Soul Care - Part 2

REVIEW PART ONE

Matthew 16:26 TPT

26 For even if you were to gain all the wealth and power of this world with everything it could offer you—at the cost of your own life—what good would that be? And what could be more valuable to you than your own soul?

Diagram

The Will

The Mind - the place of your beliefs,

The Body - Your little kingdom that you bring into God’s kingdom.

The Soul - The integrator

We are not lost because we are going to hell. We are going to end up in hell because we are lost. Our souls are damaged beyond human repair.

The results of a disintegrated soul...

WE WERE MADE FOR CONNECTION & CONNECTION IS A FUNCTION OF THE SOUL

Why do we feel lonely when we are alone for a protracted period of time? Because being alone is being void of relationships. Ironically, solicitude and stillness are required to care for your soul, but only that you may more effectively connect to God and then others.

We have mirror neurons that allow us to share experiences. When we see a heroic or altruistic act, we experience much of the same brain chemical reactions as the person performing the need.

THE NEEDS OF A SOUL

It’s the Nature of the Soul to Need

Eternity is in your heart. You want… well, what you want. Everything you want. And after you get it, you still want more.

The unlimited need of our soul is a mirror of the unlimited that God want’s to give His children.

1. The Soul Needs a Keeper

Accepting the Consequences of Your Actions

I can spend without getting into debt.

I can lie without getting caught.

I can let my temper fly without damaging my relational life.

I can have a bad attitude at work and get away with it.

I can avoid disciplining my children without their getting spoiled.

I can neglect the Bible and still know God.

I can refuse to sow, & expect God to somehow give me a harvest.

Keep your soul by guarding its diet. What thoughts do you feed your soul? Do you regulate your own mind?

2 Corinthians 10:5 NLT

5 We destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God. We capture their rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ.

2 Corinthians 10:5 TPT

5 We can demolish every deceptive fantasy that opposes God and break through every arrogant attitude that is raised up in defiance of the true knowledge of God. We capture, like prisoners of war, every thought and insist that it bow in obedience to the Anointed One.

Speak to your soul, learn to quiet your mind.

Psalm 42:5–11 LEB

5 Why are you in despair, O my soul, and disturbed within me? Hope in God, because I will again praise him, for the salvation of his presence. 6 O my God, within me my soul is in despair; therefore I remember you from the land of Jordan and the heights of Hermon, from the mountain of Mizar. 7 Deep is calling to deep at the thunder of your waterfalls. All your breakers and your waves have passed over me. 8 By day Yahweh commands his loyal love, and in the night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life. 9 I say to God, my rock, “Why have you forgotten me? Why must I walk about mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?” 10 As with a shattering in my bones my oppressors taunt me, while they say to me all day, “Where is your God?” 11 Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God, because I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.

The Exhaustive Dictionary of Bible Names Jordan

Jordan (jor’-dan) = Descending; flowing down; (root = to go down; to flow down). Descending rapidly.

The Exhaustive Dictionary of Bible Names Hermon

Hermon (her’-mon) = Devoted; (root = to extirpate; to devote). A prominent summit of a mountain (mountain of snow).

The Exhaustive Dictionary of Bible Names Mizar

Mizar (mi’-zar) = Smallness; small; diminutive; young.

Soul-care is a different task than self-care. I do not care for my soul only for my own sake. It is only mine on loan, and it is coming due soon.

2. The Soul Needs a Center

Psalm 103:1 KJV 1900

1 Bless the Lord, O my soul: And all that is within me, bless his holy name.

The soul connects all those innermost parts together, connects them with God, and was made for harmony all the way through. Notice how the psalmist writes, “Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me.” In other words, it is my soul that connects “all that is within me” and that cries out for integration, for wholeness, for oneness, for harmony. This can only happen when my soul — my whole life — is connected with God.

A soul without a center has difficulty making a decision.

A soul without a center feels constantly vulnerable to people or circumstances.

A soul without a center lacks patience.

The soul without a center is easily thrown.

The soul without a center finds its identity in externals.

James 1:2–8 TPT

2 My fellow believers, when it seems as though you are facing nothing but difficulties see it as an invaluable opportunity to experience the greatest joy that you can! 3 For you know that when your faith is tested it stirs up power within you to endure all things. 4 And then as your endurance grows even stronger it will release perfection into every part of your being until there is nothing missing and nothing lacking. 5 And if anyone longs to be wise, ask God for wisdom and he will give it! He won’t see your lack of wisdom as an opportunity to scold you over your failures but he will overwhelm your failures with his generous grace. 6 Just make sure you ask empowered by confident faith without doubting that you will receive. For the ambivalent person believes one minute and doubts the next. Being undecided makes you become like the rough seas driven and tossed by the wind. You’re up one minute and tossed down the next. 7 When you are half-hearted and wavering it leaves you unstable. Can you really expect to receive anything from the Lord when you’re in that condition?

