There are probably a few hundred reasons that might motivate you to care for yourself and to be healthy. By some estimates, more than 40% of all deaths in the world today are premature (at least 900,000 deaths annually) and are due to unhealthy lifestyle choices such as tobacco use, poor diet, sedentary lifestyle, misuse of alcohol and drugs, and accidents. Other contributors to early death include genetic predisposition, social circumstances, poor access to quality health care, and environmental exposures.

This shows that our lifestyle, more than any other factor, causes us to be unhealthy. Changing old unhealthy habits is not easy but it’s essential if we want to become healthier and live a better quality of life and one way to succeed at this is to fully understand why we need to care for ourselves:

• It Glorifies God
  The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 10:31 that whatever we do, we’re to do it to the glory of God. It also tells us in Isaiah that we were created and formed by God to glorify Him. This is our primary purpose in life – to glorify God. We do that when we care for our body and live a healthy lifestyle.
• Our Body is God’s Temple and for Us to Care For
  One scripture that reminds us that our body is God’s temple is 1 Corinthians 6:19-20. God’s Holy Spirit lives inside a believer. After we accept Jesus into heart, God gives us His Spirit to help us live the kind of life He wants us to live. Since God actually lives in us, Paul tells us in this verse that our body is His temple and since God “bought” us with a high price, Jesus’ death, then we are obligated to care for our body which is His temple.
• Being Healthy is Being a Good Witness
  Acts 1:8 reminds us that we are to be witnesses for other people. People look for us to be models of the Christian faith. We ought to desire to live our lives in a way that represents our faith well. Taking care of our health is one way that we can be a good witness.
• You’ll Have More Energy to Do God’s Work
  Ephesians 2:10 helps us see that we are God’s masterpiece, created to do the good things that He had planned a long time ago for us to do. We all know that the more fit and healthy we are, the more energy we will have. The more energy that we have, the more we can put into whatever task we are doing. We’ll also be better able to sustain ourselves for the long haul.

God’s Power is Available to You
God wants to assist us in living a healthy life and He has given those who believe in Jesus a helper – the Holy Spirit. (John 14:16-17) Just one of many blessings we receive as followers of Christ is that we have God’s power in us to live the kind of life that He wants us to live and this includes the ability to make desired lifestyle changes.

The Bible tells us that the same mighty power that raised Christ from his grave is available to us who believe in Jesus. (Romans 8:11 and Ephesians 1:19-20). One key to being empowered by God’s Spirit is to recognize that in our own strength, we can not do what we can in God’s strength and power.  We must recognize this and depend on the supernatural power of God to work in us. We must submit and surrender to God and embrace the spiritual truth that God’s power is made perfect in our weakness. (2 Corinthians 12:9) “When I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Corinthians 12:10)

Being God’s Temple
Because God’s Holy Spirit lives in those of us who have accepted Jesus into our hearts, our bodies are His temple (1 Corinthians 3:16). Therefore, we have a responsibility to care for His temple. It’s an awesome thing that God’s Spirit in us empowers us to live in such a way that we can care for His temple as a matter of love and worship to God. One beneficial by-product is that by appropriating God’s power, we can live a lifestyle conducive to good health.

What we believe determines what we do. I suspect that if you believe what I’ve written above, and you value your relationship with God, it’s likely that you are taking good care of your body and your health.

How better can we keep a healthy lifestyle? Are there other reasons why God wants us to be healthy? Comment your thoughts below and share with your friends.

Have a great day!