“Our souls were made to walk with God.”- John Ortberg
John Ortberg begins Chapter 10 (“The Soul Needs to be with God”) of Soul Keeping by stating that the Bible, particularly the Old Testament, is permeated with the sense that the soul was designed to search for God. Pastor Ortberg explains why the soul seeks God with its entire being:
“Because it is desperate to be whole, the soul is God-smitten and God-crazy and God-obsessed. My mind may be obsessed with idols; my will may be enslaved to habits; my body may be consumed with appetites. But my soul will never find rest until it rests in God.”
In Genesis 3:8 Adam and Eve heard the sound of the Lord God as He was walking in the Garden of Eden. The Garden of Eden, John explains, is representative of God’s great desire for “being with” us. When we walk with someone, the “being with” is what really matters, not the actual walk.
God would not be denied even when Adam and Eve sinned, deliberately hiding from God. God asked where they were, not in relation to their physical location, but where Adam and Eve were in relation to Him. The whole Biblical narrative, Pastor Ortberg observes, is about God going after and relentlessly pursuing us. John concludes:
“For the soul to be well, it needs to be with God.”
Today’s question: What Scriptures have strengthened your walk with God? Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: “The Soul Experiment”
