What Color is Your Water?

“…for the temple is not for man, but for the Lord God.” – 1 Chronicles 29:1

I know the question above may not make sense right now, but take a moment to read the following words and hopefully it will come into focus. To begin with, 1 Corinthians 3:16 tells us that we are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in us. Well, what is a temple? Some definitions say that a temple is a church or a place of public worship; however, I like this definition which says: a place in which the divine presence specially abides. In other words, like 1 Corinthians 3:16 says: the Spirit of God dwells in us! Now, as exciting as this is it leads to us to a whole different question.

If the Spirit of God, His very presence dwells in us than our bodies are not our own because 1 Chronicles 19:1 says “for the temple is not for man, but for the Lord God.” Our body is a temple. God’s Spirit dwells in that temple. That temple belongs to God.

So, what color is your water? Think of this: If we ignore the fact that our bodies are temples that belong to God and we do whatever we please with our bodies how is God going to feel? (Yes, God has feelings, but not necessarily on a natural level like us) As I was thinking about how God would feel if I ignored the truth that my body is a temple that belongs to him I had this following illustration come to my mind: Our own desires or doing what we want to do with our bodies is like oil. On the other hand, if we recognize that our bodies are not our own and we look to do God’s will with our body, then this is like water.

What happens then if we have some oil and some water? Our body or our vessel is contaminated. For example, think of an oil spill happening in the ocean. This contaminates the water and it kills any ocean life that is around the spill. The same thing happens in our lives when we choose to do whatever we please with our bodies. We add oil, and the oil kills the life that is in us.

In order to counteract this, we have to wash out the oil. Wash out the personal desires so that all that is left is pure water. We have to feed our bodies, God’s temple, with His Word. All the contamination must be removed so we can be pure vessels. If we are not pure vessels how can we fully please and serve our God? For our temple is not for us, but for God. Take some time to see if there is oil in your water and if there is, work at washing out that oil with the living water of God.


*Please feel free to post comments, questions, or any other feedback.