Our church’s men’s ministry has been conducting a “Winter Workout Contest,” whereby you earn points based on the duration and daily consistency of physical exercise. The guy with the most points after three months wins. Today, I jogged three miles, did some lifting, and ate a “clean” breakfast.

However, now officially in my “late” sixties, I am very much aware of the physical deterioration that comes with age. Dealing with the inevitable physical decline of your body can be frustrating and discouraging. I know, I’ve experienced it.

The secular world idolizes the human body and places inordinate emphasis on physical appearance and the importance of maintaining your “beach body.” This makes sense only if we are strictly material beings. The Christian worldview acknowledges that we are much more than simply a “bundle of atoms floating toward oblivion.” We are eternal souls that will forever exist somewhere. In light of that, here are four principles to keep in mind regarding your faith and how it should inform your view of your body and its inevitable decay.

1. Your body is not yours.

As Christians, it’s important to remember that we are not our bodies but rather we possess them. You pay unconscious tribute to this truth whenever you say, “I cut my finger” or “I stubbed my toe.” The Bible teaches that your body is the earthly residence where the real you lives. Solomon and Paul both likened the body to a house. (Read Ecclesiastes 12:3-7 and 2 Corinthians 5:1-5.) Solomon’s metaphor describes the dilapidation of the body as it grows old, and Paul mentions the groaning we often experience in our present “house.”

Flaunting your body reflects the secular value that equates self-worth with physical appearance. Understanding that your identity is more than who you are physically—and knowing that you are an individual created in the image of God—will help protect your heart from secularism’s obsession with the physical.

2. Your body is a stewardship.

I am not saying the body isn’t important. God gave you the body you have and expects you to take care of it. The Bible says the believer’s body is the temple of the Holy Spirit and we are to glorify God in our bodies (1 Corinthians 6:19). Your body belongs to God, and He does not want it used for anything that would damage it or bring dishonor to him. In fact, what we do (or don’t do) with our bodies says a lot about what we believe. Do our habits convey to the world a belief that our bodies are a gift from God—and that we are to be good stewards of this gift? Or do they say something else?

This was brought home to me by an injury that brought my own mortality into clear focus. I had to reevaluate why I was trying so hard to stay physically fit. In the process, the Lord exposed my pride and helped me see physical fitness not as an ego boost, but a means of serving him longer and more effectively.

The Lord...helped me see physical fitness not as an ego boost, but a means of serving him longer and more effectively.

3. Your body is dying.

Men who experience mid-life crisis are simply attempting to come to terms with their own death. Not just the death of their body but that of their dreams and ambitions as well. In youth, death is more like an illusion, it doesn’t seem real. As we get older, the reality begins to set in and guys often go off the rails trying desperately to hold off the grim reaper.

As Christians, we know this life is the short and temporary one. We should live in light of our inevitable death but not in fear of it. The Bible says this life is like a “vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes” (James 4:14). The old adage is true, “only one life soon will be past, only what’s done for Christ will last.”

4. Your body is redeemed.

One last thought about our bodies is that Christ’s death redeems them. This means we will have a physical body in the eternal state. We’re not going to be disembodied spirits but will have a body like unto Christ’s glorious body (see Philippians 3:21). As the Apostle Paul wrote, the mortal will put on immortality, and death will be swallowed up in victory (1 Corinthians 15:54).

As your “house” gets older and begins to wear out, remember God has a new one for you that is “eternal in the heavens.” Remembering that we are more than the physical, our bodies belong to God, our current bodies are temporary, and they will one day be redeemed, takes the sting out of death and robs the grave of its victory.