Cultivating the Soul
When I was in my undergraduate studies, I took an exegetical studies course as a part of my curriculum. All of us students walked in ready to show how much we knew about scripture. The professor quickly took that pride from us. He stated, “Today everything you know about scripture that you’ve learned from everybody else, throw it out the window. Today you are learning it for yourself.” If eyes widening had a sound, it would have certainly been heard! I may have panicked for a hot minute, but I am beyond grateful for that course that taught me cultivating the soul was not merely the pastor’s responsibility. It is also mine.
Who’s Responsilbe for Soul Cultivation?
While it is the responsibility of the pastor to cultivate souls through presenting God’s truths, providing opportunities of growth, and guiding us as we grow, he or she cannot do this work for us. We are the only ones who can do as the Psalmist states, “How can a young person stay on the path of purity? By living according to your word. I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands. I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you” (Psalm 119:9-11, NIV). Pastors cannot hide God’s word in our hearts for us. They cannot live our lives according to God’s word for us. We are responsible to do that work.
Learning God’s word, hiding it in our hearts, and living God’s word is our duty as followers of Christ. Jesus declares, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God’” (Matthew 4:4, NIV). Additionally, Jesus states, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it” (Luke 11:28). We cultivate our souls and are able to counter false teachings, lies, and/or spiritual bypass or abuse by studying, and living God’s word, which is our work to do.
Hinderances to Cultivating the Soul
Larry Crabb (2005) observes, “Most of us live for years determined not to look too closely into our soul.” Whether it for fear of what we may find or what we may have to do with what we find, we stunt our growth when we do not search our souls or submit to God to do so. Psalm 139: 23-24 (NIV) states, “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.” The Passion Translation states Psalm 139:23 this way, “God, I invite your searching gaze into my heart. Examine me through and through.” That made my eye twitch. How often do I ask God to “gaze into my heart”? I am more likely to ask him to gaze at it and only “this” part. However, when I keep the deepest parts of myself hidden from God, I cannot experience the cultivation of my soul. In turn, I am unable to experience the fullness of transforming soul cultivation.
Other elements can also hinder us from cultivating our souls. For instance, unforgiveness, anger, bitterness, and resentment will impede us from experiencing the cultivation of our souls. Our soul wounds are deep and are deserving of healing. However, our ways and things of this world will not satisfy those wounds. Only the Father can love us as we were meant to be loved (Crabb, 2005). Only Jesus can transform our hearts. Only the Spirit can flood our souls with eternal happiness, peace and love. When we submit our needs, our souls, to God and he becomes the primary longing in our life, and we choose to let go of our pain for him to heal, then we experience a transformative cultivation of the soul.
How to Cultivate the Soul
1) Honesty
To cultivate the soul, we must first be honest with ourselves. Are we hurt, bitter, or resentful of someone? Are we willing to let go of that pain? When we are honest with ourselves about our soul wounds, we create space for the next step: honesty with God.
Psalm 18:6 states, “In my distress I called upon the Lord; to my God I cried for help. From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry to him reached his ears.” When we are honest with ourselves, we can be honest with God allowing ourselves to experience the healing of our soul wounds, our pain, our souls being cultivated.
2) Toil the Soil
Soul work is hard work. It equires toiling the soil of our souls for everlasting change. This work is done through studying God’s word, prayer, serving, and other ways the Spirit may lead us. However, this is not an overnight experience.
Second Corithians 3:18 observes, “And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” (emphasis mine). We are being transformed; it is an active event that we will experience for as long as we are on this earth. To keep the transforming happening, we toil the soil of our souls through acts that draw us near to God so that he may draw near to us (James 4:8)
3) Daily Submission
If we want something different, we must do something different. James 4:7 reminds us, “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” Soul work requires daily submission to God as we read his word and spend time with him in prayer to search our hearts. When we do this, we are able to hide his word in our hearts and resist all that comes our way tempting us deny God and his character.
As we all well know, there will be busy days, hard days, sick days, and more that will hinder us from time with God. God is not going to remove his hand from us because of these moments. However, we need to be as diligent as we can to submitting to God so that we do not miss moments of soul cultvation.
Final Thoughts
On this earth, we will be distracted by the whims of the world. Therefore, we must diligent in working to cultivate our souls. When we practice honesty with ourselves and God, toiling the soil of our souls, and daily submitting ourselves to God, we experience the renewal of our souls and the freedom Christ has called us to (2 Cor. 3:17.