SOUL TALK SERIES # 1

This is a new series of blogs under the general title: SOUL TALK SERIES. As I launch this project into blogdom, I am reminded that I do not know what the word "blog" means. Looked it up in a big, thick dictionary and it ain't there. It is a clearly a third millennium word. Well, I guess I will learn about it on the way.

SOUL TALK SERIES # 1

Everybody does it! It seems inevitable and can be productive. We all talk to ourselves and the older we get the more prone we are to do it aloud. My mother-in-law , rest her soul, took audible soul talk to a new level, she argued with herself. I sometimes thought that if she was two people they would come to blows.

Whatever you think about it, it seems quite normal, so don't let someone convince you that because you engage in soul talk, you're going crazy (though there may be other signs that need attention)!

David, in the Psalms, engaged in soul talk. He was simply having a sensible, up-to-heaven (opposite of down-to-earth) talk with his soul when he said, "Soul, bless the Lord, praise His name, don't forget His multiple benefits: He forgives, heals, redeems, crowns you with love and compassion, satisfies your desires with good things and renews your strength like the eagle's. (Psalm 100)." All the while he is talking to his inner self, his soul.

Earlier in the Psalms David is heard, hauling his soul into counsel, demanding rather curtly, "Soul, why are you cast down; why are you so perturbed within me?" He asked the same thing three times in Psalm 42 and 43. It is evident here that he had heard a message from his soul he had no intention of taking lying down. So up he arose and sternly counseled his own soul, "Put your hope in God!" This outcry was a result of his realization in Palm 42:6 that "My soul is downcast within me."

We need to deal quickly and decisively with the case of the downcast soul. Don't put up with it, confront it and command it to face the truth that God and God alone is our hope.

Suggestions: Start right now listening to your soul and take nothing as final that is not good news or does not lead to good news. Demand an answer when discouragement, depression, disappointment or even disdain begin to infect and affect your attitude or disturb your inner peace.

Bottom line: If we are going to engage in soul talk, and we will inevitably, let's do it right. There is a key verse that will help us get started right, Luke 21:19. Though it is translated in varying ways, I love to translate it, "With stubborn endurance, get hold of yourself." I take that to mean, "Declare yourself in soul control" or "take full control of the inner you", all of this, of course, under the jurisdiction of he Spirit of God. Demand right answers, control the conversations and keep asking until you get a proper answer. The next time you use the familiar complaint, "Oh, my soul!", remember you have just addressed the seat of most of your problems, a soul out of control.' Make you soul subservient to His Spirit in you!

Until next time, happy soul talk!

Jack Taylor