Treat Yo’ Self – 4 Practices of a Healthy Soul

3 John 2 // Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, as it goes well with your soul.

You’re only as healthy as your soul.

4 Practices of a Healthy Soul:

1.  Silence and Solitude
   • Matthew 3:17 // And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”
   • Jesus Is Tested in the Wilderness
   • Matthew 4:1-3 // Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 The tempter came to him…
   • Mark 1:35-38 // Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. Simon and his companions went to look for him, and when they found him, they exclaimed: “Everyone is looking for you!” Jesus replied, “Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.”
   • Luke 4:5:15-16 // Yet the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses. 16 But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.
   • Without solitude it is virtually impossible to live a spiritual life… We do not take the spiritual life seriously if we do not set aside time to be with God and listen to Him. - Henri Nouwen
   • POINT: If Jesus needed quiet time, we do too.
2. Sabbath
   • What ultimately satisfies us?
   • Infinite desire - finite soul = restlessness
   • Sabbath - Shabbat: to stop
   • Mark 2:27 // Then he said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.
   • “People who keep sabbath live all seven days differently.” - Walter Brueggermann
   • Genesis 2:1-3 // Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.
   • POINT: If God chose rest, we should too.
3. Simplicity
   • What do you really need?
   • “Simplicity is an inward reality that can be seen in an outward lifestyle of choosing to leverage time, money, talents, and possessions toward what matters most.” - Richard Foster and Mark Scandrette
   • The goal of simplicity isn’t to declutter your stuff, but to declutter your life.
   • Philippians 4:11-13 // I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength.
4. Slowing
   • “Slowing is cultivating patience by deliberately choosing to place ourselves in positions where we simply have to wait.” - John Ortberg
   • Proverbs 4:23 // Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.