Sin is what all men have and righteousness is what all men need.

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Principle 3: A HARDENED HEART IS THE SAME AS REBELLION (v8, 9) We need to be good stewards of what God has given us – including our bodies. If we disregard this, we are hardening our hearts towards God, and what He has shown us, and that is same as rebellion. If we test God in this, we will suffer. God has created a cause-and-effect world, establishments that He has put into place and He will not override them. If we do not look after our bodies, we will reap effects of that, for example, sickness, burnout and disease.

Principle 4: GOD HAS PROVIDED THE KNOW-HOW TO OBEY HIM (v10) God has given us knowledge – through Bible and science and, believe it or not, common sense – to know what we should and shouldn’t eat. We also know how regularly to exercise, and we can definitely tell when we need to rest. All we have to do is listen to our bodies. I read this book “What Bible Says About Healthy Living” by Rex Russell MD. He studied what Bible says about food, what science says about food and what he has seen himself, for example when patients are told to follow a specific diet in order to get well again.

His conclusion was simple: - Principle 1: Eat only what God intended us to eat Principle 2: Eat it only in form he intended it to be eaten Principle 3: Fast regularly

Amazingly, scientific research (independent of himself) gave evidence to support why God told Israelites not to eat certain foods and why they should eat others. (I highly recommend this book. It can be bought on Amazon.) So we have no excuse. God has given us knowledge we need, but it is our responsibility to put it into practice.

Principle 5: REST God didn’t only intend for us to experience spiritual rest. He is a holistic God. He intended for us to experience rest physically, emotionally and spiritually. If we look after our bodies, and get rest we need – however much that might be – we will be able to more fully enter rest that God intended for us. We won’t get as sick as often, we won’t get as tired and we won’t get as stressed – result - we will be much more rested and able to cope with stresses of living life.

We have a holistic God who is concerned with our physical and emotional being as well as spiritual. He created all of us – and said, “It was good!” So work with Him on this. He didn’t create our bodies to be a hindrance to us. He created them for our enjoyment as well as for us to know what our limitations are so that we can more fully enjoy and experience a supernatural God.

God knows your body best. Ask Him to show you how much rest you need, what is okay to eat and in what proportions and how much to exercise and even what exercise. He will help you – He helped me.

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