Your Body Has Potential

Thoughts from daily Bible reading for today – June 22, 2017

By Tripp Prince

Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. Romans 6:13

My family and I recently joined a local gym. With this new membership, we were offered a complimentary session of wellness coaching, in which we would “create a plan to help us achieve our fitness goals.” We in the Western world are a health-obsessed culture, and it goes without saying that each of us, to some extent, thinks about our physique on a regular basis. Even for the healthiest amongst us, there is an expectation that your body still has yet to reach its full potential. There’s still work to be done and room to grow.

For us to continue to grow into Christ’s likeness, we must realize the potential our bodies have for godly living. Far more than its potential for beauty or strength, your body is capable in countless ways of participating in God’s mission of healing and restoration in the world. And yet, so often we focus entirely on nurturing our bodies for their own sakes, rather than seeing them as a means by which we bless others and show the love of Jesus in our daily lives.

Teresa of Ávila famously said, “Christ has no body now on earth but yours… Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good. Yours are the hands through which he blesses all the world.” When we offer our bodies to God as living sacrifices, when we see our hands and feet, our eyes and ears as brimming with potential for compassion and justice, we are showing in the present the hope we have in Christ. When we go and sit with those who are suffering, we are Christ to them, speaking his words of peace and comfort over them. When we go and befriend a lonely neighbor, we remind them through our actions that God has not forgotten them and is sharing his love through us. When we offer financial assistance to a friend in need, we show Christ’s provision and protection in a real and tangible way.

Jesus wants us to care for our bodies and seek a healthy and whole life. But he also wants us to see the potential we have as resurrection people to show forth that hope in the way we spend our days and interact with others. As Hebrews says, let us seek to outdo one another in doing good! (Heb. 10:24)

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