Rhythms: Soul Care: How to Have a Healthy Soul

If you’ve ever wondered “what exactly is a person’s soul?” Then, you’re going to enjoy this series where CenterPoint Church will be going through Rhythms for a Healthy Soul. We’ll be using the Bible for a look at principles and practices of how to have the healthiest soul possible.

Many of us try to maintain our health in a variety of ways. We practice self care by eating right, exercising, and keeping up good emotional and mental states, too. This is all good. The Bible agrees. In 3 John it says, “ Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well.” -(3 John:1-2)

This verse ties our health to how our soul is getting along, too. This begs us to ask the question, “How is the health of your soul?”

The reality is that many of us are walking around with unhealthy souls! Perhaps you’re aware of this and know exactly what areas of your life need to be healthier. Or maybe, there are things going on in your life that you’re not even aware of are a result of the condition of your soul.

There is a relationship between the health of our soul and the overall quality of our lives. We want to slow down over these next few weeks and really zoom in on the ways that we can have a healthier soul. We believe that trusting God is the only antidote for an unhealthy soul.

So, how do  you know if you have an unhealthy soul? How do you get into rhythms for a healthier soul? Let’s first start by defining exactly what a soul is.

What is a Soul?

“Soul” is like one of those words that anybody could use in a sentence, but it’s hard to define, similar to the word, “love.”  We may have an idea of what a soul  means but we don’t all agree on an exact definition. 

For the purposes of having everyone across CenterPoint on the same page, we wanted to share a definition for the word, “soul.” We’ll be referencing this definition throughout this series, but hang in with us because it is a doozy! We are happy to share that we came together as a team to considerately think through and come up with this definition for a soul that we think is Biblically accurate.

So, what is a soul? Our soul is the eternal, non-material, largely unexplored part of who God made us to be that influences all the rest of us.

Let’s unpack this:

1. The Soul is Eternal – What we mean by that is, when God breathes a soul into us, it doesn’t have an expiration date. In Genesis 2:7 it says that God breathed life into Adam,  “Then the Lord God formed a man[c] from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.”
2. The Soul is Non-Material – You can’t touch, see or feel a soul with your hand. There’s no test to see if the soul is there. You can’t photograph a soul! The soul exists in a non-material sense.
3. The Soul is largely Unexplored – it may be  helpful to borrow terminology from psychology and how we have a conscious and a subconscious. Everyone can agree with the idea that we have a personality, that there’s something unseen behind everything else we do that’s the “true me.” It’s deep down, within us and we’re aware of it but we’re not aware of all of it, if we’re honest. Think of it like an iceberg. There’s the part that you see above the water that’s the iceberg but underneath that iceberg is a large part that you cannot see. Sometimes a particular thing we experience will elicit a reaction in us. The reaction is the top part of the iceberg. But that reaction does not just solely exist on the surface, it’s a result of all of the parts of us that are unseen. Our souls are largely unexplored parts of us that are underneath the water, like the iceberg.
4. Our Soul is made by God – We can have an assurance that the parts of us that are unseen are known by God because He is the one who made them.  In Ezekiel 18:4 (ESV) God makes clear his ownership of our souls when He says, “Behold, all souls are mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is mine…”
   This is a good thing to remember because, if what you have belongs to somebody else, it changes the way that you take care of it. For a lot of us we take better care of our cell phones than we do our own souls!  We have a responsibility for the largely unexplored part of who God made us to be. To use our soul in a way that brings honor to God instead of doing whatever we want with it.
5. Our Soul Influences all the Rest of Us –  Have you ever had an experience in your life where maybe you had a loss, suffered pain, or some kind of emotional wound and later realized that that event affected your thoughts and your emotional state? It may even have begun to impact your relationships or your job performance,  your hopes and your dreams in life are now shifted, or the way you think that the future is going to go has changed. Everything that was impacted by that experience is a result of something in the background “computer system” of your existence. Something has gone off the rails in an unseen part of who we are and that has now leaked through. The state of our souls have a domino effect on all other areas of our lives. 

The reality that, yes, you have a soul, an eternal non-material largely unexplored part of who God made you to be that heavily influences all the rest of you – that’s good news! It’s good news that you’re not just a machine that has a lifespan and that’s it. There is a part of us that continues beyond this life!

Is Your Soul Safe, and Sound?

The bad news is that our souls are wounded. We’ve all been disconnected from God, we’ve all been wounded by other people and at times, we’ve wounded our own soul. We may think we have the ability to take care of ourselves on our own. Some of us may just be content ignoring the pain that exists underneath the surface. 

This is where we look to God as our antidote for an unhealthy soul. He gave us his Son, Jesus to save our souls so that we can receive the assurance of an eternal existence alongside God. 

Even if you consider yourself a Christian and you’ve taken the first step of trusting God, your soul is safe for all eternity but it does not mean that your soul is healthy. We need to go through a process of restoration in order to have souls that are thriving, flourishing and so we could have the best possible life.

The Really Good News

The really good news today is that God cares about the health of your soul. He doesn’t just say, “All right so you’re saved by grace through faith now leave me alone!” He’s saying, we’ve got some work to do.

Jesus said, “What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?” (Mark 8:36-37) Our souls are the most valuable thing in the world! Be sure to follow through our series in order to learn rhythms that will tend to your soul, draw you closer to God and help to impact the rest of your life for the better.

Check out other messages in this series: