Nourish Your Soul Needs
by Drenda Keesee
How many times a day do we listen to our bodies?
The answer is all day long!
Our bodies have many needs, but their primary demands are food, shelter, and rest. Most of us meet our bodies’ needs quickly and without fail. When our bellies growl, we eat. When we are tired, we go to bed. When we need healing for a cut, we clean it and bandage it. Well, your soul requires the same upkeep as your body!
How many times a day do you care for the needs of your soul?
SOUL HUNGER
Become a good listener so you will notice when your soul is hungry.
If you feel…
…emotionally sluggish and are slow to have joy, those are signs that your soul is starving. The Word of God is your soul food.
A soul that is receiving the Word begins to crave it, and you can never have too much!
Have you ever started a new diet and watched in horror as you turned from being a fun-loving, stable woman to a crazed, anxious, chocolate-seeking wreck? We all know that after the tough part is over and your body is weaned off of the bad stuff, your body adapts and actually starts to crave good food—food that provides nourishment, not just pleasure. Soul food works the same way. Taking in the Word of God only gets better, more fulfilling, and more nourishing—until you start to crave it and the feeling of well-being it provides.
SOUL SHELTER
Think about this. If you saw a tornado coming, would you seek shelter? So why wouldn’t you seek spiritual shelter from a culture that stirs up noise, anger, and fear on a daily basis?
God is your constant shelter. Run to Him! Matthew 11:28 tells us, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (NIV).
You can also find shelter in the company of other believers. When I am in fellowship with other believers, my heart does a little flutter. I can feel God’s Spirit in the room pouring out love to His people.
SOUL RESTORATION
What’s the busiest day of any gym in the United States? January 2nd. After we all pack on the Thanksgiving and Christmas pounds, we head right to the gym for physical atonement and restoration. I know people who go to the gym four or five times a week. I am not saying that working out isn’t good, it is. I am saying that your overall health includes your spiritual health.
If you spend all of your time caring for the outside of the house, the inside falls into disrepair.
The Holy Spirit lives inside of you and He requires care and exercise, so get out there and stretch your compassion skills, and work on toning those weak spots like judgment and anger. Condition your spirit. A hot body should not be your primary goal because a strong spirit is what will sustain you in your journey.
Every day ask yourself, “What have I done for my soul today?”
~Drenda
ps…Are you looking for a good church? Be sure and listen on Saturday evening or catch the 3 services on Sunday for Faith Life Church!
Drenda Keesee’s contagious zeal and humorous personal experiences help make her ministry of spiritual, emotional, and relational wholeness one that will bless your life and spark a new fire in your spirit.
A wife of over 30 years and a mother of five children, Drenda has ministered at churches, seminars, and conferences, and through the mediums of television and radio, for more than 20 years.
Her books, The New Vintage Family, Better Than You Think, and She Gets It are available wherever books are sold. In these heartfelt books, Drenda shares her personal journey and the life lessons that have brought her to where she is today, as well as practical answers that all people need to live a joyful life.
Drenda and her husband Gary founded Faith Life Now, a ministry designed to spread the message of freedom in the areas of finances, faith, marriage, and family. Tune in for their weekly messages here. Faith Life Now hosts conferences worldwide and sponsors both Fixing the Money Thing, which Drenda co-hosts with her husband Gary and Drenda.
Through their own life experiences, the Keesee’s have found the principles from God’s Word to be powerful and effective. At one point, Drenda was a young, suicidal feminist with no hope of ever being “good enough” for her own standards of perfection. She never wanted the “inconvenience” of a husband or children, and she was on her own path to success. But the stress of trying to achieve perfection and perform for love left her broken and used. She had success, but it was nothing compared to the pain and loneliness it had also brought.
That’s when God got a hold of her heart. It was there—at her lowest point—that she found the One who accepted and loved her, faults and all. Since that transformation, Drenda has had a passion to reach women who find themselves where she once was.
She married Gary after attending college, and there she found herself in a personal boot camp of sorts. She says, “I cried and told God, ‘I can do anything but be a wife and mother.’” She committed to learning how to do it God’s way. Through the many years of raising their children and struggling to make ends meet, Drenda learned from their mistakes. “I didn’t know how to be a wife and mother, but God saved our marriage, taught us how to parent our children for success, showed us how to have financial success, and then the irony of all ironies, He called us to ministry.” It’s truly because of these life experiences that Drenda can now share so many insightful principles for people who are now going through the same struggles.
