With All Your Soul

With All Your Soul

O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you.

Psalm 63:1

IN WORD When the Bible refers to your soul, what does it mean? It isn’t simply the spiritual life, as modern culture has defined it. It involves everything about you: your personality, your will, your thoughts, your inner life. In the Law and the historical books of the Old Testament, the soul is almost always linked with the heart. In Job, it is almost always the place of bitterness. Anywhere in Scripture, it can be the site of grief, anguish, boasting, or great delight. “Soul” is the most comprehensive term for your life in the Bible, other than “life” itself.

So what does God mean when He tells us to worship Him with all our soul? It means that deep in the core of our being, where we can hardly discern between good and bad motives or right and wrong desires, that’s where God must reign. It means that there can be no corner of our true selves that God does not touch. It means being laid completely bare before Him and letting the integrity of our love for Him—not to mention His love for us—shine brighter than any rival. It means that we love Him like our life depends on it.

Why is that so hard to do? Because it has to be real. It’s all or nothing. No one loves God with all his or her soul at about a 90-percent success rate. The soul cannot be compartmentalized into one area of life that loves God while other areas are withheld. If we’ve pledged our souls to Him, we’ve pledged ourselves. We’re His. There’s nothing left to hold on to.

IN DEED The soul is hard to define, but God doesn’t really ask us to define it. He asks us to love Him with it. He tells us that our life is all about Him. That affects our commitments, our passions, our drives, our motives, our thoughts, our feelings, our will, and our ways. Our whole personality is to revolve around Him as the earth revolves around the sun. Our soul is the center of our lives, and He is to be the center of our soul. When we dive deep down inside, we should find Him there. That’s what it means to love Him with our soul.

Lord, You are my lover, my longing, my flowing stream, my sun, and I am Your reflection.

—MECHTILDE OF MAGDEBURG