SoulSister: Renewing Your Soul With the Word of Godنموونە

Sweet to the Soul

It’s easy to take offense when someone says or does something to you that you feel you don’t deserve. Our soul, in those situations, wants to do the natural thing: take offense and clap back. Yup, I said clap back!

Clap back in the urban dictionary means, “a comeback, most likely pumped with attitude, sass and or shade.” Yeah, that sounds pretty natural to me, but Proverbs tells us to do the opposite of clapping back. It tells us to use kind words. Why? Because kind words are sweet to the soul. Remember, we are taking this journey to renew, reprogram, and to be transformed in our souls.

The Bible teaches us about seedtime and harvest. In situations where we must make a choice on what type of seed we are going to sow, sowing kind words will result in reaping a sweet soul and a healthy body. I think it’s safe to say that if we do the opposite and choose to sow the clap back seed, we will reap a bitter soul and an unhealthy body. Clapping back is a good sign that there is hurt that has led to bitterness that now provokes a bitter action. Bitterness leads to stress, stress leads to mess, and mess (waste) is unhealthy. We, as believers, need to forgive. We must lead by example. Having a sweet soul, a healthy soul, and a renewed soul must be important to us—not clapping back. I know that’s hard at times, but we can do it. Let’s lead by example today by choosing kind words even in the face of offense. Do this and your harvest will be good and sweet.

Think About It

1. Is it your natural instinct to clap back? If so, think about when you wanted to clap back, but God helped you sow a seed of kind words instead.

2. Pray about the difficulties you face when wanting to overcome hurt and bitterness.

3. Think about areas in your life now where you need God to uproot the bad seeds and plant good seeds.

4. Do you struggle in giving kind words? Practice now and say something kind about a person who has hurt you.