Healthy Habits

Based on Leviticus 11-12, Psalm 24

"The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein."
Psalms 24:1.

Every day is a new day-but we might carry some old things with us that need to be cleaned out! We talked about this concept in Matthew with Jesus being our Housecleaner. He takes a look around our soul & sees what needs to be de-cluttered. This is relevant to the Old Testament too! Although the Old Testament has a lot more to do with the physical world & body, it definitely has parallels in the spiritual! And you know what? BOTH cases are STILL a matter of being holy or unholy!

As the above Scripture states, the earth & its fulness are The Lord's! He is the Creator. He created the functionality of it all. Some things we might think are harmless may actually be bad for us. How about the things we eat? This is a BIG one that I definitely need work on! We need to create healthier habits in our diets, and the people of the Old Testament knew this because of God's Word!

"Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, These are the beasts which ye shall eat among all the beasts that are on the earth. Whatsoever parteth the hoof, and is clovenfooted, and cheweth the cud, among the beasts, that shall ye eat. Nevertheless these shall ye not eat of them that chew the cud, or of them that divide the hoof: as the camel, because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof; he is unclean unto you."

Leviticus 11:2‭-‬4.

Remember, these are not just rules! They are helpful ways to have healthy habits! The New Testament, however, provides us with confirmation that certain animals are ok to eat today (Acts 11:7-9), but why not back then?

"But the voice answered me again from heaven, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common." Acts 11:9.

For one thing, the ability to preserve food got better over time, and so new possibilities opened up which would not make God's people sick anymore. God was literally watching out for the physical well-being of His people just as much as the spiritual! God cleanses physically AND spiritually!

When God stated this in the New Testament, He was also declaring this among the Gentiles (the rest of the population outside of God's original chosen people, the Jews!). The Gentiles were a people once considered unclean by the Jews, but Jesus opened the possibility for them to be saved as well!

So many parallels, and so many ways in which God desires us to develop healthy physical & spiritual habits in our lives! There are many more examples of clean & unclean animals to eat in this passage, but let's focus on the core reasoning:

"For I am the Lord your God: ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for I am holy: neither shall ye defile yourselves with any manner of creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth." Leviticus 11:44.

Although we may have less dietary restrictions today, that doesn't mean we shouldn't be watchful of what we consume & how it affects us. Whatever we put in our temples (food, social media, etc.) has significant effects on us! We do not want to dull our spiritual life with a lack of consideration for our temple! I need to practice this more often, how about you? The Lord is sweet enough, so we could probably do with a little less sugar lol...

"What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?" 1 Corinthians 6:19.

Remember, God is the Creator! He even has ways of helping us with childbirth! Doctors today have certain procedures which help us to avoid infection, and God put those things in place first way back in the Old Testament (but of course, with holiness in mind!):

"And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a woman have conceived seed, and born a man child: then she shall be unclean seven days; according to the days of the separation for her infirmity shall she be unclean." Leviticus 12:1‭-‬2.

The Lord gave the woman a special space of time to recover! I think God knew there were certain things that the hospital would NOT prepare us for-like how messy recovering can be (sorry, getting real Moms!). But anyway, it's true!

The point is this: God designed both our physical & spiritual bodies to function a certain way. With healthy habits, we can make that happen in Jesus' Name!