Monday, January 17, 2011

One of the things I have started doing again is drinking my water each day.  It is so easy to get into the habit of not drinking water.  It is very hard to lose weight and keep it off if you do not drink water.  Dwayne and I are going away this week.  We are going to a cabin with no Internet and no TV!  I am not sure how I feel about that but I am trying to keep a good attitude about it.  We often need what we think we don't want.  While I am away, I will be posting the devotions I wrote on about water.  I often forget what I write after a year, so I assume you don't mind the reminder either!  Have a great week!
    
One of the ways we take care of our health and body is to drink water. My body has not always had the privilege of water. It had to work for it because it had to draw it out of all the other things I drank. Literally, I went up to 5 months without drinking straight water and not just once, but as a way of life. I lived on tea and coffee, milk and juice, and mostly pop. When I chose to get healthy, the first and most important thing I had to commit to is learning to drink water.

Here are some facts about water:
· 50-80% of our body weight is water
· 70% of our muscles are water
· 75% of our brain is water
· We lose 2 cups of water a day due to breathing, another 2 cups when we sweat and still a few more when we visit the ladies room.
· Water plays a very important role in keeping our body cool and comfortable
· The only thing our body craves more than water is oxygen and by the way, you get oxygen from water.
· Water is necessary to eliminate toxins from the body as waste products, to lubricate the joints preventing damage from arthritis, and to re-hydrate the muscle tissue.
· Thirst and hunger can be confused. Often when a person feels hungry, their body needs water! It is thirst, not the desire for food that causes the “need to eat” sensation.
     We can begin to see that we must drink water in order to maintain good health. Yet, 75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated. Dehydration can manifest itself slowly over a long period of time; if you feel thirsty you are already dehydrated! Our body’s need for water is substantial. Much of our anxiety, stress, impatience, drowsiness, confusion and inability to concentrate are due to low grade dehydration. Dehydration leading to a 2% loss of body weight may affect mental ability and performance. A loss of 10% may cause extreme weakness and heatstroke.
     I don’t think we are only physically dehydrated. I would like to propose that the large majority of us are spiritually dehydrated. The water we so desperately need is Jesus Christ, the Living Water. I believe that one reason we do not reflect Christ in our lives is because we are spiritually dehydrated from the lack of us drinking in Christ daily. Just like our bodies need water to function properly and to maintain health, we must consume the Living Water, Jesus Christ for our spiritual body to function properly and live in a healthy state.
     If we know that our bodies need water so desperately to survive and function, why do we not drink water? Why do we live with a dehydrated body? And why, if our spirit needs the Living Water so desperately to survive and function, why do we drink everything instead of that Living Water? Why do we let our selves live in a state of spiritual dehydration? Maybe it is time we get thirsty!

“they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living water”.
Jeremiah 17:13

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