What am I feeding my soul? That is a question I found myself pondering, as I read the story of a missionary who was captured by guerillas. His captors covered his head and placed him in a stone box. They tied his hands to his belt and his feet about a foot off the ground to a tree. There he lay for hours and hours. As he lay there, he quoted memorized scripture. He sang hymns. He tried to show love to his captors, instead of hate.
And I found myself feeling ashamed. Would I even know enough memorized scripture word-for-word to make it effective if I was without my Bible? Probably not. Sure, I know the general message of a lot of verses and can quote a few of those verses by heart. And I certainly know where lots of things are found in scripture. But to quote an entire passage? I have never worked that hard at memorizing scripture.
He sang hymns. Maybe now, for you, it would be worship songs. Again, we know the songs. But do we listen to them enough to sing them without the aid of a worship leader or a band? If Sunday morning is the only time we hear them, then the answer to that is probably not.
Would I be able to love my enemies instead of curse them? If I am filling my head with movies and books and music and video games that promote revenge and the very common theme of “getting even”, then I would probably struggle with this immensely.
You see, I think many of us spend so many hours of our days listening to secular music and watching the news or talk shows, that it ends up being way out of proportion to the beneficial things we fill our minds with. I believe we are so attached to our cell phones, our ipods, our tablets, and our laptops, that the time we dedicate to them becomes time wasted, instead of a good use of time.
I am not, by any stretch of the imagination, saying that secular music, the news, or our gadgets are evil. They are not. They can be great blessings. My question would be what kind of priority do they have in our lives? On what do we spend spend most of the precious hours we have been given? With what are we filling our minds that will help us to understand God’s Word better and grow us in the grace and knowledge of our Lord?
Are we saturating our souls with the things that will stymie, or even hinder, our spiritual growth? Or do we spend our time filling it with things that will augment and strengthen our walk with God? That is a good question for all of us to ponder.
2 Peter 3:17-18 17 You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked; 18 but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.
Joshua 1:8 This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.