Care of Your Soul and Bible Reading?

I think that it is quite eye-opening when you notice that something isn’t in the Bible when you really expected it to be there. So, consider caring for your soul. And then, ask yourself whether you are supposed to read your Bible to do a good job of that. What’s the right answer that we’ve all heard – and some of have passed on to others? Read your Bible – every day! However – and this can be quite surprising – I have yet to find a verse or theme or pattern in the Bible that calls for the saints to give themselves to Bible reading, daily or otherwise. If such a practice is a key to a healthy soul you'd expect to see it called for in Scripture – and that fairly clearly. But it's not there. 

Consider Psalm 119. This is a psalm that extols the glories of the Scriptures as God’s instruction for living. You'll find exhortations about keeping it, treasuring it, meditating on it and learning it. But you'll never find the call to 'read it' or anything like that. The Bible does not command the saints to read their Bibles.

If this is true, then how are we to care for our souls?

Consider the other end of the spectrum. What you do find lots of times and in lots of places? The call to prayer. There's the verse that teaches us to 'pray without ceasing'. Then, there’s Jesus' statement, 'when you pray…'. There are also examples of people who prayed. Besides the obvious example of Jesus, James refers to Elijah as a praying man and calls the saints to imitate him. And then, there are lots of examples of prayers. Most of the Psalms are prayers. And don’t forget the Lord's Prayer which is presented as a model for us to follow. It's pretty clear that the saints are to pray. 

This is why I said in an earlier post that one key discipline for a healthy soul is prayer.  

Now, an important question. Does this mean that we need not care about getting as much Bible into us as possible? Are we to forget about Bible intake? 

I hope that the answer is obvious. 'No!' It’s true that the Bible doesn't command believers to read it. But that’s not to say that Bible intake is unimportant. The issue here is not about the importance of getting as much Bible into your soul as possible. The issue is about how to go about doing that. 

There’s a theme from Scripture that deals with how the saints are to get more Bible. Here are some expressions of it.

Then [Moses] took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. And they said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.” Exodus 24:7

And afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessing and the curse, according to all that is written in the Book of the Law. There was not a word of all that Moses commanded that Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel, and the women, and the little ones, and the sojourners who lived among them. Joshua 8.34,35

So Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly, both men and women and all who could understand what they heard, on the first day of the seventh month. And he read from it facing the square before the Water Gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of the men and the women and those who could understand. And the ears of all the people were attentive to the Book of the Law. Nehemiah 8.2,3.

The Bible prescribes a way to get lots of Bible, and it is a way that has not been stressed nearly as much as personal Bible reading: weekly worship with the saints.

God knows that we need the Bible, lots of it. But instead of commanding that we read it on our own He calls the saints to assemble to hear the Word read and explained. The prescribed way of getting lots of Bible is not solo reading but weekly worship with the saints.

This explains why I wrote that the care of a soul includes these two Spiritual disciplines: daily prayer alone and weekly worship with the saints. I suspect that the notion that personal Bible reading is what really counts for a healthy soul comes from the cultural influence of American individualism. That's why we expect to find that practice commanded in the Bible. This is another indication that God views us as a group as well as individuals – and maybe more as a group than as individuals.

All of this says something about the role of a pastor as Bible teacher of his church and the structure of a worship service. It seems to me that a pastor should imitate Ezra, the scribe. 

For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the Lord, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel. Ezra 7.10

Study it, do it (put it into practice) and then teach it. Imitating Ezra in these things is indispensable if one is going to be a faithful pastor. And that makes sense when you realize that the primary way that the saints are to get lots of Bible is as they assemble on Sundays to have it read and explained to them by their pastor.

Then, consider what Paul wrote to Timothy as he pastored a church. 

Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. 1 Timothy 4.13

This says something about what happens during Sunday worship services. It seems that there should be a good bit of 'the public reading of Scripture'. My sense is that there is less and less of this these days. If that’s true, it would be a shame.

Taking Care of Your Soul

So, now that it's clear that you have a soul that needs to be cared for the next question is obvious. How do you do that? Well, that depends. Let's start with a situation where a person's soul is not doing well.

There are plenty of people who will offer their prescriptions without even knowing you. For them the treatment is always the same whatever the problem may be. But think about it. Does that makes any sense when it comes to caring for a sick body? Why should it make sense when it comes to taking care of an ailing soul? There are different treatments for unwell souls. It all depends on what the problem is.

Consider the prophet Elijah. After his contest with the prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel, he wasn't doing too well. (Take a look at 1 Kings 19 for this.)

But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he asked that he might die, saying, “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers.” 

Doesn't sound like Elijah is thriving. In fact, the word 'depressed' fits. ('…take away my life…'!?!) So, what was God's answer to this soul that was struggling?

