Are you Neglecting Your Soul?
Good Morning Friends,
Let’s face it, there is a central difficulty involved in grasping the nature of the soul and in caring for it. Logic of its deep empathy is at odds with our reasoning mind. Still our soul’s desires exist and will not be repressed. Sometimes creative work is a way of finding one’s passion in the shadows, for the experience can be filled with failures and anxieties as well as inspiring and exciting art. But it can also be about ideas and religious practices of worship. The thing is that what this life is all about is the making of our souls and we must be creative about the work. And that takes faith, for we are to love God and our neighbors but also love ourselves. Friends, we seek spiritual transcendence but are frustrated by the limits of this human life. We struggle not realizing that the goal is to feel and share a divine love. Are you Neglecting Your Soul?
Scripture: As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and behold the face of God? My tears have been my food day and night, while people say to me continually, “Where is your God?” These things I remember, as I pour out my soul: how I went with the throng, and led them in procession to the house of God, with glad shouts and songs of thanksgiving, a multitude keeping festival. Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my help and my God. My soul is cast down within me; therefore I remember you from the land of Jordan and of Hermon, from Mount Mizar. Deep calls to deep at the thunder of your cataracts; all your waves and your billows have gone over me. By day the LORD commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life.
Psalm 42:1-8 (NRSV)
What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you came to believe, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So, neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. The one who plants and the one who waters have a common purpose, and each will receive wages according to the labor of each. For we are God’s servants, working together; you are God’s field, God’s building.
1 Corinthians 3:5-9 (NRSV)
So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!
2 Corinthians 5:17 (NRSV)
Message: The psalm above begins with a poetic description of David’s soul longing for God’s presence. He asks why he is so depressed and anxious, and then with hope he encourages, instructs, teaches and urges his soul. It’s as if David is a pastor to his own soul. He listens to its needs and desires and then points it toward God. David has become skilled in the art of caring for his soul.
He found strength in relating to his soul and so should we. Today’s Psalm is evidence that David suffered emotional challenges and gives a little Biblical advice when read in its entirety for dealing with how our senses and feelings are different from our spritual state. Here are David’s symptoms: He is crying incessantly, he is not eating well, his sleep is interrupted, his feelings are overwhelmed, he fears God has abandoned him, his inner pain is drowning everything else out and he is in physical pain. Maybe you suffer similar torments. So, friends, if you face depression that is more than life’s normal ups and downs, learn from what David did to nurture his soul. Press on into God. From a scientific perspective, these actions have a way of helping to increase our serotonin levels. From a spiritual perspective, they bring us closer to God. So, when faced with challenges accept it, get rest, and improve your diet and exercise. Acknowledge to yourself and to others that there is a problem. Actively seek support and counsel. Pray about it while in praise of God. Friends, when we are in the wilderness we need to know there is a way home. The Lord works from the inside out while the world works for the outside in. The world would shape human behavior but Christ can change human behavior. Through hope, holiness, wisdom and love, God has given us the way to receive the power to change and the way to have victory.
Pray we have a deeper prayer life. Pray we develop an inner relationship with our soul. Pray that we are not so distracted by a pursuit of perfection and modern life that we lose the ability to feel and learn from the messiness of life. Pray we realize that we must be who we are this moment. Pray also we not ignore, deny, lied to, starved, medicated or neglected our soul. Pray we watch the Spirit. Pray we respond to the needs that we see then release our efforts to the Spirit always attempting to work together in love. Pray our actions bring Peace to our own lives as well as in the lives of others. Pray we have memories and habits that help us to survive the problems of life but also experience the joy that connects us and helps us accept who we are. Pray
we have passion, perspective and praise. Pray we thank God for helping us through the battles of life. Pray that because such a high price has been paid that we strive to make the declarations of freedom real. Pray we take greater responsibility for the health of our body, soul and spirit. Pray that when events press us down that we respond by pressing in to God. Pray we find strength in the Lord. Pray our souls are cultivated in the sacredness of the everyday. Pray the seed planted in us grow and produce fruit.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 