James 1:8 KJV 1900

8 A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.

The word here for double minded, is “dipsuchos”, from the Greek work we learned last week - “psuche”.

Double-Soul - fractured soul, disintegrated soul.

James 4:7–8 TPT

7 So then, surrender to God. Stand up to the devil and resist him and he will turn and run away from you. 8 Move your heart closer and closer to God, and he will come even closer to you. But make sure you cleanse your life, you sinners, and keep your heart pure and stop doubting.

Sin fractures the soul, there are no “harmless sins”.

When my will is consistently, freely, joyfully aligned with what I

most deeply value, my soul finds rest. That is wholeness. When I live

with half-hearted devotion, my soul is always strained.

3. The Soul Needs a Future

Ecclesiastes 3:11 AMP

11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He also has planted eternity in men’s hearts and minds [a divinely implanted sense of a purpose working through the ages which nothing under the sun but God alone can satisfy], yet so that men cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.

To quote the prophet Ronnie Milsap, darlin, there ain’t no getting over me.

Eternity is in your heart.

Unfinished issues, unsettled soul. If you ask most people what they believe about eternity, they will be vague or in outright denial.

4. The Soul Needs to Be with God

What fills the void?

You were created for worship. You will worship something.

If you read through the Bible, you get the sense that the soul was designed to search for God. The Hebrew Scriptures — which might be thought of as the Great Soul-Book of human literature — are almost obsessed with this thought. The soul thirsts for the Mighty One (Ps. 63: 1). It thirsts for him like parched land thirsts for water (Ps. 143: 6). Like a laser it focuses the full intensity of its desire on him (Ps. 33: 20). It lifts itself up to him (Ps. 25: 1), it blesses him (Ps. 103: 1 – 2, 22), it clings to him (Ps. 63: 8), and it waits for him in silence (Ps. 62: 1). “Indeed, the soul lives in God.” The soul seeks God with its whole being. Because it is desperate to be whole, the soul is God-smitten and God-crazy and God-obsessed. My mind may be obsessed with idols; my will may be enslaved to habits; my body may be consumed with appetites. But my soul will never find rest until it rests in God.

Ortberg, John; Ortberg, John. Soul Keeping: Caring For the Most Important Part of You (p. 116). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.

5. The Soul Needs Rest

God hasn’t promised you an easy life, but He has promised you an overcoming one.

Matthew 11:28–30 NLT

28 Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”

Make your goal to have easy circumstances, and life will always be hard in every way; Set your goal to have an easy soul, and your capacity for tackling hard assignments will actually grow. The soul was not made for an easy life. The soul was made for an easy yoke.

Most Christians adjust their level of obedience to their current level of endurance. This is the direct opposite of what Jesus taught.

Matthew 11:28–30 The Message

28 “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. 29 Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. 30 Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”

6. The Soul Needs Gratitude

Psalm 103:1–2 AMP

1 [A Psalm] of David. BLESS (AFFECTIONATELY, gratefully praise) the Lord, O my soul; and all that is [deepest] within me, bless His holy name! 2 Bless (affectionately, gratefully praise) the Lord, O my soul, and forget not [one of] all His benefits—

Lamentations 3:19–20 NLT

19 The thought of my suffering and homelessness is bitter beyond words. 20 I will never forget this awful time, as I grieve over my loss.

Lamentations 3:21–26 NLT

21 Yet I still dare to hope when I remember this: 22 The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. 23 Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning. 24 I say to myself, “The Lord is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in him!” 25 The Lord is good to those who depend on him, to those who search for him. 26 So it is good to wait quietly for salvation from the Lord.

Philippians 2:14–16 TPT

14 Live a cheerful life, without complaining or division among yourselves. 15 For then you will be seen as innocent, faultless, and pure children of God, even though you live in the midst of a brutal and perverse culture. For you will appear among them as shining lights in the universe, 16 offering them the words of eternal life. I haven’t labored among you for nothing, for your lives are the fruit of my ministry and will be my glorious boast at the unveiling of Christ!

Thermostats, not thermometers. Proactive, not reactive. Part of the solution, not part of the problem. Bring life to every situation.

The Soul Needs Grace

Grace comes from connection, and first step in connection is acceptance.

Matthew 3:16–17 TPT

16 And as Jesus rose up out of the water, the heavenly realm opened up over him and he saw the Holy Spirit descend out of the heavens and rest upon him in the form of a dove. 17 Then suddenly the voice of the Father shouted from the sky, saying, “This is the Son I love, and my greatest delight is in him.”

Isaiah 42:1 AMP

1 BEHOLD MY Servant, Whom I uphold, My elect in Whom My soul delights! I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice and right and reveal truth to the nations.