3 Soul Essentials for Cultivating a Faith-Filled Life By Celia Miller
I run my hands through the fresh soil, my gardening gloves feeling slightly rough against my skin.
But even through their thick material, I can tell that the soil is damp and ready to receive new growth. It’s near the end of May, and my dream of a little backyard herb garden is finally coming to fruition. After weeks of researching the hardiest herbs to withstand a hot southern Indiana summer, I gaze in adoration at my rosemary, thyme, oregano, cilantro, and French tarragon.
Their aromas waft toward me as I brush the hair out of my eyes with the back of my garden-gloved, dirt-covered hand and look back down at the soil. In all the research that I conducted on herbs, one thing rang true for them all. Herbs need a certain type of soil to grow strong. Potting soil is the best for herbs because it’s light, fluffy, and nutrient-dense, allowing water to sink down deep into their roots.
The herbs will suffocate and die if the roots can’t expand and dig deeper. And good soil, absorbent and rich with nutrients, is essential for cultivating a healthy environment for herbs to flourish and thrive. I reach for the first herb to plop into my little herb box, soil laid and ready to receive fresh roots. As I push the soil down, making room for rosemary, I ponder how similar our souls are to a garden. Just as my herb garden needs the correct type of soil, nutrients, and tending to flourish, our souls need certain things to cultivate a healthy, faith-filled life. Because the quality of our lives flows right out of the state of our souls, look at the soul and you know what kind of life you’re living. 3 Soul Essentials for Cultivating a Faith-Filled Life For herbs, the basic essentials for healthy growing include rich soil, ample sunlight, and adequate water. So, let’s take a look at our own souls and name the three essentials it needs to help us cultivate a healthy, faith-filled life.
1.Rich Soil:
A Firm Foundation Herbs can’t grow without the correct type of soil, just like we can’t grow without a firm foundation beneath our feet. Our souls need a place to call home, a place where it can rest, feel safe, and be refreshed. Our soul has roots, just like herbs do. And what we root our souls into greatly determines the quality of our lives.
Colossians 2:6-7 gives us a clear answer that the foundation for our souls isn’t necessarily a “what” but a “Who”.
“And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow Him. Let your roots grow down into Him, and let your lives be built on Him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.” (NLT)
Christ is the soil our souls need, providing rich, dense nutrients to thrive and live an abundant life. Being rooted in a relationship with Jesus and in His holy hands is the only firm foundation we can find our true selves in.
2. Ample Sunlight:
A Consistent Prayer Life While a firm foundation in Christ acts as the good soil for souls, a consistent prayer life brings light to our souls and to our lives. Herbs need ample sunlight to grow, and we need the light of constant communication with our Creator to grow our faith roots.
Jesus desires to walk in relationship with us, and a huge part of our relationship with Jesus is engaging in prayer. Jesus Himself modelled this behaviour in the New Testament and was constantly seen taking time away to be and talk with His Heavenly Father.
“But Jesus often withdrew to the wilderness for prayer.” (Luke 5:16, NLT)
In 1 Thessalonians 5:17, we see that prayer is an invitation to commune closely with the Lord that we are to pursue constantly as believers, “...be unceasing and persistent in prayer;” (AMP) A consistent prayer life is a constant communion with God, giving light to our souls that spill out into our lives. Our souls ache for our Creator’s voice and His loving, gentle presence. When we enter into prayer, we allow the light of God to penetrate our souls.
3. Adequate Amount of Water:
The Word of God Gardens get thirsty, and our souls are their own kind of sacred garden buried deep within. And souls get thirsty, too. King David in the desert of Judah said it best when he cried out to God in Psalm 63:1,
“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.” (NIV)
Our souls are constantly thirsty for more of God because we were designed to crave only what God can give. And there is no better way to meet with God and wrap ourselves in His truth than to run to His Word.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 in the Amplified Version gives a detailed description of just how thoroughly quenching the Word of God is for our souls, “All Scripture is God-breathed [given by divine inspiration] and is profitable for instruction, for conviction [of sin], for correction [of error and restoration to obedience], for training in righteousness [learning to live in conformity to God’s will, both publicly and privately—behaving honorably with personal integrity and moral courage]; so that the man of God may be complete and proficient, outfitted and thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
Scripture is God-breathed and absolutely relevant and applicable to what we face in our lives today. It is good, faithful, and oh, so true, and it’s what we should be constantly watering our souls with.
The Word of God is where we go to find God, His promises, His heart, and even what He says is true about ourselves. Our souls find refreshment in the divine Word of the Holy One and help to grow our faith roots down deeper into sacred soil. An Invitation to Go Deeper A firm foundation, consistent prayer life, and the Word of God are three soul essentials we need to cultivate a faith-filled life.
How we live and the type of impact we leave on the world around us heavily depends on the state of our souls. If our souls are healthy, our lives are healthy, and our heavenly Father is glorified.
So now that we know what our souls need to thrive, it’s time to put what we’ve learned into practice and respond to Jesus’s invitation to go deeper and live rooted. It's time to tend to our souls and take inventory of what we need more of. The first step in receiving what our souls need is naming the current state of our souls. Is our soul thirsty for more time spent in the Word? Do we need to return to our foundation and recenter ourselves in our relationship with God? Is our soul longing for a closer communion that can grow from a consistent prayer life?
Jesus longs to go deeper and walk closer in relationship with us, and His will is for us to live abundant, faith-filled lives for His glory, as stated in John 15:8, “This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.” (NIV) My herbs land softly in the damp soil, and I can hear their desire to be rooted and their thirst for growth. My soul echoes that same desire, that same thirst, and I come to the conclusion that as long as my soul is turned toward and tended to by God, I’ll bear His abundant fruit.
