Presenting Our Imperfect Bodies to a Perfect God

I was raised by wonderful Christian parents who took me to church regularly. I learned about God, Jesus, and well-known Biblical characters such as Noah, Moses, David, Jonah etc. This served as a good moral foundation but at one point, I realized that I knew about God and Jesus intellectually but did not know Him personally. That all changed when I realized that no matter how much of a “nice person” I could be, my good actions would never be enough to match God’s standard of  perfect justice and holiness. It was then that I put my entire faith and trust in the fact that God’s Son, Jesus, had lived a perfect life and then given His life as a sufficient payment to God for all my sins and those of the entire world. At that point in time, I asked Jesus to come into my life, and thereby a personal relationship with God began. My life has never been the same since that day. As an “added bonus”, I was given the extraordinary gift of eternal life according to the famous verse John 3:16. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son (Jesus), that whoever believes in Him, should not perish but have eternal life.”

As the years have passed, I have come to realize that when I yield various aspects of my life to the loving and perfect will of  a personal God and His glory, His best plans for me are a result though they might not always be the plans I had intended. For example, God has blessed my career, given me a wonderful wife, and even a fulfilling retirement. His presence has also been manifested in my health, even though I was diagnosed with early stage prostate cancer in 1995  and now am classified as having advanced prostate cancer though asymptomatic. The major lesson I have learned is that if I yield control of any area of my life to a personal and loving Heavenly Father, His best outcomes in accordance to His will are a result. They may not always be what I would personally choose, and many times life can be difficult, but God’s overwhelming peace and direction transcends every situation. In the words of the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah 29:11-12, “‘ For I know the plans that I have for you’, declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.”‘

As a cancer patient, areas of my life to which I must daily present and yield control to God are my body, my mind and my overall health. To do that, I have found it very useful to pray the words written by the apostle Paul in the Bible in Romans 12:1-2 and insert my own name in the appropriate text as follows. “I urge you therefore, ——– (insert ones name), by the mercies of God, that you (I) present your (my) body as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable, which is my reasonable service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your (my) mind, that you (I) may prove (demonstrate) what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” While this is not a guarantee of total earthly healing of my disease, who best to control my body than the One who created it in all its masterful complexity. While my cancer has not been healed, I can see God’s protective hand in my disease all these years through His power and often manifested by the excellent medical support which I have received. The ultimate healing will come when I will spend eternity in a new heaven and a new earth with a new body. Meanwhile, as Paul admonishes, I “press on.”

So if you have a personal relationship with God and are dealing with medical issues, I would sincerely suggest that you pray Romans 12:1-2 daily, yielding the direction and outcomes to the Lord. If you are not sure of your relationship with God, see the following link.