Our theme for this month: “Taking care of your soul.”
Our Bible verse for today: “What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish that I may gain Christ.” Philippians 3:8 (NIV)
Our thought for today: “Nothing matters as much as a healthy relationship with the Lord.”
I know, I know, you’re busy. You probably have a demanding job, family responsibilities, ministry obligations, bills to pay, places to go, people to see. Yeah, me too. And most of those things are probably important and even needed. But they can also monopolize our lives and draw us away from what is even more important and more needed. That of course, would be a healthy relationship with the Lord.
Paul was a busy professional too. As a “Pharisee among Pharisees” he was an up-and-coming religious superstar in the old-time Jewish tradition. Once he gave his life to Christ and ended up becoming the most prolific evangelist and church planter in the history of Christianity, he was even busier. Talk about ministry obligations, places to go, people to see – Paul was the man.
But in Philippians 3:8 he explained that he considered all earthly pursuits, all expectations, responsibilities, and activities, to be of secondary importance to his relationship with Christ. Paul realized that if his relationship with the Lord wasn’t deep and healthy, everything else in his life would be less than it could and should be.
What Paul knew, and what Christians down through the ages have discovered, is that the health of the soul is the most important thing about any Christian. Everything else in life is built upon that and therefore the health of the soul is the starting place for the well-being of every other part of life.
The way we keep our soul healthy is by incorporating into our lives a variety of spiritual disciplines that help to place us in a position before God whereby He can nurture, nourish, and replenish us. Prayer, Bible reading, fasting, solitude, reflection, worship, Sabbath-keeping – all of those things help. And they all take time. There’s a reason they are called “disciplines”. We have to be intentional about it and we have to make it happen.
One of the best books ever been written on this subject is Richard Foster’s classic work, “Celebration of Discipline”. In simple and easy to apply lessons Foster explains the thirteen most basic disciplines of the Christian faith. It’s not a large book and it won’t take too long to read it. But you will discover it is well worth your time to read because nothing is as important as a healthy soul rightly related to God.
God Bless,
Oak Hill Baptist Church 