Soul Work

It is our duty to be loyal to God’s desires.


Beware of allowing externals to take control of your life. “Eat, drink and be merry,” became the life purpose of the farmer who had lost his soul. He failed to live rich toward God and only focused on amassing wealth for this life.

Our souls are not designed to be floundering on their own but are to be deeply rooted in God.


Open your inner world to the Lord and sit in his presence for a few minutes, without words, just inviting him in, that you might experience his love for you. Gently ask him to show you a glimpse of your inner world. As you sit in the Lord’s presence, do you sense he is opening you to something? Make every effort not to resist God’s work. If you find negative emotions, don’t pretend they are not there. Welcome them and release them to the Spirit. As you open yourself to the Lord, he will transform you.

As Christians, we can fail to live “rich toward God.” When we allow a busy life to keep us from a profoundly rich, soul-expanding, all-encompassing love for Jesus, we have become the farmer, living a profoundly impoverished life, living as if this life is all there is.

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Keeping the Lord before us

“The first fruit of love is the musing of the mind upon God. He who is in love, his thoughts are ever upon the object. He who loves God is ravished and transported with the contemplation of God .”


One of the most essential practices of the spiritual life is to keep the Lord before us all of the time. David knew this: "I keep the Lord always before me; because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad, and my soul rejoices; my body also rests secure" (Psalm 16:8-9).

So how do we do this? When we take some time to retreat, we have the time to quiet our “inner noisy workshop.” Sometimes it takes 24 hours of solitude before we can begin to be present to the Lord. I've found some ways that help me to quiet the inner noise - things as simple as keeping a list so that my mind doesn't have to be continually reminding of things I don't want to forget.

Along with quieting the inner noise, we need to fill our minds with Jesus. We open ourselves to him and direct our thinking toward him. This is another goal. We can develop the habit of keeping the words of the Gospels in our minds by reading them carefully day by day, and re-reading them. We can memorize them. I find that when I am actively working on memorizing a passage, I naturally recall it throughout the day.

Keeping the Lord before us is a choice, a habit, a skill that we can practice and become better at. If we stick with it, keeping our mind focused on the Lord and at peace in Him will become the default. Our minds will return to him naturally, as a matter of habit.

Memorizing Scripture is such a gift as it helps our mind muse upon God.

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Arrange Time for Communion

"We understand anew that God will not compete for our attention. We must arrange time for our communion with Him as we draw aside in solitude and silence."

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Soul Care

"Allowing service for Christ to steal our devotion to him is a radical failure in personal soul care. But it is one from which the practice of communing with Christ in times of solitude and silence can deliver us."


How many times have we gotten to the place where we are absolutely empty, poured out, exhausted...and how many times have we found that the rest and refreshment of a three day spiritual retreat, where we have a private room and time to take a nap, walk in a natural setting, read our Bibles, and simply be silent and alone with the Lord has completely restored us?

Silence, Solitude, and Time are essential to our soul care.

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Principles of Devotion

Know deeply that I am whole in God’s eyes – beloved. He values and loves me. Because I am so loved and completely forgiven, I can love and forgive others.


Know yourself – your strengths and their accompanying weaknesses. Know how you promote and defend yourself.

Surrender to the love of God and entrust yourself to his loving intentions. Consent to his supremacy in all things. Be willing for God to be your Father.

Release control of your time, tendencies, inclinations, motivations, desires, goals, finances to the Lord. Be aware of what you might be holding back.

Find contentment in trusting in the goodness of the will of God, assured he has done and always will do well by us.

Fully participate, using your intelligence and energy to accomplish God’s will in the world.

Present your body to God—release each part to Him, ask him to take charge of your body, fill it, use it for his purposes. Use fasting as a strategy to help you know that the Lord is the Provider of nourishment for both your body and your soul. You are in charge of your body.

Stop idolizing your body. Care for it as it serves God and don’t worry or fear what will happen to it or what it will do to you. Entrust it to God.

Don’t misuse your body – not as a source of sensual gratification outside God’s will or to manipulate others by how you dress, or the things you say, or by using your words to exclude others.

Properly honor and care for your body—it is holy, set apart to God. Eat well and exercise. Enter into contrary practices like Sabbath resting and fasting to break the force of a habit that you don’t seem to be able to resist. When you feel tempted, turn your attention to deeply receiving the truth of God’s love for you. Rest. Sleep well.

Be in a community of trusted friends that are willing to open their inner lives. Be as honest as you can be about who you are.

Reflect on God’s Word each day.

Have a daily time to reflect on what the Spirit is doing in your heart and life. To do this, you might journal reflectively about: What insight did you receive today? What are you most grateful for? What do you want to hold on to? What do you want to release?

Take the opportunity to go on a spiritual retreat where you have the luxury of several days focused on being with God.



 

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Spiritual Gluttony

Rest rekindles the fire.


There is such a thing as “spiritual gluttony” – when we compulsively want more and more spiritually. The compulsion to do more ministry, glean more insight, meet with more people, pray longer, give more, sleep less. Passion that morphs into an obsession can ruin us.

On a regular basis, we need to stop and take a true Sabbath’s rest. If we don’t, we can become spiritual gluttons. Passion everyday can squelch our passion. Lay down everything you are doing and stop all of your mental activity and truly rest.

Rest rekindles the fire.

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Restore My Soul

“There is no grander sight in the world than that of a person fired with a great purpose, dominated by one unwavering aim.” Orison Swett Marden


Let God use all that he’s created to nurture my soul and speak to my heart. He is good, he cares for me, and loves me, and welcomes me into his kingdom through the passion of his Son. Everything leads me to him. He is restoring my soul.

Two weeks outdoors to be immersed in the beauty of nature has the same soul-restoring effect as a silent retreat. It draws me out of the world of hurry, and struggle, and decisions and draws me into God’s world of peace, and joy, and rest.

Lord, may you use these days to restore my soul. Light me on fire by the work of your Spirit that I’ll return home dominated by one unwavering aim to love you with my heart, mind, soul, and strength every day. I desire to be fired with a great purpose, that your will is done on earth as it is in heaven.

 

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Spiritually Dry

Sometimes we get to the point where we are really dry. We have worked so hard in ministry, yet we feel strangely disconnected from the Lord. How do we re-connect? How do we remind ourselves that we are living in His presence? What can we do to deepen our understanding of God's love for us?


Journaling, reflection, lectio divina, prayers of confession and relinquishment, silence, and solitude, the prayer of examen, will all lead us into his arms.

We can get spiritually dry even though we are involved in Christian activities.

It's amazing how refreshed we feel when we stop all of our "religious" activity, spend time giving God our hearts, falling in love with him all over again, letting the truth of His love soak into our inner sanctuary, seeing his hand in our lives and hearing his call, and simply attending to him. So one anecdote for spiritual dryness is to take a Sabbath’s rest and stop all of our work.

"The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail." Isaiah 58:11

Spiritual vitality will return.

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Rest - A Day to Disengage

“Foolish out of measure is he who attendeth upon other things rather than those which serve the soul’s health.”


I had been intense all month, mentally considering ideas, reading, writing, meeting with people. On Thursday, I was exhausted and I felt on Friday that in order to continue wanting to be in pursuit of God, I needed a break, a day to totally disengage. I didn’t read anything. I didn’t turn on my computer. Instead, Kevin and I enjoyed a day outside. We took the light rail downtown and walked to the Rose Garden. A great day, enjoying being outside, with Kevin, mentally disengaged from ministry so that I could re-engage with enthusiasm tomorrow.

I’m learning that for me to stay hot, I must disengage at times. Passionate living can leave me mentally exhausted and a day off can be so refreshing that I wake up the next day desiring to re-engage.

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Sleep

It’s hard to be passionate about anything when I’m on the verge of falling asleep. When I’m tired. I just want to go to sleep. I can’t push through being exhausted. For me, I need to be rested to live passionately. So part of nurturing spiritual passion is being disciplined about getting enough sleep. For me, I need 7-1/2 to 8 hours of sleep.


