In the seventeenth century a group of young English Christians (which included John and Charles Wesley and George Whitefield) regularly met together to encourage each other in the faith. Critics called them the “Holy Club.” Every meeting would start out with John Wesley asking the question “how is it with your soul?” I want to ask each of you: HOW IS IT WITH YOUR SOUL? It isn’t hard to answer the question.
In the 17th century a young theologian/pastor named Henry Scougal (1650-1678) wrote a letter to a friend in need as an encouragement and to help him progress in his spiritual life. It was called The Life of God in the Soul of Man. After this precious young man tragically died of tuberculosis at the age of 27, his work was later published as a book for a wider readership. I have read this book five times. One statement that Scougal makes changed the whole way I looked at my soul. He said , "The worth and excellency of a soul is to be measured by the object of its love."
When Scougal wrote this, he meant in other words, that if we love cheap and worthless things, we reveal how small and cheap our soul is. If we love precious things, we reveal how large and valuable our soul is. John Piper writes,
"The soul is measured by its flights some low and others high, but the heart is known by its delights, and it's pleasures never lie."
What are your delights? What are your pleasures? "The worth and excellence of a soul is measured by the object of its love." God has created us and redeemed us to have great, large, excellent, and beautiful souls. Romans 8:29 says, “For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son”. John 17:26, “That the love the Father has for Jesus would be in you and that He would be in you." So God’s heart for a beautiful soul is a soul full of divine love for Jesus, a soul that is like Jesus, and a soul indwelt with the Spirit of Jesus. God is the most worthy and most excellent of beings. So, a soul that is worthy and excellent is a soul that directed towards the most worthy and excellent being in the universe: the living God!
What does a worthy and most excellent soul look like? It is a soul that is directed towards God, that sees, knows, and understands God. A soul that is satisfied with God alone. A soul that ENJOYS God above all things and longs to spread that joy and share that joy with others. Finally, a soul that longs for God to be magnified in every aspect of our life.
How does one get a soul like that? It is rooted in the belief that only God can change a soul. Therefore the secret of the development of a worthy soul is listening to God in the Word and praying the Word to God or as B.B. Warfield put it, “reading the word on one’s knees”! The Psalmist exhorts us “delight in the word of the Lord . . . day and night" (Psalm 1:2). Paul exhorts us in 1 Thessalonians 5:17, “Pray without ceasing…”
The key to the care of our souls is to DELIGHT IN THE WORD CONTINUALLY AND TO PRAY CONTINUALLY - that is, to lean on God all the time. Never give up looking to him for help, and come to him repeatedly during the day and often.
Oh dear Christian, read the word and pray the word, pray the word and read the word and strive to have a worthy and most excellent of soul.
Going hard for the worth and excellence of my soul by desiring the worthy and most excellent one,
Pastor Bill
1 comment:
OK Bill, I'm back online!
Read the blog - good stuff.
It is well w/ my soul because the object of my souls affections is very often God, the problem is not often enough, hence the need of repeated & ongoing repentance. I praise God that He still gives it!
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