So far we have been dealing with spiritual hedge of the believer which has to do with things we can do that can remove the spiritual hedge and cause our Christian lives to be attacked. As we talked about spiritual practices, there are also physical practices. For instance bible says in Romans 12:2 ‘I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service’
We could have said that, since the God we serve is a Spirit, we could sit anywhere as believers and worship him or present ourselves in any way in service of Him. Fact of the matter is, we are human beings living on earth portraying to be serving a God. People around us do not know this God we claim to serve. However, the way we represent Him may motivate others to believe in that God also. We are the express image of God.
If God is seen through us then we must maintain the body that represents our God on earth. Beyond the spiritual practices of not involving our bodies in immoral acts, one of the ways by which we can keep our bodies healthy is by maintaining good eating habits, researchers have observed. Our bodies are naturally built to survive on food and water. Eating habits actually refers to when we eat, what we eat and where we eat.
The profile of the jobs we do can sometimes glue us to our desks for hours forgetting our lunch or even skipping it. Over engaged with work, we can get home too late sometimes by the time our supper can be late. We eat late or take something light to bed. Eating late may not allow enough time for digestion before sleep sets in. This may result in weight regulation issues, risk in burning enough calories and molecules breakdowns which controls fat tissues.
We also need to be careful of the quality of food that goes into us. When we eat, we must ask ourselves that, ‘can this food befit the spirit of God to nurture our bodies to be healthy and carry on the good work for our righteous maker? If you’re addicted to alcohol and has become your food, can that alone synchronize a good growth in you? If the doctor tells you that fat is destroying your body, does it give praise to God?
As a believer, do you have control over hunger? Or you’re overwhelmed too much by hunger that, when it happens, you do not care about your eating environment? As Saints, we have to be disciplined with our eating. Where we eat forms part of our main ethics as believers. You cannot profess to be a believer a due to unsustain hunger, you ate in a dirty environment. Why are these important? Some Bible researchers have come to the understanding that, if hedges naturally protect our home, then protecting our bodies against diseases is as crucial. We can fall sick in conditions that attract malaria, dysentery, diphtheria, typhoid and the rest.
Researchers are of the belief that we construct hedges around things that are dear to us and for that matter our health. We must be mindful therefore of the fact that, good eating habits keeps our health hedges intact whereas poor eating exposes our sound health to defects which can deteriorate and waste our bodies away. In the end, the human bodies that must remain to live as good examples of the practice of the various forms of hedge concepts are denied through ill-health and even death in worst cases.
