Soul Food


GodReflection:Is It Well with My Soul?

“I heard Your voice from on high. “I am the food of the fully grown. Grow and you will feed on me. And you will not change Me into you, like the food of flesh eats. But you will be changed into Me.”  – Augustine of Hippo, Confessions

gary-portraitOld Augustine caught my attention on this one. Is it possible a time will come when I am fully grown to the stature of God’s complete expectation for me? Is it possible to feed so thoroughly on the Holy that all my inner most being—my soul—becomes totally saturated and transformed into holy? This early disciple of Father, Son and Spirit had a great insight.

What sort of soul food would it require for such transformation to happen? Here is my best shot at what I think I’ve found thus far during my walk through the second half of the twentieth century and on into the first two decades of the twenty-first.  In an attempt to identify food for my soul I’ve found four tags to be helpful.

food2The first is Soul Showers. As a resident of the state of Texas it is not difficult to conjure up an image of a hot day with sun so intense that I swelter under unbearable heat. Outside is not a desired destination.

There are all too rare days when atmospheric conditions are just right for showers that result in a refreshing twenty-degree drop in the temperature.

I see rain showers as an analogy for God’s Holy Scripture. For it is in a consistent walk with God’s story that I find showers to refresh my soul. Unlike Texas rain Soul Showers are available from God’s book. I only have to open its pages as I open my heart.

food4Among the gems of King Solomon’s proverbs is this one: Gracious words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones (Proverbs 16:24). Within my Bible are countless precious stones inscribed with gracious words direct from the heart of Holy God. Those inscriptions leap from God’s jewelry box as primary nourishment for my soul. They come as refreshing Soul Showers.

In addition to Soul Showers I must feed my soul through efforts to Soul Walk. To learn to Soul Walk is a process. Jesus calls us like he did Simon Peter to step out of the boat onto the rough water. To keep our eyes on him is to keep our soul from the plunge into the dark deep that snuffs out God’s light.

food6It is in this act when I step into the heart and trust of Jesus that he can minister through me to others. In ways I fail to understand—as my soul walks into the waves of others to reflect a bit of Jesus’ peace something happens to me. My soul is nourished because I attempted to nourish.

To submit my heart to Jesus and let him minister to others through my daily walk feeds my soul. To Soul Walk the Jesus path is to find food for my soul.

I still have two major soul food sources to share and I see that I’ve let my word count get out of control. So it looks as if Soul Food just morphed into two posts.

See you next time. By the way, I’ve received great input from readers as to where others have discovered soul food. Some of which will be reflected in the next post. I would love to hear from you. It will enrich this series.

Stay tuned.

Dr. Gary J. Sorrells

A GodReflection: Soul Food

Gary@Godreflection.org  www.GodReflection.org

www.MakeYourVisionGoViral.com

One thought on “Soul Food

  1. I recently read Ted Dekker’s The Forgotten Way and was touched by all of the meditations. They helped me to reach deeper into my soul to do more transformational work in me. The thesis comes from 1 Corinthians 13…We seek to know a love that holds no record of wrongs. Thank you for this series Gary. May it bless all who read it.

    Like

Leave a reply to Denise McEwen Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.