It is greatly important to glorify God in your body. But it's not enough just to say, "We need to glorify God in our bodies." We need to actually do it! And I'm going to tell you how!

Oftentimes, that's where Christians miss it—they know they're supposed to stay pure, but they don't know how or they've forgotten how to do it. Well, it is possible to stay pure and glorify God in your body.

It may be hard at times, especially without the Word of God to point the way. But God has given us His Word. And He is not unjust; since He said to glorify Him in your body, it is certainly possible.

But I [Paul] keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.
(1 Cor. 9:27)

Notice Paul said, "I keep under my body." It's not God's job (or anyone else's job) to keep your body in line—it's your job. The word "keep" implies that you're going to have to do it over and over again, on a continual basis, not just once or twice.

Therefore, glorifying God in our body is something we need to continually pay attention to. We need to make sure we're doing the right thing all the time, so we don't get into a position where Satan can come in and cause havoc in our lives.

You see, Satan is looking for just a little door into your life. It doesn't have to be a big one. You may be an on-fire, Bible-believing Christian who knows about glorifying God in your body. You may be being blessed immeasurably in your Christian walk, but Satan is looking for a door into your life so he can come in and eventually get you into sin.

He wants to gradually get you into sin so that you wake up one day and say, "What happened? How did I get in this mess?" You left the door open.

Find Out What Doors To Keep Closed
We need to know what to do to make sure Satan can't get even a foothold, much less a stronghold, into our lives. It's easier to keep him out of our lives than it is to get him out after we've already let him in.

Sin Is a Progression
"Little sins" lead to "big sins"; it's a process. Satan doesn't usually just walk up to a saved, sanctified Christian and say, "Hey, let's go to Vegas and gamble away twenty thousand dollars." No, he's subtler than that. All he really has to do is get you on the path to sin. Then he knows that he'll get you eventually.

The Five "A's" To Sin
As I said, the path to sin is a process. There are five "A's" to sin that Satan uses: 1) attention; 2) attraction; 3) affection; 4) attachment; and 5) addiction.

You see, if Satan can get your attention and keep it long enough, he'll get you to the point of attraction. Then you'll develop affection for that sin and become attached. And before you know it, you will be addicted.

Some people are on the path to serious wrongdoing and don't even know it. Satan has their attention, and he's slowly moving them along the path. He's slowly widening the door to sin in their lives.

Let's look at a verse in Galatians chapter 5.

For the flesh lusteth AGAINST THE SPIRIT, and the SPIRIT AGAINST THE FLESH: and these are CONTRARY THE ONE TO THE OTHER: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
(Gal. 5:17)

This Scripture lets us know that there's a war going on in your life. It's between your spirit and your flesh, because your flesh always wants to do what's wrong, what feels good, and what everyone else is doing.

Your flesh always wants to look at the wrong thing, be with the wrong person, and so forth - all the things God doesn't want you to do.

On the other hand, your spirit wants you to do exactly what God wants you to do. Your spirit wants you in God's Presence and in His Word. Your spirit wants you walking in peace, joy, and happiness.

So you have the two—your spirit and your flesh—fighting against each other. There's a war going on, and you want your spirit to win. But in order to have your spirit win, you have to do what's necessary. Jesus found Himself in the middle of that war—a war between His spirit and His flesh—and He did what was necessary for His spirit to win.

Prayer Is the Key
Prayer is the key to overcoming temptation and the flesh. Look at Ephesians chapter 6.

Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.
(Eph. 6:10)

God is not an unjust God. He's not going to ask you to do something that you cannot do. He has told us to glorify Him in our bodies, but how are we going to do that?

As I said before, if you were to talk to someone in the world about it, he would think you were crazy. He'd say, "How are you going to glorify God in your body? How are you going to keep your body under? You're going to explode," because he thinks you don't have any way or means to control your body.

But God did not ask you to glorify Him in your body and keep your body under in your own strength. He said, "Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might" (Eph. 6:10).

God's Power Will Keep You And Put You Over
You have to believe you can be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. I know in the case of men, sometimes women who are unsaved (or unsanctified) will dress immodestly and come walking by, giving a little shake and saying, "You're kind of cute."

Your spirit might be saying, "I'm glorifying God in my body. I'm keeping my body under. I'm the man!" But your flesh is saying, "She thinks you're cute. Let's go!"

You can't win in those situations, thinking, I want to do right, but I can't help it. If you feel that way, you're trying to be strong in your own ability, and guess what's going to happen? The next thing you know, you'll be saying, "What's your name, girl?"

God said to be strong in the power of His might. In other words, for me to glorify Him in my body and to keep my body under, I have to use His power. The way I get continuous access to that power is by praying!

Satan tries to take people out, so to speak, at a young age by getting them to fail in this area of glorifying God in their body. You could really miss God in this area as a young man, for example, and get some girl pregnant.

God could still bless you if you repented, but His original plan for your life would be interrupted. It may take five or ten years to get you back to the place where God wanted you to get.

God may have had a plan to prosper you and put plenty of money into your hands and into your bank account so you could get married and have a child with your wife, but now it's a whole different ball game. You have to spend that money on a child you created outside of marriage. Perhaps you can't get the education you need to get, because you need to take care of that child.

That's one example of how Satan tries to derail us. He starts on you at a young age. And the number-one way he tries to ruin you is with your body. You have to close the door on him early on. You have to do things in the power of God's might.

Without a Prayer Life, You Will Slip and Fall
I'm telling you right now, if you don't have a prayer life, you are not going to glorify God in your body. It's not going to happen; sooner or later, you're going to slip.

But thank God for His Word which tells us what to do so that our spirit can always win in the war with our flesh.

Copyright © God's Plan for the Single Saint by Keith A. Butler, II
All rights reserved. Used by permission.