Detoxify Our Souls

Detoxify Our Souls

Detoxify: (a) to remove a poison or toxin or the effect of such from (b) to render (a harmful substance) harmless (c) to free (as a drug user or an alcoholic) from an intoxicating or an addictive substance in the body or from dependence on or addiction to such a substance

None of us would intentionally eat or drink poison that could harm or destroy our body. Yet we may be consuming poison that’s hazardous to our soul without even realizing it.

Toxic attitudes, behaviors, and cultural influences that we allow into our life can put our soul in danger. We can’t always avoid contact with such toxins in this fallen world but we don’t have to allow our lives to be contaminated by them. We can detoxify our soul and start experiencing the pure life that God wants us to enjoy.

Here’s how:

Realize that everything counts. Absolutely everything that we allow into our mind and life has on impact on how we grow or don’t grow spiritually. The little choices that we make every day add up to a significant effect on our soul. So we need to take everyday decisions seriously.

Identify the lies that have deceived us, and replace them with the truth. We need to examine our life for toxic: behaviors (what we do that harms our spiritual effectiveness or distracts us from God’s purposes for our life), emotions (feelings that lead us away from God’s truth), and consumptions (media –movies, music, books) we consume and people we spend time with. We need to ask God to give us the wisdom we need to discern which of all of those are toxic to us.

Clean up our thoughts. Since spiritual battles are ultimately either won or lost in the mind, it’s crucial to pay attention to what thoughts we focus on. Our thoughts shape what kind of person we become. If we think unhealthy thoughts, we’ll become an unhealthy person. But if we think healthy thoughts that reflect God’s truth, we’ll become more like Jesus, as God intends us to become. Regularly pray for the ability to view the situations we encounter as God sees them so we can have the right perspective on them. Every day, ask God to show us which thoughts that enter our mind are unholy and displeasing to Him. Whenever we identify wrong thoughts, we must take action to replace them with right ones. Choose to “Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.” (Philippians 4:8b) We need to spend time meditating on God’s wonderful qualities; the more we think about God, the more peace will enter our mind.

Choose positive words and avoid negative words. Recognize the incredible power of words to bring about either good or evil. “Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them.” (Ephesians 4:29) