Biblical Soul Care
March 2024 is Spiritual Wellness Month. Trinity’s Men of VALOR Becoming Ministry has provided the following topic for the monthly theme: “The Importance of Proper Soul Care” from 1 Timothy 4:7b. In this passage, the apostle Paul directed Timothy to prioritize soul care through spiritual exercise that is beneficial in this life and the next life. This truth is adjacent to the reality that physical exercise only benefits us in this life (1 Tim. 4:8a). Some forms of soul care are not biblically based and might contradict biblical principles regarding soul care. However, Paul’s wisdom for Timothy is essential for building a biblical foundation for soul care.
In an online article by Just Disciple, McKenna opined that biblical soul care helps believers reflect God’s image and His inherent attributes. When we become good stewards and care for all God has given us, we prioritize soul care and use biblical principles and spiritual disciplines to cultivate our souls. McKenna offered the following comprehensive assertion about soul care:
Soul care is the daily process of cultivating healthy thought patterns and taking inventory of emotions so that you can live freely before God and healthily form meaningful relationships with others. If your soul is not healthy, your mental and emotional health and relationships will suffer. Biblical soul care practically allows you to practice a healthy holistic lifestyle before God while caring for yourself and others.
We can derive several points from McKenna’s assertions about soul care:
Soul care is not an event. It is a process that requires surrendering to God’s purpose and plan for soul care.
Soul care requires personal responsibility for having and maintaining healthy thoughts and emotional regulation through divine assistance.
Soul care can help people develop the right relationship with God, resulting in purposeful and productive relationships with others.
Soul care affects a person mentally, socially, and spiritually.
Soul care helps believers focus on a Christ-centered life instead of living through compartmentalization that does not prioritize connecting with God in all areas of one’s life.
In an online article from GotQuestions.com, the author stated the following about soul care:
The soul is the immaterial part of a human being that can respond to other people. In Greek, the word for “soul” is psyche, from which we get the word psychology. The soul involves the mind and emotions. It gives us the capacity to relate to others and to form bonds. It is our souls that respond to beauty and high ideals. People with healthy souls can form meaningful relationships, and people with unhealthy souls find it more difficult. Soul care is the attention to healing a wounded soul or maintaining a healthy one. In a Christian context, soul care is often linked to finding help to overcome temptations, fight addictions, and have peace with God.
God, our heavenly Father wants each of His children to have a healthy soul (3 John 1:2) that is at peace with Him (Rom. 5:1). Without proper nurture and nourishment, one’s soul may suffer from a lack of spiritual nurturing and nourishment that prevents the soul from experiencing spiritual deficiency that contributes to spiritual malnutrition and immaturity. My roles and responsibilities as a husband, father, grandfather, pastor-teacher, counselor, instructor, and community leader dictate that I engage in soul care to prevent spiritual deficiency that contributes to spiritual malnutrition and immaturity.
Even though the Bible never mentions the words “soul care,” believers should embrace soul care and its benefits. In Conformed to His Image, Kenneth Boa rightly pointed out that an essential aspect of embracing soul care is having a spiritual director who helps a believer focus on the “cultivation of prayer, discernment, and practical implementation of spiritual truths.” We need spiritual directors to guide us through the soul care process because, as Boa also stated, “We are too close to ourselves to see things as they are and at times our self-deception and insensitivity makes us vulnerable to becoming ‘hardened by the deceitfulness of sin (Heb. 3:13).’” It is possible to develop and mature through the soul care process without a spiritual director. However, when a believer omits a spiritual director, they limit their potential for growth and development because they have refused to include wisdom, experience, spiritual insight, and personal assistance that can reside in a spiritual director. We need to thank God for the spiritual directors who have helped us prioritize and correctly navigate the nuances of biblically based soul care through the years.
During Spiritual Wellness 2024, I will share five sermons to help us care for our souls through spiritual disciplines. Five weeks will not suffice for highlighting all spiritual disciplines. Thus, by using the repeated word pattern “Care for Your Soul Through…,” I will challenge believers to care for their souls through spiritual exercise (1 Tim. 4:7-8), God’s Word (Ezra 7:10), meditation (Josh. 1:8), prayer (2 Kings 20:1-7), and worship (Gen. 22:5). I am excited about the opportunity to encourage, educate, enlighten, and empower everyone who hears the sermon series. I hope more people will surrender to God’s divine plan for soul care and respond by strategically incorporating it into their daily lives. I pray and trust God will bless more people to focus on soul care that benefits them in their earthly life and eternal life (1 Tim. 4:7-8).