Date: December 24, 2014 11:42 PM
Topic: +DEV+ Pt 8. Soul Care: Soul Care Takes Time
Pt 8 Soul Care:
SOUL CARE TAKES TIME
. . . ."Regularity is a law of spirituality," writes DeVern Fromke. In fact, regularity is a law for all growing, healthy life forms. Eating regularly, exercising regularly, and sleeping regularly are necessary for maximum physical health. A child cannot make himself grow even one inch. But if he accepts his parents' will that he eat and exercise properly, he will reach his growth potential.
We cannot maintain spiritual health by occasional and irregular exercises for the soul. That takes time, of course, that four-letter word tied to discipline of any type. It is a word that we rarely want to hear, but it is not optional.
Yes, soul care takes time - quality time. I can hear you screaming, "I don't have enough time as it is, and you are asking for more?" Sorry, but that is the way it is.
It takes time to do anything, especially anything worthwhile - to take care of your car, to take care of your home, to take care of your body. If you are not prepared to take time, soul care will never happen. Think of it like this: Once you give your life to Christ, you are really giving your time to him. Life is time, but you can choose whether it will be productive time.
Making a reasonable assumption that God granted you life for sixty-seven years, how would you spend it? An average person spends it like this:
Three years getting an education
Eight years recreating and relaxing
Six years eating
Five years riding in a car
Four years talking
Fourteen years working
Three years reading
Twenty-four years sleeping
How much time do you give God? If you went to church weekly and prayed for five minutes every morning and evening, you would be giving only five months to God - five months out of sixty-seven years.
"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is Sabbath of the Lord your God. . ." (Exodus 20:8-10). It is significant that in a document as important as the Ten Commandments, God referred to a division of time. This basic guideline is that six days be spent for the physical and material elements of life and one day be devoted to the spiritual realm.
Because God knows he placed us in a physical world with a physical body needing care, he allotted a considerable amount of time for this. But he knew how easy it would be for us to be taken up with these physical demands, so he commanded us to set aside time for the spiritual self: one-seventh, in fact.
Let's think of this, not as a rule, but as a principle God gives for your total welfare, to help you take care of all of you. Following this principle, you would give God and spiritual matters the equivalent of one day a week. The average person sleeps eight hours a day. This leaves sixteen hours a week devoted to God and spiritual matters, sixteen hours a week for the well-being of your inner man - your soul.
The exercises I will suggest for soul care could easily be done in this time. Here is a suggested division:
Exercise one - seven hours a week (one hour a day) for God alone.
Exercise two - five hours a week for church (three for the corporate church
service, two for the small group)
Exercise three - three to four hours a week for ministry to others.
Scripture, observation, and experience convince me that if we all practiced this time division, our soul health would increase significantly . . . .
~~~
From the book:
'Soul Care'
By Peter Lord
Please feel free to use this devotional to send on to your friends or share with your church fellowship and Bible study groups.
We are in urgent need of Prayer and financial partners,
If you would like to become a prayer partner and or a financial partner with monthly or one time gifts.
A freewill offering to Restoration Ministry may be made via PayPal at our web site: http://www.rollanet.org/~restore/donations.htm
No comments:
Post a Comment