By Heather Marshall
“Reach, just a little more — you can do it!” These were the words of encouragement I was speaking over my patient as she used all her effort and energy to grasp for her hairbrush in front of her body.
You see, my patient had sustained a stroke and now there was a disconnect between her head and her body and it was affecting her ability to function and do the things that were meaningful and important in her life.
My patient’s situation got me thinking about times in my life when I have experienced a disconnection between my body and my spiritual Head. Jesus, my Lord and Savior, is my spiritual Head. “Christ is also the head of the church, which is his Body. He is the beginning, supreme over all who rise from the dead. So he is first in everything” (Colossians 1:18 NLT).
So, if Jesus is first over all things, that means He is also first over my body.
If you are anything like me, sometimes I disconnect my body from this truth and act as though I am the one in control over all things related to my body. Other times I find myself believing the lie that my body doesn’t matter to God, that it’s really my spiritual life that is most important to Him.
I have learned that this is erroneous thinking. Jesus is first over everything and that includes my body. He created me and cares deeply about my whole being — body, soul and spirit. “Everything was created through Him and for Him” (Colossians 1:16 NLT).
This disconnect between acknowledging God as the Head over my body just as He is over my soul and spirit has affected my function in several areas of my life.
For years, I was striving to have a body that would be acceptable and worthy of the world’s admiration. It became an idol in my life. The Lord in His graciousness revealed my sin and the error in my thinking about my body and He changed my approach to my body.
Now, I come to Him as Head over my body and ask Him to lead me in the best way to eat, move, and rest in order to care for my body.
In Colossians 1, Paul shares how he is praying that the Colossians would have the knowledge of God’s will, spiritual wisdom, and understanding (Colossians 1:9). We can also pray this over our bodies, asking God to give us wisdom about the food we eat, the type of exercise that we engage in, and the best way to rest our bodies.
God is our Creator and He knows us better than we know ourselves so He most definitely knows the best way to care for our individual bodies’ needs. All we need to do is seek Him in this and follow His leading.
Sometimes what we think is good for our bodies might not be in God’s plan for us at this time. We all desire a pain-free and healthy body but sometimes despite our best efforts, this may not be true for us.
I have experienced this as it relates to pain. I’ve had times of pain that I cried out to God to remove and it didn’t happen right away. In these moments I’ve had to learn that God is still good and He cares about my body, but His plan is not to remove the pain at this immediate moment.
I’ve had to learn that God’s ways and plans for my body are not always my ways, but His ways are always better. “For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:9 NLT).
God still cares about me and my body, but perhaps removing the pain and illness is not in my best interest at this time because He is using my suffering to produce something better in me. “For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever” (2 Corinthians 4:17 NLT).
When pain and physical illness impact our bodies, we can still come before the Lord and ask for health and the removal of the pain. Since He is Head over our bodies, we acknowledge that His will be done and we can also ask Him for a way through the pain, that we might endure and that glory may be brought to His name.
Friends, glorifying God in our bodies as well as with spirits and souls is our ultimate goal (1 Corinthians 6:20). So just like my patient needed a renewed connection between head and body, we may also need to renew our connection to our Spiritual Head by acknowledging His control over our bodies and asking Him to lead us into better health as only He can.
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