Everyone is aware of muscles. There are over four hundred in the body, although we are completely unaware of some of them. Some can be easily seen, like those in our arms, and others can be felt when they become sore after strenuous exercise. Probably the most important muscle in our body is the cardiac muscle that pumps blood through the body thousands of times a day. Do you know the name of that muscle?
Without muscles you could not blink or move your eyes. Muscles open your mouth and move your jaws as well as move your tongue around in its many activities. You turn or tilt your head with muscles, and every smile or scowl is produced by muscular actions. Food is moved down your throat to your stomach by muscles. The action of the stomach and much of the remaining digestive system is also under their control. Without their help you could not use a fork, sew a dress, hammer a nail or play the piano. Feet, legs, arms and fingers would be useless without muscles, nor could you sit in a chair or even get out of bed. Walking requires the use of about three hundred muscles, and just standing uses one hundred forty-four back muscles to keep a person from falling.
Some muscles, called skeletal muscles, only work when the brain instructs them. Others, the smooth muscles, act on impulse. All consist of thread-like fibers, blood vessels and tissue, bound in bundles and enclosed in a tough membrane. Upon command from the nervous system, these provide the strength for their specific job. When God created man, He designed every muscle perfectly and gave each one its own power plant through chemical energy. Calcium, potassium and other chemicals that come from our food help supply this energy.
The Bible tells us that God created man’s body: “The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life.... God is greater than man” (Job 33:4,124The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life. (Job 33:4)
12Behold, in this thou art not just: I will answer thee, that God is greater than man. (Job 33:12)). Man’s body was made complete in every detail the day he was created by the Lord God. Sickness and death of the muscles and the rest of the body have come into the world because of sin. But the time is coming when those whose faith is in the Lord Jesus Christ will be given perfect bodies: “We look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall change our vile body, that it may be [made] like unto His glorious body” (Philippians 3:20-2120For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: 21Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself. (Philippians 3:20‑21)).
Isn’t this a wonderful promise? But it is made only to those who have had their sins forgiven because they have trusted in the Lord Jesus and the work of salvation He completed on Calvary’s cross.
Have you accepted Him as your very own Lord and Saviour?
ML-09/18/2011