Adventure is any pursuit you step into where you are not sure of the outcome. –Muhia Karianjahi (Kenyan leader)

In the event that the cabin loses air pressure, please put your oxygen mask on first and then after you have secured your own mask, help your child to put on their mask. – Flight attendant

SURRENDER YOUR SOUL FIRST TO JESUS SO YOU CAN CARE FOR OTHERS LONG TERM

Leaders especially are always thinking about how they can help other people. This is good, but not if you get out of balance. It seems like the right thing to care for the soul of someone else in need even at the expense of our own soul, but this is not the pattern we see in Scripture. You need to first tend to your own soul’s thirst for God. Then you can attend to the needs of others with much more grace.

IS YOUR SOUL CRAVING A DEEPER ADVENTURE WITH GOD? 

Let’s consider some of these passages that reflect on our soul’s deepest desire for adventure with God:

You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water. –Psalm 63:1

Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. –Psalm 63:3

On my bed I remember you; I think of you through the watches of the night. –Psalm 63:6

The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. –Psalm 23:1

Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. –Isaiah 55:1

Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and you will delight in the richest of fare. –Isaiah 55:2

As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. –Isaiah 55:10-11

You are my portion, O LORD… –Psalm 119:57

Turn my eyes away from worthless things; preserve my life according to your word. –Psalm 119:37

REFLECTIONS FOR LIFE AND MINISTRY

• According to these passages, what are some of your soul’s deepest desires?
• Isaiah 55:1 teaches us that our soul longs for relationship with God and a portion that fills us but has no cost. What are you filling yourself with that is in the end worthless? What has no cost but is most filling to you?
• How will caring for your own soul help you care for the souls of others with more grace?
• What implications do these passages about our soul’s desires have for your desire to lead others into meaningful encounters with Jesus?