Devotional for Monday June 23rd

Our theme for this month: “Taking care of your soul”

Our Bible verse for today: “Therefore anyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them will be like a sensible man who built his house on the rock. The rain fell, the rivers rose, and the winds blew and pounded that house. Yet it didn’t collapse, because its foundation was on the rock.” Matthew 7:24-25 (HCSB)

Our thought for today: “The soul is the foundation upon which the rest of life rests.”

In the winter of 2013 there was a story in the news about a sinkhole that suddenly opened up in a neighborhood in Florida. Without warning the ground under a home suddenly gave way and the entire house was swallowed in an instant. One man inside the home was killed and they never recovered his body. It turned out that the ground under the house was made mostly of limestone. Over the years acidic rain seeping down from the surface had eaten away at the limestone until finally it simply gave way, the foundation collapsed, and the entire house was swallowed up.

The same thing happens in human lives. Author Gordon MacDonald once referred to it as “The Sinkhole Syndrome”.  It describes a life that is built upon a weak spiritual foundation. Over time the cares of life eat away at that foundation until one day the cares and pressures of work, and relationships, and financial concerns, criticism, etc, become too much and the foundation crumbles; the life is then swallowed up into a giant sinkhole of a nervous breakdown, or substance abuse, or a mid-life crisis. Because the inner life of the soul was built upon a weak foundation, it could not withstand the pressure from the outer life of cares and worries, and so it collapsed.

Jesus used a similar analogy in Matthew 7:24-27. In His example the life wasn’t swallowed up by the earth, it was blown away by a storm, but the same lesson is taught. The spiritual foundation was weak and therefore the life was eventually shattered and destroyed.

The soul is the foundation upon which the rest of life rests. If the soul is strong and healthy the person won’t be blown away by the storms of life, and they won’t be swallowed up as things collapse all around them. Take care of your soul. Make sure it is strong.

God Bless,