"As It Is Well With Your Soul"

Over the past few weeks I've been listening to a series of sermon podcasts from Pastor Judah Smith and The City Church in Seattle Washington. The reoccurring theme of these podcasts has been the state and well being of your soul.

The scripture verse that is used for reference throughout all of the messages is 3 John 1:2. It reads, " Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, as it goes well with your soul."

John is saying that I hope that your circumstances are well and that you are in good heath just as your soul is in good health. What does a healthy soul look like? How does one attain it? How do we have a consistently healthy soul? All questions that are answered by this series of messages that you can listen to by clicking here.

The one that I most recently listened to as of the publication of this blog is about having a quiet soul.

Pastor Judah then referenced Psalm 131 which reads:

" LORD, my heart is not proud;
my eyes are not haughty.
I don’t concern myself with matters too great
or too awesome for me to grasp.
 Instead, I have calmed and quieted myself,
like a weaned child who no longer cries for its mother’s milk.
Yes, like a weaned child is my soul within me.

O Israel, put your hope in the LORD—
now and always."

He then went on to say that in today's culture is loud and travels at an extreme velocity. In today's world of instant updates from Facebook about world wide calamities, tweets from people throwing information at us about everything THEY think we should care about, and the ever famous Instagram selfie about the food you are eating, the besties you are with or how much you heart various things, is it possible to have a quiet soul?

I just want to give you some of the key points Pastor Judah brought out during this message and let you in to how much I was affected by this incredible message.

"If you want a quiet soul you have to accept that you are not in control but God is."

"Reckless ambition can be one of the greatest enemies of a quiet soul."

Now this one hit me. Blindsided me, sucker punched me even. I thought God wanted to me to have ambitions and to have goals and to strive to make it in this world. He does but you have to relinquish control. "We can make our plans, but the LORD determines our steps." (Proverbs 16:9)

"Do not try to be God. You can make your plans but yield control to God."

I believe that we are to work hard in our jobs and to do everything as we are doing it for the Lord.(Colossians 3:23). But is it Gods will for us to stay up into all hours of the night every night or most nights to do work?

I firmly believe that one of the best things we can do to quiet our soul is get some sleep. Your career is not as important as a quiet and healthy soul.

"WHEN YOU ARE HEALTHY ON THE INSIDE YOU EVENTUALLY IT STARTS TO COME OUT OF YOU AND HELPS YOU TO OVERCOME ADVERSITY ON THE OUTSIDE."

Did you get what he said? If you are healthy on the inside then you will become healthy on the outside. It is imperative for us as humans to be healthy on the inside because our outside depends on in.

When God looks at you and wants to help you, His first concern is always the inside.

In Psalm 131 and verse 2 David says
"I don’t concern myself with matters too great
or too awesome for me to grasp."

David is basically saying, ya know what? I know that I don't know everything in the world there is to know and I don't need to.

David was ok the face that he didn't have to have all the answers. He wasn't afraid to say I DON'T KNOW.

I believe many people are scare to say I don't know when asked a question because it shows "weakness" and we were taught that weakness is unacceptable.

But I would submit to you that its ok to say I don't know. It's ok to not have all the answers.

" In you life create a "GOD" category where you can place things that you don't know and don't want to trouble yourself with."

"Should we give ourselves to to things that are beyond our capacity to know?"

"By the grace of God intake is optional. You can set limits to what you want to take in."

In other words level your soul. Create boundaries so that your soul does not become overwhelmed and unhealthy.

"Do I live from who I really am or do I live from how other people perceive me or how I really wan't to be seen?"

With social media today it is so easy to be able to put forth the best parts of you for the world to see and to hide the parts you don't want others to see. We create this false image of who we are and we try to live according to this false image claiming, "this is the real me", when in reality there is so much more that people don't see.

"By the grace of God you can live from who you really are instead of who people see you to be." This is especially important when it comes to leveling yourself which is crucial factor for a quiet soul which is a crucial factor for a healthy soul.

"Worship is a great way to level yourself."

It points out our flaws and it praises Gods perfection. It makes us aware of how inadequate we are and how graceful, merciful, forgiving, and loving God is.

"If you want a calm quiet soul understand that you didn't earn Gods love, therefore you can't lose it.

And when you realize that you become content with who God is and you just want more of Him.

Which is precisely what our faith is about, living with and enjoying God. Just being with Him and enjoying Him. 

A quiet soul is part of having a healthy soul which is part of having a healthy God honoring life.

There is so much more  in this message that I didn't touch on and I really hope you will listen to this message and really allow yourself to cultivate a quiet and healthy soul. Download it by clicking here.

Talk Soon,
-Ian