Embracing Death

For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
Phlippians 1:21
How can we apply this gain in death? Does it have insight in our physical life, as well as our spiritual life?

I stand on yes.

I am not trying to over spiritualize, but I will be focusing on PHYSICAL application, as this is a health column.

Resolved: We are a tainted people. We fiercely defend our life. We fight for our time, our rest, and our pleasure.

Do you lack motivation? Do you want to fully experience life? Live in the moment? Here is THE secret… let it go… let it die.
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Our Time

So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.
Psalm 90:12
Our earthly time is His choice. God chooses our length of day, not us. This idolatry of staying safe to preserve our lives is not an achievable goal. There is such freedom in living in courage and not trying to cheat death.

In the grand scheme of time, our earthly days are made of little moments. To quote Gone With The Wind, “Do not squander time, that is the stuff life is made of." Sound a lot like, line upon line…precept upon precept? Learning to die to our moments, our plans, happens in little choices. Everyone wants to do great things for God- wonderful- but if you won’t give little moments, it’s doubtful that you will give great moments.

The Proverbs 31 woman had this down. She did her husband good… it never once says that he was perfect so doing good was a breeze for her. She gave of her moments. She had the choice to make and from her days, we can see what she chose.

Our Rest

We need to rest. Healing and physical restoration occur during rest. It’s not a small thing.
Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Matthew 11:28
I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety.
Psalm 4:8
From what I see…God gives rest. It’s a gift, not a right.

Is it possible, you’re so inactive, that your body is not physically tired? Physical activity can seem like the opposite of what a tired body needs, but it often HELPS a body rest.

Letting the idea die that I will have rest time, makes it easier to move forward. (Lest you conclude- I do get enough rest) Once again, the Proverbs 31 woman was up early and worked until late. No doubt she had to push through fatigue. Contrary to common belief, it is possible to be tired, to continue anyways AND be pleasant. Go figure?!?:-)

Our Pleasure

Wow, does this tick a lot of boxes. I am not a good person; this is not an attempt to show self depreciative piety; it’s truth. My flesh wants nothing good. My dad served in the Marines… they have a saying, “the flesh is weak, pound the flesh.” Pain is weakness leaving the body. Embracing the concept of putting your flesh to death, gives your body life. Isn’t it awesome that spiritual concepts have physical parallels?!??

Have you died to food? If it tastes great, maybe it’s not good for you. Fasting has exponential health benefits. Saying “no” to food- not to be confused with an eating disorder (fasting focuses on priority of food behind God, eating disorders focus on us). Let me state, I like food. Leaving a bit on my plate, eating for health and just plain saying no to some of it, benefits my physical AND spiritual life.

What about our carcass? Mine whines. I find that the less I give my flesh it’s own way, the easier it gets. Sometimes “self care” is just selfish, but by self care-I mean worldly self care. ACTUAL self care, is making wise choices and these choices are often the last thing we FEEL like doing. Let’s state the obvious- WE LIKE PLEASURE. If you let your love for ease die, you can push through the inconvenient. Plan for things to be difficult, awkward and take longer than you planned. When you don’t expect to enjoy exercise, you can push through pain to complete it.

Letting opinions of others die, allows you to do difficult things- it doesn’t have to be pretty or graceful and afterwards, you may not be pretty on the outside. Bluntly speaking, you may be discouraged because you’re too…. Flabby, weak, slow, heavy…whatever. When you focus on pushing your flesh it will make you fit for YOUR place in life. Your place isn’t mine. We should not look like carbon copies of each other. It is just vanity that gets us discouraged when our outside doesn’t match our Hollywood ideals and wants. Let it die.

Everyone fails sometimes and life isn’t supposed to be fair, much less bend to your every whim.- David Goggins

Focus on gaining strength; growing past yesterdays self . Fitness requires a lot of killing of the flesh. The Proverbs 31 woman is full of strength- spiritual AND physical. I sometimes wonder what she looked like. I don’t picture an especially thin woman- I picture a “hearty” matriarch- balanced -meaty enough to work, not so meaty that she couldn’t zip to her responsibilities …her arms must have had muscle from her work. We know her back was strong- so a strong core. She WORKED. She obviously wasn’t afraid to get sweaty. Femininity is not weak or frail.

I don’t see the world getting kinder or easier for Christians. Think how hard it is to abstain from abortion products; outright evil and subtle deceit is used. ( https://cogforlife.org/ ). Gird up- you may have to stand against the world. If you are His, you can count on it. If you have already learned to die, you can stand- even alone.
For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it.
Mark 8:35

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