I can want to be passionate, but if I’m too tired, I get grumpy. I can’t stay awake, I can’t concentrate, I can’t reflect or think deeply or learn. When I try to read when I’m tired, my eyes may scan the words but I have no knowledge of what I read. When I try to pray I fall asleep. So in order to nurture my heart’s desire for the Lord, I need rest.

We may want to stay up late doing something, but that actually works against us. If what is best for us is that we live fully alive, then we need to pay attention to getting enough sleep. That doesn’t sound as spiritual as staying up all night working on something—but it is.

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Care for our Bodies

I am responsible to care for my body. It is central to all other responsibilities I have. I am the steward of my body. It belongs to God and he has entrusted it to me.


I must present my body to God as a living and holy sacrifice. The goal is that every part of my body is inclined toward God and godliness, breaking conformity with the world and being transformed by the renewal of my mind (thoughts, imaginations, judgments). We don’t want our bodies starting us off after evil, dragging along our thoughts and feelings.

“The body must come to serve as a primary ally in Christlikeness. The body lies right at the center of the spiritual life. It can, and often does, hinder us. The body should be cherished and properly cared for, not as our master, but as a servant of God.” (Willard)

My language, culture, gender, talents, opportunities and family all come to me through my body. My body keeps a record of my desires, sensations, emotions that tells the truth about me in my core. I cannot escape my body. My body is God’s creation.

My body is not just physical but is inhabited by Jesus’ real presence (Phil. 3:10, Romans 8:11). I need to set aside “my flesh” by God’s grace, putting to death all of the old desires that are in rebellion against God, and take on my new life in Christ. Christ was raised that I may walk in newness of life (Romans 6:4).

To accomplish what God has called me to, my body must be as healthy as I can achieve. How foolish to squander this great gift of a body by allowing it to deteriorate from lack of exercise and over eating. Lord, change my heart (my inner thinking and attitudes) so that I value and see the connection between my health and the work you’ve called me to. I cannot sacrifice my health without limiting years of my life and ministry.

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Our Bodies

“Most of what is called character consists in what our bodies are and are not “at the ready” to do in the specific situations we find ourselves in.” (Dallas Willard)


The proper retraining and nurturing of the body is absolutely essential to Christlikeness.

Willard instructs us that inclination to do what is wrong (temptation) resides primarily in my body. We can act or speak before we think. Our body parts can carry us away (James 3:5-6). Our bodies run our lives: we are almost entirely devoted to how our bodies look, smell, feel, and how I can use my body to be admired.

God created our bodies so that we could live a life devoted to God as we await our glorification and new bodies in the next life.

Body worship, body hatred, fear of what our bodies will do to us before we die are all coming from a perspective that there is no God. God says that our bodies are beautiful, holy, sacred and belong to him. Our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit who indwells us. God created our bodies and gave them to us. Spiritual formation involves not just our hearts but our bodies as well.

Heart * Soul * Mind * Strength

 

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Take Back your Time

Aren't we always looking for more time, telling people how we have no time, using lack of time as an excuse for not doing all kinds of things—including things we know we should do like reading to our children and flossing our teeth?


I’ve come to own that I make the choices for how I spend the 24 hours that God has given to me...no one is making me busy except myself and no one, besides me, will give an account for how I spend my time. I've come to the conclusion that my days are full just like everyone's days are full and I'm the one responsible for it. If I’m too busy, it’s my fault.

No time is more profitably spent than the time I use to heighten the quality of my walk with God. If I think otherwise, I have been badly misled. The real question is, will I take time to do what is necessary for a vital, passionate life in Christ or will I try to get by without it?

There is no substitute for time spent with the Lord.

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But First

"I will follow you, but first let me go..." Lk 9


I've always read this passage and wondered why Jesus would have a problem with someone wanting to bury his father, or taking the time to say good-bye to his family. This morning what stood out to me was "First let me go..." Don't we always have something that we want to do first? Jesus, I'll follow, but first I need to send an email, clean the house, finish school, raise my kids. We can go through our life thinking we are following Jesus, writing books about following Jesus, teaching others how to follow Jesus...but never actually following Him because there's always something that we need to do just now...then we'll follow.

