Renovation of the Heart in Daily Practice: Chapters 37-40

I apologize for the break. I’ve been a part of a retreat of sorts (renovating my heart) so a few days have been well spent but not spent on my blog.

We’ve covered the renovation of our hearts, thoughts, actions and the consideration this week has been that of our bodies. As the book states, the place for which we have dominion. While there might be moments when we have dominion over others as boss, parent, coach, teacher, there is one place to center our focus as you and I have dominion over the choices of the will that are ours.

Retraining our body for Christlikeness is part of the discussion. The tongue was used as a great example. James informs us that our tongue is a restless evil full of deadly poison. Retraining it to bring life to those around us instead of death and destruction would be a reflection of a transformed heart.

The next chapter speaks of releasing our body to God. It certainly reminds me of 12:1 and being a living sacrifice and Paul’s statement about “I die daily.” That God would take up residence on the inside of my life and that my living would look like Christ living in me. A sacrifice offered while I am still alive, yielding my body to the purposes of the Kingdom and not reserving it for my own purposes. There is an acknowledgement that this becomes an act of the will, it doesn’t naturally just happen. Just like the Old Testament act of the will “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

The final chapter addresses the ways in which our body leads us astray. That moment we begin to worship our own body as a center of pleasure and the main instrument in the task of getting what we want. Becoming the self-focused slave of our own desires is the natural end that would crowd out God and a calling to a much greater use of this gift He wants to give us.

There are steps we need to take to ensure that this body doesn’t bring us into a world of pleasurable enticements and away from learning the nature of surrendered giving which brings a very different type of pleasure to us, but then also brings life to the souls of those around us. Satisfaction for self-alone, or a deeper satisfaction that serves others as well.