Do you not know your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not you own? You have been bought with a price: therefore, glorify God with your body. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

I wonder if this has happened to you too – you read God’s word and come away with an understanding until you are sharing thoughts with another believer and she has a completely different way of viewing it. Since the verses preceding the verse above warn against immorality, I recognized the warning that we are to guard ourselves (God’s temple) against immorality and impurity.

However, today the focus was from James – what does it mean to have a living faith? We discussed how our actions should be an overflow of what we believe. The conversation then evolved into how we use our tongues – James asks can salt water and fresh water come from the same source? Can blessing and cursing come from the same mouth?   This led to the topic of how do we mentally converse with ourselves? One of the participants shared the above verse explaining she believes when she judges herself /speaks to herself more critically than she would another person that she is not honoring God’s temple.

Previously I have written about the power of other’s words on me, yet I am guilty of using critical words on myself. If having a living faith means that sweet words and bitter words do not both flow from the same mouth, that means to live consistently with my faith I must change my words about myself.

Is it really such a big deal if I am harder on myself than anyone else? Am I glorifying God with my body if I rehash most every conversation wondering if this phrase could have unintentionally hurt someone or been misinterpreted?  Am I honoring my body as a temple of the Spirit if I allow my own thoughts to dissect everything I do or don’t do wondering how I could have done more or better? I try to attribute the best motives to others and give them the benefit of the doubt, but not so with myself.

No one knows what goes on in my thoughts except the Lord. But it is for Him I live, my audience of One. He challenged me to live by faith in every area of my life and since this is the place He cast the light of his truth, I ask him to transform my thinking so his living water becomes the source of my thoughts not the cesspool of fleshly thinking.