There’s something to be said about learning to take care of our soul.
The truest version of ourselves is our soul — it’s the essence of who we are. It’s comprised of four parts: heart, mind, body, and relationships (you can read more on that here).
The soul is mentioned several times throughout scripture.
“For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?” — Matthew 16:26
“And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” — Genesis 2:7
Clearly, the soul is significant, yet we often overlook it. The great news is that Jesus longs to help us walk in total freedom. Soul care is not selfish, it’s stewardship. We can only change things we can measure — we can’t outplay our fundamentals. Until we can boil soul care down into daily practices, we won’t make any progress in the preservation of our souls.
SATISFYING THE SOUL
Western culture is go, go, go all the time. This non-stop pace is fighting for our soul.
God created Adam out of the dust of the ground, breathed life into him, and then Adam became “a living soul” (Genesis 2:7). Even in the creation story, we can see the connection between earth and soul. We have to pause and recognize that we are on earth for an assignment, and our assignment comes from the spiritual realm.
When we fall into hustle culture, we fall into the deception of looking for something on earth to satisfy what can only be satisfied by going back to the source. God wired us to himself; we are designed to be satisfied only in him. We have to have an awareness of what is fighting for our soul and what is actually feeding our soul.
SUSTAINING THE SOUL
The most important place we will ever be is where we are right now. One of the secrets to sustaining the soul is learning to live in the present.
Too often, we fix our eyes either behind us or in front of us. Looking back to our past can handicap our soul as the pain of yesterday encroaches on today. One of the best things we can do is forgive. Whether it’s forgiving ourselves or someone else, forgiveness sets us free.
We also rob ourselves of the present moment when we keep our eyes on what’s ahead of us. We can’t be fully present in this season if we’re constantly waiting for the next door to open. Psalm 130:5 tells us that our soul is to wait on the Lord, not on the thing in front of us.
If we want a strong soul and to impact the world for the Kingdom of God, we can find it right where we are.
Another key to sustaining the soul is to realize we have a responsibility to steward it. When we feel thirsty, it’s a sign that we’ve actually been dehydrated for hours. When our soul is thirsty, it’s because we’ve failed to meet a healthy need in a previous season. What we do in the morning leads to what we feel that night. We can build rhythms and routines into our daily practices that will keep our soul sustained.
A SOUL ENSLAVED
A healed soul would rather have freedom than validation and applause from people. Maintaining balance is critical — when something in our soul is off, we supplement with something that won’t truly satisfy our longings.
We have to take a moment to become soul-aware, evaluating what our soul is a slave to. We can’t find freedom with God when we are a slave to things that are meant to be beneath us — validation, performance, money, the list goes on. A soul enslaved to culture is like being on a hamster wheel of searching and never finding satisfaction. A soul enslaved to Christ means that we live within the boundaries of the Kingdom, and those boundaries are freedom.
A SOUL IN SORROW
Grief is a season, not a destination.
Carrying grief feels like holding a 50-pound weight all day, every day. It seems impossible. As we keep walking with the weight, it never gets lighter, but we slowly grow stronger and the weight doesn't feel as heavy. When our soul is fragmented, we can be in a hurry to get better. We may never get over the thing that hurt us, but we will get through it. God will always bring good out of what the enemy meant for evil.
It’s okay to give yourself permission to hurt. God never minimizes our pain — in fact, in the midst of our heartbreak, we are promised the presence of Jesus, the one who knows our pain. He catches our tears in a bottle, and when we allow him access to our soul, he begins a healing work as he stitches our heart back together.
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Soul work won't stop until we are standing face to face with Jesus. It’s hard work, but it’s good work. We can walk in total freedom on this side of heaven — the freedom that Jesus died to give us. As we give God access to our soul, he will be faithful to meet us in the middle of the mess, purifying us and healing us every step of the way.
