Your Soul is the most important aspect of You. “The truth is you are a Soul living in a body- Dallas Willard”.
How much do we care for our Soul? In order words how much do you pay attention to your will, mind, thoughts and emotions.
How healthy are they?
We find ourselves caring for our bodies, eating healthy, going to the gym to keep fit, enjoying the pleasure of a spa. We find ourselves caring for our material possessions; houses, cars etc. But we seldom take care of that which matters most.
I do not have anything against caring for your material possessions and body, but when it is at the expense of your Soul Well being, then there is a big problem.
Our physical body and all our material possessions will come to nothing someday, so if all we do is build our life’s around this and give less or no attention to our Soul Well being, we are going to end up in a big mess and destined for destruction.
“But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare. Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people are you ought to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives.” 2 Peter 3:10-11”
An unhealthy Soul or rather a Soul not cared for will burn out, be depressed, anxious, fail morally, unsettled, have unstable relationships, filled with fear, insecure, men-pleasing, lost, broken, and unfulfilled.
Man did not become a living being at the creation of the body. Man became a living being when the breath of God formed the Soul of man. Gen 2:7.
There is a common analogy that likened Soul to an iceberg. Only 10% of the iceberg is seen above the water surface level, but the remaining 90% is unseen, hidden beneath the water level. The Soul of man is that 90% unseen, our bodies is the 10% seen. Hebrews 11: 4b says, that which is seen was created by that which is not seen. Meaning: the unseen defines or controls the seen or rather the unseen is much more powerful that the seen. Your Soul (mind, will, thoughts, emotions,) controls your body, your acts.
So what does the Care of the Soul mean? Proverbs 4: 28 says “ Above all else, guard your heart(Soul) for it is the well spring of life”
Soul Care is caring for your inner world. Paying attention to the whole person.
Helping us to recognize the need to care for that which is important [ Our Soul, our complete being} heart, mind, will, emotion, thoughts).
Mindy Caliguire puts it this way “Caring for your soul enables you to be renewed and co-operate for the purpose which God has called us. Where all we are is centered on the Creator of the Soul God and we are able to see and discern ways to walk more intimately with God while healing, growing, doing and above all being.”
The Holy Spirit of God breath life into us and we became a living being. Holy Spirit has a great role in the caring of our soul, alongside the community we surround ourselves with.
The Holy Spirit works in our lives, and helps in the caring of our souls when we stop trying to do it our own way. We need to seize being slaves to the tyranny of busyness.
We get so over committed, over-extended and then we crash or we say “So is this all?”
We need to slow down on our busy shift; schedule and surrender to the transforming work of the Holy Spirit. Only when we do this can we live the abundant life Jesus lived and promised. A life filled with fulfillment, satisfaction and reward.
The Soul has needs and I will talk more broadly in my next message. The needs of our Soul have being placed there by the Creator of our Soul and He alone can meet those needs. We have the needs of wanting to be recognized, a need to be fruitful, a need to be loved, a need to achieve, a need to be in charge or dominate, a need to be secured, a need to be accepted etc.
After the fall of man, man sought to meet these needs through other means: entertainment, education, drugs, music, sex, alcohol etc.
Our Souls can be well only when we co-operate with the Creator of our Soul,- Holy Spirit of God; slow down from our busy shift, taking retreats, submitting our will to the will of God, allowing our minds to be renewed to the mind of Christ and allowing our emotions to be controlled by the fruit of the Spirit.
Caring for our Souls is not a one-time thing; it is not a lifetime journey the Lord has invited us to by the help of the Holy Spirit. We need the Holy Spirit and also surrounding ourselves with the right inner circle (community).
By Raly Ewemie