If Your Not Doing This ONE Thing, Then Your Lymphatic System Can't Do its Job Properly.

The lymphatic system is vital to a strong and healthy immune system by God's design.
Why?
Because it helps rid the body of …. can you guess?
Toxins.
Yet our lymph doesn't have a built-in pump, like a heart, which circulates our blood.
Instead, to work properly, it requires an outside mechanism that God has built into creation.

A Quick Look at Creation

After God did the work of creating the earth, He rested on the 7th day. Not because He was tired or weary, but because He wanted to leave an example for man, who was created in His image.

Man was to work six days and rest the 7th, just as God had.
While the 7th day is important, the six preceding days are equally important -- especially to maintain health (which you'll see below).
Work was NOT part of the curse upon the earth. God gave work for Adam and Eve while they were still living in Eden. Part of that work was tending to the garden God had planted. We learn this in Genesis 2:15.
If you've ever planted or tended a garden, you know it involves physical activity. In fact, gardening is one of the pleasures people abandon when their health declines because it requires bending and moving.
By God's original design — work did not consist of sitting behind a desk for 8 hours. It involved moving the body.
In our present world, regular movement is often the anomaly — and sitting the norm. Now we must initiate steps to keep our body active so it can stay healthy by God's design -- so we can continue enjoying abundant life on this earth.

The Solution to Stagnant Lymph

Remember the lymph-moving mechanism I mentioned above?

You probably figured out it involves movement.
Moving your body (exercise) is the only way to get the lymph circulating so it can eliminate toxins from your body like God designed.

This is why exercise is a vital part of your health regime. If you're not moving, your lymph system is pooling toxins like a stagnant pond collects mosquitos.

In God's great care for His creatures, He designed a world that requires movement. But thanks to modern conveniences -- we are forced to manufacture exercise just to stay healthy.

I've written about some ways you can incorporate exercise into your regular activities so you can live the healthy life you really desire, the way God designed from the beginning.

Learn More About Exercise and the Bible

Read (Almost) Everything About Exercise and the Bible to learn more.

There you'll find:

fun and natural ways to get exercise without going to the gym
how to get paid to exercise
why sitting at a desk all day can kill you quicker
the primary mode of transportation in the Bible
the dangers of yoga and what to do instead
how to get a good work out in 20 minutes a day
and more.

Each topic has a link that you can pursue for further study.
Check it out now.
If you want to stay healthy, you've got to get your body moving.

This was actually supposed to be number 15 on your Ultimate Health Checklist: Move Your Body. But I've moved it to number 8. Exercise is way too important to put that far down the list.

I'm not sure how it got placed so low — probably because it's one of those things we desire to put off until later. If you want to stay healthy, you must incorporate exercise into at least six days of your life.
Make your arms strong for your tasks (Proverbs 31:17).

If you're not getting exercise, you're not eliminating the toxins like God has designed. And it will lead to poor sleep, lethargy, and chronic illness if left unchecked.

Did God Create Us for Work (Exercise) or Is It Part of the Curse?

Have you ever considered what life was like in the garden of Eden? Perhaps you’ve thought of its perfect environment — with its lush and tropical vegetation and newly created animals. No pesky mosquitos or bugs to fight off. No blight or mold or mildew to mar and destroy the colorful green leaves and purple, red, orange, yellow, and blue flowers. And you spend all your hours wading in the crystal clear pond as a gentle waterfall cascades over you. When you’re hungry, you simply reach your hand to pluck 12 different types of succulent fruits. In your spare time you watch the animals play about in the grass – the lion next to the lamb; the toucan with her nest where you can touch it and watch its newest set of hatchlings grow their beaks. You’d have hours and hours with nothing to do but rest and relax, sun-bathe in the nude (without shame), and watch the trees blossom and bear fruit: a life of perfect leisure, no work, no worries.

And then perhaps you’ve contrasted that with the fall of man — when Adam and Eve were kicked out of the garden because of their sin — and sentenced to a life of hard labor on the earth that God had created.

Have you ever blamed Adam and Eve for the fact that you have to work for a living? Well…if you have…your probably not alone. But the question has to be asked. Did the idea of work really begin after the curse? Or was it something that God had built into His perfect created order?

The Bible has the answer.

Genesis 2:15 tells us that “the LORD God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it.” What! cultivate it and keep it? That sounds an awful lot like work — and that is exactly what it is. God created Adam and Eve and gave them work to do before they ever sinned. Work is not part of the curse — it is part of perfect creation, something to be enjoyed. The garden was not going to tend itself. God planted it for Adam and Eve — and yes it was beautiful; and no doubt there were opportunities to enjoy its beauty and leisure. But God expected them to improve the garden, cultivate it, and make something beautiful out of the raw resources He provided them. They wouldn’t be lying around all day eating pineapple, grapes, and figs. They’d be moving their bodies while tending the garden God created. But that’s not all.

Tending the garden was not the only work God had for Adam and Eve before the fall. They were to rule over the fish, the birds, the animals — and the whole earth and everything it contains. With God’s full blessing, they were told to be fruitful and multiply, to fill the earth and subdue it, and to rule over everything that moves on the earth. God gave Adam and Eve the whole world to govern. Genesis 1:26-28 tells us:

“Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’ God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them; and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’”

This too (the commission to rule the world) was work — and it was given to the first couple before the fall. God knew this was a big task — so He planted a garden for Adam and Eve to begin their rule over the world. After the fall, God did not relinquish His tasks for Adam and Eve to subdue the earth — it was just going to be a lot harder for them. For they would have to plant their own garden and start from scratch as it were with sweat and hard labor. The world we are living in today is the fruit of all the years and history of ruling over the earth that God has created. And it took a lot of intensive labor — which is good — because God designed us as physical creatures — not sedentary ones. From the beginning, exercise was built into the daily tasks of life. Adam and Eve had enough activity to keep them healthy and active: they didn’t have to go to the gym. This has been true for most of history.

In the days that the Scriptures were written and beyond — moving about (exercise) was a normal part of life — and it still is in some third world countries. But in America — things have changed. Sometimes convenience has a price. While we may make up time by traveling in cars for example — we have to spend more time at the gym to stay physically fit. Historically, mankind walked to get where they needed to go — and their daily tasks involved heavy physical activity like drawing water from wells, planting vineyards, grinding grain, and the like. This is all part of how God designed the human body to function at its best.

The next post in this series will examine the daily activities (exercise) found in the Scripture. We will see a sharp contrast to the activity of the average present day’s lifestyle.