SOUL CARE
“Greetings, favored one!
The Lord is with you!”
I’ve always loved this greeting to Mary from the angel Gabriel. Kindness, blessing, promise and hope in one brief greeting, right? What a greeting! What a blessing! And that’s pretty much the whisper I hear in my heart somewhere between 4:30 and 6 every morning when I start to wake up to the gift of a brand-new day from the Lord.
He loves to talk with us heart to heart like that. In fact, He is always whispering to us, my friends. Really. It’s just that our external lives get so noisy (far too busy, frenetic, relentless, demanding…) and our internal hearts or souls get so loud (wounds, pain, insecurity, disappointments, failures…), it gets very easy – and habitual – to miss the “kind intentions” of His conversational whispers.
So, here’s a little whisper from three wonderful portions of Scripture and some simple questions to ponder that may help you catch a vision for how “soul care” from God’s heart to your heart can become more of a reality in your life.
THE QUIET WATERS PRINCIPLE
I just love all the water metaphors the Lord uses in Scripture to draw us closer to Himself for soul care, meditation, restoration, and exploration. So here are a few verses and prayers to get you started:
“Above all else, guard your heart, for from it flow the springs of life.” (Proverbs 4). This is preventative soul care. (Lord, how faithfully am I guarding my vulnerable heart, above all else?)
“He leads me beside quiet waters; He restores my soul.” (Psalm 23). This is restorative soul care. (Lord, how often do I sit still and let You restore and heal my weary and wounded soul?)
“As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants for you, O God … Deep calls to deep.” (Psalm 42). This is explorative soul care. (Lord, how deeply am I yearning and diving into You?)
Yeah, okay. I am hearing Him with you right now. I think I’ll print them out as a Bible bookmark for the week to remind me of these heart level things. Oh, what a patient Savior we have, and there is so much more He wants to share with us! But for now, I’m just…
Slowing down and listening with you,
Pastor Mark
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markpg.org. Write and share at [email protected]. Hear me every Saturday, 8 a.m. on 91.5 FM.
