“He Values Our Souls”

Jesus summoned the crowd together with His disciples, and said to them, “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me.  For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.  For what does it benefit a person to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul? For what could a person give in exchange for his soul?” Mark 8:34-37

In this passage of Scripture, Jesus asks a question to help us understand the value of our souls. The question is:

“For what does it benefit a person to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul?”

Our souls are the most important possession we have. They are the essence of who we are, and God created them to live forever with Him in Heaven. Our souls are far more valuable than wealth, power, popularity, careers, and even family. Nothing is more valuable than our souls.

Jesus took up His cross to save our souls from hell, sin, and death. Jesus took up His cross so that our souls would live and not die. That’s how valuable our souls are to Jesus.

Our souls are eternally valuable to Jesus. And Jesus asked His question so that we would value our souls as highly as He values our souls.

There was a time in King David’s life when he was discouraged and depressed. The cares of life had worn him down and he had been neglecting to care for his soul. He writes about this in Psalm 42:1-2:

As the deer pants for streams of water,
    so my soul pants for you, my God.
   My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
    When can I go and meet with God?

Caring for our souls should be a priority in our daily lives. We care for our souls by keeping them in contact with God. Whenever we spend time with God in prayer or worship or reading the Scriptures, we enable our souls to have a life-giving connection with God.

May we value our souls as highly as Jesus does.

In Christ,

Pastor David