Watch Over Your Heart

WATCH OVER YOUR HEART
"Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life." (Proverbs 4:23)

I had an email from a pastor friend last weekend. He had just returned from a pastor's retreat focused on "soul care." He closed the email, after telling me how much he had enjoyed the retreat, by asking me "How is your soul?" I'm not sure anyone had ever asked me that question in just that way.

I thought I'd take the February Freedom Fighters to think about the question and about how we can take better care of our souls. Most men, I think, are too action-oriented, and we really don't like to do the interior work that "soul care" requires. If that's true, then most of us who read this need "soul care" more than we know!

The Wisdom Writer of Proverbs gives us a good admonition in Proverbs 4:23. "Watch over your heart," he says. That's just another way to say "take care of your soul." The metaphor speaks to the control center of our lives. It's that inner most part of us that determines the quality of our lives. All the issues of life flow from that center. The way those "issues of life" play out is the result of how we take care of our souls.

I read recently of an old African proverb that goes like this: "The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The second best time is now."
None of us can undo the lack of care our souls have received. We can make sure the lack of care doesn't continue. We can "watch over" our souls from today forward.

So, I ask you the question I was asked last weekend. "How is your soul?" Be honest with yourself. Get past the surface "feel good" stuff and determine your true spiritual health. All of us may need to consider what we're devoting ourselves to that hinders our soul care.
I'll finish with one of Jesus' most famous and probing questions. "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for h is soul?" (Matthew
16:26)

Pastor John Strain is Senior Pastor of First Baptist Toms River and is our weekend Freedom Fighter contributor.

Great Quote: God has a time for everything, a perfect schedule. He is never too soon, never too late. The when of His will is as important as the what and the how. Richard C. Halverson