Following Christ. Being on a Mission. Living with Passion—all begin now. There's an urgency that can't be put off. First let me follow—then everything else will be taken care of.

“Seek ye first the kingdom of God…” Matthew 6.

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Is This Really Possible?

“I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.” (John 15:11-12)


"Living a life of love," "experiencing complete joy"—not exactly the first characteristics that spring to mind as people outside of the church seek to describe us. Not exactly the first characteristics that spring to my mind either. Why? Why aren’t we full of love and joy?

Willard writes, "It's God's intention that our lives should be a seamless manifestation of the fruit of the Spirit: "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control" (Gal. 5:22-23).

Is Willard right? Can we really get to a place in our lives where we experience God's joy from deep within that won’t be shaken by our circumstances? Not a pretense of joy, but a true sense of well-being and hope in the Lord always. Yes, I guess it is possible: Jesus taught us to abide in God's love, like a branch remains with the vine, "so that his joy may be in us and that our joy may be complete." It must be possible to live in joy.

Why don’t we experience love, joy, peace, patience...every day?

Maybe we're not paying enough attention to our interior lives. For the fruit of the Spirit to naturally overflow in our lives, we must attend to matters of the heart: experiencing His love and receiving his grace. When we go on a spiritual retreat we can take long periods of time to experience his love and grace in these kinds of specific ways. A spiritual retreat is different from a vacation. It's not just time for us to get away from it all. The retreat is for the specific purpose of being with the Lord.

During a retreat we have time for spiritual exercises like practicing the presence of God, and letting the Word of Christ richly dwell in us, and spending time in solitude with the Lord and experiencing his divine love. Practical exercises can help us abide in his love.

Back home, if we take the time to be with him, and make these practices part of our daily life, we are able to stay connected with the Lord like a branch is connected with the vine. Through living as Christ taught us we open ourselves to receiving his grace so that we will exude in increasing measure the character of the Spirit of God and experience his life changing us from the inside out. At least that's the goal that the Lord Jesus has set before us.

“Be imitators of God as dearly loved children and live a life of love.” (Eph. 5:1)

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Solitude, Silence and Rest

“We need to be sure HE is pulling the load, bearing the burden—which we are all too ready to assume is up to us alone. We must understand that He is in charge of the outcome of our efforts, and that the outcome will be good, right. And all of this is encompassed in one biblical term, “Sabbath.”


Practicing solitude, silence and fasting are especially helpful in resting. It's practicing silence and solitude on retreat that not only provides a deep sense of rest while we are on retreat, but also then enables us to enter into that place of rest even in the midst of a very busy life back home.

Living with an attitude of total rest in God will not happen automatically. We must practice laying everything down and walking away from it. We have to practice not talking. We have to practice silencing the inner noise. I love that at The Springs retreat we have opportunity to learn how to leave behind all of our work and how to quiet all of the noise so that we can truly enter into God's rest.

The challenge is to not bring our work with us when we go on a spiritual retreat. It's tempting to think that we'll use the time to write an article or complete our Bible study. If we do this, true solitude and rest will not be found. We have to get away from our work to rest.

Take an afternoon to walk the trails. Take an hour to reflect on the beauty of a wildflower or listen to the birds. Take some time to just sit in a chair and look at the valley and be open to the Lord. Just be with Him. It can be quite a shock for those of us who are so busy doing ministry to come away in order to just be with the Lord. But once we've practiced solitude and silence, they become the most precious times for us...and truly, we can learn to bring the blessedness of that rest into our busy lives.

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Dependence

“The most powerful force on earth is the soul set on fire by the love of God.”

Living with my soul on fire must be balanced with complete assurance of Jesus’ mastery of the universe, otherwise I start burning out from thinking it’s up to me to move these mountains that won’t budge!

Dependence on the work of the Holy Spirit, and trust in the promise that all I need is the faith of a tiny mustard seed helps me to work hard without getting discouraged and giving up. The results are really not up to me.

I find it is very challenging to live fully invested in advancing the kingdom of God and at the same time to rest in God’s sovereign control of the outcomes of my efforts, because I want to succeed.

I so want to see my friends come to know the Lord.

I so want to see our church grow.

I so want our church plants to be successful.

I can be working hard. I can be praying and yet see so little movement toward the goals I’ve set. I get frustrated with people when they abandon their part. Usually after the fact, I can tell that I have stopped depending on God and have taken full responsibility to accomplish things on my own. I’ve crossed over the line.

In church, the pastor read the story of Jesus speaking to the waves. The words “Be quiet and still” totally caught my attention. Jesus was speaking them to me: “Luann, be quiet and still.” Yes, Jesus rules the universe. He speaks the words and it will be done. As I opened my heart to his sovereignty, I could sense his peace return. All I am trying to accomplish is his. I can do my part but it is all dependent on him. If these goals are his will, he will make them happen. He just has to say the word.

Caleb is a good example for us. Hold on to God’s promises. Do your part in the waiting. Don’t be afraid. Move forward in full confidence that God the Holy Spirit is there working along with you, alive in your soul. But at the same time, know that God is in control. Allow your soul to be set on fire by the love of God. Live sold out to doing all that you can to further the gospel. Be assured that Jesus is in sovereign control.

Lord, I need to be intentional, think and plan strategically, take my next steps and totally know that your Holy Spirit is at work and will lead the way. I can wait and rest in you. The outcomes are your responsibility. If it doesn’t go as planned, fine. That was your plan. You’re as much interested in how my soul is transformed in all of this, as you are in me accomplishing my goals. I can be passionate every day and be fully at rest, totally dependent and confident in you, Master.

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Watch and Learn

Spiritual formation is centered in loving God with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength and loving my neighbor as myself. As we are maturing in Christ, love for God and love for people should be increasingly developed in our hearts and more fully expressed in the ways we relate to people. Love is our message. (John 15-17)


A colleague, Janice Smith, responds to a need she hears with a desire to help. The rest of us offer to pray, but when she hears of a difficult life circumstance she asks, “Can we send a card, bring a meal, help financially?” Love lived. Passion every day. I want to be like her. I’m watching. Learning.

We can study Jesus to become like him. We can also study his followers to learn how to walk as Jesus walked.

Is there anyone you are watching?

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Soul Care

“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.” (2 Cor. 4:16)

Inner renewal is the secret to a life of service in tough circumstances. It’s the secret to not giving up.

The best way we can care for our souls is to be renewed inwardly in his love for us day by day. Every day, day after day.

Daily, for the rest of your life, be intentional to care for your soul by being attentive to God’s presence and aware of God’s love for you. That’s the very best way to nurture your soul.

Walking in the way of Jesus involves restoring our inner devotion. We will have sweet times of fellowship with the Lord when we retreat, but we shouldn’t expect that the intensity of devotion we experience on retreat will stay with us. And we shouldn’t keep looking back to earlier times when we experienced his nearness and just put up with living with a sense of being disconnected today. Thomas Kelly reflects: “But the light fades, the will weakens, humdrum returns. Can we stay this feeling? No, nor should we try…the Eternal Inward Light does not die when ecstasy (our feelings) dies, nor does it exist intermittently…Continuously renewed immediacy, not receding memory of the Divine Touch, lies at the base of religious living.”

The challenge is to learn in our daily practice how to be renewed. A good place to begin is by making a list of those activities that nurture your soul and then be intentional about incorporating them into your day.

“He restores my soul.” Psalm 23

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Spread My Love

“Spread your love everywhere you go.” Mother Teresa


“Love for the Lord overflows into passionate living—loving those around me.

Jesus opened himself to receive his Father’s love to the point that he was filled up to overflowing. As he met people who were hungry and thirsty, some physically, most spiritually, he loved them. His love overflowed and embraced everyone he met.

My call is to love as Jesus loved.

Why does this sound like news to me today? Mother Teresa put it well, “Spread your love everywhere you go.”

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