Devotions from Stephen Smith’s book, Soul Cusody
God never intended for us to separate our bodies from our souls. In fact, learning to care for our bodies is a way of being hospitable to our souls that live within us. The soul is the place where everything comes together- physical needs, spiritual needs and intellectual needs. So neglecting our body can actually hurt our spiritual lives. Our body is our “soul address”. Our soul lives at this address and we need to honor our bodies. How many times do we stop to appreciate how our bodies have served us and gotten us to where we are now? In Scripture our body is referred to as the Temple of the Holy Spirit. It is the place where God chooses to dwell. Our body-whatever shape, size or appearance is the place where God chooses to dwell. “Our bodies matter because our sacred soul dwells in our physical body”. Spiritual disciplines help us make the body-soul connection. Nearly all spiritual disciplines involve some physical response. We kneel, we bow our heads, we dance etc. “A disciplined life in God is a life in which we make space for God-even in our bodies.” Let us abstain from things that harm our bodies and do what will help them and therefore nourish our souls.
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