And he lay down and slept under a broom tree. And behold, an angel touched him and said to him, “Arise and eat.” And he looked, and behold, there was at his head a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water. And he ate and drank and lay down again. 

Sometimes what you need to do is to take a nap and then eat something - and then go back to bed. 

But then, notice what happened after his second nap. Elijah faced God. 

What are you doing here, Elijah?

Elijah explained how he had been faithful, but it didn't seem to be enough. Life wasn't working out very well. Elijah only saw problems. So, God explained to him what was really going on. God helped Elijah to re-think the situation and his expectations. It was a dose of reality. Things were better than Elijah thought. God knew what He was doing.

There are times when what a soul needs is some time with God to see more clearly what's really going on instead of what seems to be going on.

So, what does this mean? Are we to go off to some cave to meet with God? Well, maybe - though it doesn't need to be in a cave. There may be times when what is needed is to pull back from life to spend a little extra time with God. 

I'm guessing that the response of lots of people to a suggestion like that goes something like, 'Impossible! I'm just too busy.' Back to the analogy of the body. If your doctor tells you that you really need some surgery and you can see his point, what do you do? You don't say, 'Impossible! I'm just too busy.' You have the surgery. It's inconvenient and life gets complicated as a result, but it's necessary. So, you do it. Is the care of an unhealthy soul any less important than the care of an unhealthy body? (Wait! Re-read that last sentence and make sure you get the point.)

What you really want, though, is to avoid falling into an unhealthy state. A soul needs to be cared for in an ongoing way so that it doesn't get to the point that Elijah's soul did. 

Part of the care of a soul is the care of the body. Here think about things like sleep, proper eating, some exercise and time away from all that clamors to get done (aka 'a sabbath'). 

On top of that, from my read of the Bible, the regular care of a soul includes the spiritual disciplines of daily prayer alone and weekly worship with the saints. Things happen when you give yourself to those habits, things like God doing your soul good. (I will probably come back to these two disciplines at some point in the future to explain what is going on with them.)

But there are times when, like Elijah, the need is for more than what might be called regular maintenance. So, what might be good is a time alone to sleep, to eat, to pray and sleep some more. Or time with a good friend whom you can trust so that you can talk through what's going on. There are, however, those times when a hurting soul needs more than what your average good friend knows how to give. That's a good time to sit down with your pastor. There was a time when pastors were known as 'physicians of the soul'. That's not as common today, sadly. I hope that your pastor qualifies so that there will be someone there for you when your soul needs some healing.

The goal of this post isn't to diagnose the needs of a soul and then prescribe the cure. It's to underscore the need to care for your soul and to suggest some possibilities. And that will work well enough for lots of folk. But if not, do find someone, like your pastor, who can help you work through what's troubling your soul.

'Be sure to take care of yourself!'

We've all be told to take care of ourselves. In any particular context that might have to do with a long trip that we're about to take, some new health issue or something else. So, we make sure that the car is ready to go, that we watch what we eat and take our medicines, or whatever it may be. We want to take care of ourselves. 

And yet, we only do part of what is necessary. We take care of our bodies but what about our souls? You do have a soul, you know. It isn't on automatic pilot so that it can take care of itself. In fact, God reminds us about this sort of thing.

Only take care, and keep your soul diligently … Deuteronomy 4.9

Taking care of your soul is something to be done diligently, says God. But what does that mean? 

How interesting. We all know about the importance of taking care of our bodies and enough of what that means: right eating, enough sleep, excercise and such. And we know that if we don't care for our bodies at some point they, or rather we, will not do so well. But isn't it at least as important to take care of our souls? I can't help but think that a soul that is not cared for will have far worse consequences than a body that isn't cared for.

Since I hope to come back to this - to answer how to questions - I want only to get this idea on the table. You need to take care of your soul. Failure here can be fatal. My goal isn't to move you to some resolution like the kind many opt for after over-indulging during the holidays. Such a resolution often doesn't last. And the reason is clear. It's not seen as important as other things. That's not usually a wise choice, but it is a common one. What's needed for any lasting resolution is the awareness of how important it is. 

Thus this question: How important is it to you that you care for your soul? 

The Care of the Soul

I was speaking at the local rescue mission recently. I used the situation where the paralytic was lowered through the roof by his friends and placed right before Jesus. I pointed out that while everyone expected Jesus to heal the man, the first thing out of Jesus’ mouth was about forgiveness. I told the folk that while the body is important, so is the soul. Jesus healed the man’s soul before He healed his body. I am concerned that there are many who do not see this priority. They do not see the importance of caring for their souls. Spending a couple of hours at church each week just isn’t enough. And just as a lack of care for the body will have consequences, so will a lack of care of the soul.