Yes, IF you call out for insight
and raise your voice for understanding,
IF you seek it like silver
and search for it as for hidden treasures,
THEN you will understand the fear of the LORD
and find the knowledge of God.
Proverbs 2:3-5
If is on me.
Then is on God.
I went through a horrible time recently. I had no idea what was wrong with me and I couldn’t make myself better. I was doing everything I had done before, but I was spiritually sick and didn’t even realize it.
Have you ever been physically sick and you didn’t realize how bad you felt until you got better? It’s like you slowly got used to how you felt and it got weirdly normal. When you finally got an antibiotic, you couldn’t believe the difference.
Did the doctor’s office call and say, “We had a feeling you weren’t ok so we thought we would call and check on you.” That has probably never happened in the history of the world.
IF you go to the doctor, THEN you will find both the problem and the solution.
“God is called the Great Physician for a reason.”
Our spiritual problems are exactly the same. God is called the Great Physician for a reason. We get sick. I’m not talking about physical sickness. I’m talking about real sickness… sickness of our souls. Our bodies are only the tents we live in. They are not us. They will die. It’s a hundred percent sure. Some people will die early in life, some will die late in life. But never doubt, it’s coming.
Not so with our soul. It will never die. We are in a constant state of either wellness or sickness while we are living on planet Earth. No one stays perfectly spiritually healthy at all times.
If we had cancer and knew for certain there was a way to get a cure, what lengths would we go to? We would forget everything else and go after that cure with every fiber of our being. Life or death would be at stake. No one would blame us.
“I don’t think our spiritual health and physical health are even in the same universe of importance when it comes to God.”
I don’t think our spiritual health and physical health are even in the same universe of importance when it comes to God. He values our spiritual health a million times more than the tent we live in.
Not with humans. We value this tent more than any other thing. Why do we leave Bibles unopened our entire lives but will spend every bit of energy, time and money trying to stay alive? Why do we spend precious time and energy on wrinkles, flabby arms, and the next miraculous diet? And when we find out we have a terminal illness, everything in us goes on all cylinders to protect ourselves and get a cure.
We invest in what we value. Period.
“We should value the gift of our bodies, but we should be fanatics about the health of our souls.”
We should value the gift of our bodies, but we should be fanatics about the health of our souls. God is invisible and so are we. We live in bodies, but what makes us who we are is our soul. No one can see that part of us. Our eyes are windows to our souls, but our souls are very deep and hidden… even to us.
Only God can give us an MRI of the soul. Only the Great Physician can diagnose soul sickness. He knows the cause and He knows the cure. We don’t… ever. It has to be revealed.
Yes, IF you call out for insight
and raise your voice for understanding,
IF you seek it like silver
and search for it as for hidden treasures,
THEN you will understand the fear of the LORD
and find the knowledge of God.
Proverbs 2:3-5
Soul sickness is meant to make us desperate. It is meant to drive us to our prayer closets (or wherever we can get alone) and literally lay ourselves out before God and beg Him to open our mind to what is happening inside our souls.
- Call out
- Raise your voice
- Seek it like silver
- Search as for hidden treasures
“IF we will get zeroed in and focused on finding the truth, THEN we will understand and find out what God already knows.”
Do we see the desperation? IF we will get zeroed in and focused on finding the truth, THEN we will understand and find out what God already knows. Every other thing has to take a back seat. We have to search for understanding and knowledge like we are going after a cure for cancer. I think I could handle cancer of my body and death. Cancer can only take my life, it can’t take what really matters… the health of my soul. When my soul is sick, I can’t enjoy anything. I am in no way making light of cancer. I am just using one of the worst things a person can go through to make a point.
God is getting our souls prepared for heaven. They never die and they should progressively get more glorious while the outside gets less glorious. It’s God’s way.
So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.
2 Corinthians 4:16
What makes our souls sick? I’m not sure I can answer that question for everyone else. But I can answer for me. I had to find out I was sick. Get desperate. Cry out.
God gloriously answered me. I’m not going to divulge details because it’s nunya. Nunya business.
“To lift up my soul to anything other than God is immediate sickness.”
The only thing I will say is that I lifted up my soul to an idol. It doesn’t matter what that idol was. To lift up my soul to anything other than God is immediate sickness. It may start small, but it is a soul cancer and barely detectable. Just like cancer left untreated, it grew until I found myself debilitated… praise my God.
Through my cry, God gave me His diagnosis. My soul is His and belongs to no other. If I get consumed by anything other than God, I will be destroyed and so will you.
Who may ascend the mountain of the LORD? Who may stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear deceitfully.
Psalm 24:3-4
I want to ascend the hill of the Lord. Oh, how I long to stand in His holy place. Like Moses, I long to be called humble before God. How did Moses become humble? He ascended the hill of the Lord and he stood in His Presence. He lifted up his soul to his God and no one else. God longs for all of us to live there.
What do we do when we find out our soul is sick? We go to the Good Shepherd.
He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
Psalm 23:2-3
The Greek definition for “restores” means “to turn back; return.”
“When I turn to God in desperation, my soul turns back to Him and He restores it. He makes my soul healthy again.”
When I turn to God in desperation, my soul turns back to Him and He restores it. He makes my soul healthy again. Just as our body takes time to heal, so does our soul. Be kind to yourself as the Great Physician makes you lie down. He knows we are tired and weary. Let Him love you and heal you. Let Him help you to love yourself.
IF we turn back, THEN our healing will come.
I found this C.S. Lewis quote and I am obsessed with it. I will end with his words.
“There is someone I love, even though I don’t approve of what he does. There is someone I accept, though some of his thoughts and actions revolt me. There is someone I forgive, though he hurts the people I love the most. That person… is me.”
