Yourself?

June 27th, 2020| Topic: RaMbLeS | 0

A recent, somewhat unscientific, study of 2,000 Americans revealed some interesting facts.

35 percent couldn’t name their blood type. 75 percent didn’t even know there were four major blood groups. Only 10 percent were aware that O-negative was the “universal” blood type, useful for emergency transfusions, holding the least risk for causing serious reactions. 66 percent confessed they had no idea the heart had four valves. Only a 30 percent were able to say that the average, “normal,” human body temperature was 98.6°F.

Of course, 80 percent of those surveyed considered themselves “knowledgeable” about the workings of their bodies!

Oh, and 30 percent didn’t know we had two kidneys each. (20 percent even thought we were all supplied with 3 [THREE!] of those organs!) 10 percent misidentified the liver and the kidney. And regarding the body’s detox system, 30 percent guessed that the lungs were involved, 20 percent pointed to the heart, another 20 to bones.

Said Rob Sinott, from the agency that sponsored the study:

We have so much going on in our lives, we sometimes forget that our health should come first, and for a lot of us, our high school anatomy classes were ages ago. So I’m not too surprised by the fact that a lot of people aren’t well-versed in the mechanics of the body and nutrition. But with everything happening in the world right now, it’s as good of time as ever to start taking your health seriously and learning about your body and how it works.”

Indeed!

There is also this entity called the “flesh” in all of us that we need to know better. This is not blood and bones and livers and kidneys and stuff. This is that ethical entity prone to sin, that follows the directives of the evil one and not that of the Spirit. It is the traitor within us.

For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh;
for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not.
Romans 7:18

Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are:
immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities,
strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions …
Galatians 5:19–20

For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law,
were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death.
… make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.
Romans 7:5; 13:14

This “flesh” will be with us as long as we live and we will be relieved of it only in the next phase of our Christian lives. But believers in Christ also have the Holy Spirit indwelling them, enabling them to not follow after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.
For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit,
and the Spirit against the flesh;
for these are in opposition to one another,
so that you may not do the things that you please.
Galatians 5:16–17

Of course, my “flesh” is not the same as yours. My inclinations and predilections to particular sins are different from yours. I am prone to fall in ways specific to my “flesh,” and you in yours. That is why we must know ourselves well—how our “flesh” operates, how it reacts, what it succumbs to and how, and the patterns of its leading us astray.

Be aware. Be vigilant. Be watchful.

SOURCE:
Study Finds