing it as a treat that it is.
Going out to eat isn’t wrong, but continued going out to eat rather than seeing it as a treat becomes gluttony too. And gluttony becomes an idol. We then have created idols within our belly of overindulgence and consumption.

“Be not among drunkards or among gluttonous eaters of meat, for the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, and slumber will clothe them with rags.”
Proverbs 23:20-21

It amazes me how much of the world has gone far from what God had created us for. To work the land, harvest our own crops (small gardens too friend!) and how each of these things mattered. Why? Because we knew what was in it.

My heart did break reading what He spoke to me and how I treated my body. Why migraines were coming back and why I was seeing my skin become what it was becoming along with other problems. My outside body was revealing the screams of what was going on on the inside of me. And this is what happens to us all. Our outside body is showing the signs of the inside that screams something is wrong.

See friend, God never created food to overindulge or to become a fast food chain that kills us slowly inside. He created food for enjoyment, for fellowship with one another, for nourishment. But we tend to forget that God created food for such that… to nourish our bodies, not harm it.

So here is this sections questions:

What are you consuming much of? Processed sugar? Processed quick microwave foods? Junk foods? Take out constantly? Excessive coffee buying?
What can you eliminate or lower down to glorify God in your body?
What diet changes need to be made for you to feel healthier physically?
Pray and ask the Lord where in your health life that needs to be changed and then ask Him for guidance and endurance to push through it.

“So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”
1 Corinthians 10:31

We glorify our bodies by how we live, eat, act, talk.. and think. So this next section is our mental health. To have a better mental health it also starts with better eating habits and better choices in our intake of drinks and healthy exercise.

lets talk mental health

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
Romans 12:2

My mind was filled with toxic thoughts. Toxic thoughts of not feeling good enough. People pleasing. Approval seeking. Bitterness. Unforgiveness. Pride. It was horrible. But I am so thankful for Gods help in this, helping me overcome these plagued thoughts. I can now say I am free from those and want to help you. Before we start this section though, be advised that I am no professional or licensed counselor. I am a friend, a sister, a wife and daughter who wants to help another sister in Christ become free in her mental health, the same freedom Christ purchased for us to have. (I wrote some free devotionals on these topics sister! You should check them out here!)

Now, let’s move forward.

Do you know why our first series began with Stewarding our time with God? Because it’s vital. I have learned in my own walk with God that we must put Word before world. We need Jesus right when we wake up. We need the Word of God before we begin the day. And yes… I do know what you may say.. I see so many conflicting arguments over waking up early. I won’t go into much detail here as I did in our first series, you can find it here. But I will say, yes it is a challenge, but a challenge that is worth it.

My question to you is: How well do you want to be?

Our thoughts come from roots. Yes our physical health of what we consume plays a part of this role and is necessary to see how we consume our eating and drinking habits, but also, have we stopped to see what thoughts we consume? What movies we watch? What friends we are around? What music we listen to? What our social media history looks like?

These play a vital role in our thought life and only is the start to a part of the root problem. Our mental state needs to be in the Word daily so the Word of God can pierce through any darkness, any lies, and any schemes the enemy is trying to plant. If we cannot have a cleared healthy mind, we cannot live a free life. We become shackled in chains.

To have a healthy mind, we must:
Know our identity in Christ.
Abide/Study the Word
Memorize the Word of God
Remain in Prayer
Ask the Lord for revelation on the root causes of these certain thought patterns

Everyday we must fight the battle of our mind with the Sword, the Word of God. Having a healthy mind is not allowing negative thoughts, emotions, words provoke your walk with God and instead, you rebuke every fleeting thought, every scheme from the enemy, and every lie that tries to penetrate your mind.

Laying down our thoughts, taking them captive daily and taking them to Christ is what we are called to do to live a rich and abundant free life. It helps our minds to be clear from the junk we have consumed and to dwell on whatever is true, noble, honorable, praiseworthy. Philippians 4:8.

Here’s your reflection questions for this section

Are you heavy with thoughts?
Do your thoughts seem to steal your joy and sleep?
Are they christ like or worldly like? (No judgement sister! Let’s help you get your mind healthy!)
Do they seem to have a pattern with the same thoughts? Lies?

Let’s destroy these thoughts by taking them to Christ & begin by finding scripture to meditate on it.

“We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,”
2 Corinthians 10:5

Now its your turn

Carve out some time, 15-20 minutes, and evaluate the last two weeks of your eating habit. Now go further. Look back at the last 2 months, if you can remember. Begin by treating yourself once a month or once a week, or bi-weekly, to one take out food and one coffee drink. Or whatever it is for you sister that you struggle in. Begin to eliminate what you consume more of and replace it with water and a healthier choice. If you drink coffee creamers try by switching it almond or oat milk. Try organic raw milk or even make your own creamer. Doing so eliminates the processed sugar that remains within the body causing candida, inner lining of worms, kidney stones, sores, acne, eczema, mood swings, hormone imbalance, fatigue, anger, and so much more!!

Now with the Mind Health. Take at least 30 minutes and begin to reflect back on your thought patterns. What repeats do you notice and find scripture in your bible to replace it with.
Example: let’s say your thought patters are fear based. Search fear in your bible if you have a concordance and find scripture to meditate and memorize. As you do this, write them down in a journal, highlight them in your bible, tab it in your bible, and anytime you have a thought not of God that invades, replace it with scripture.

Stewarding our health is important sister. And I pray that we become better stewards in this area, not neglecting our bodies and minds, but using our bodies and minds to glorify God.

Let us pray

“Heavenly Father we come to you today and ask for you to help us become better stewards in our health. May we choose the better things for our bodies in our eating habits. Convict us in our eating habits and help us Lord in them. I pray you show us individually what we struggle with so we can submit to you fully. Help clear our minds and show us which scripture we need to replace our thoughts with the truth of your Word. For your Word is a Sword that pierces through. I thank you for helping us Lord in this manner by becoming a better steward in our walk with you. In Jesus name, amen”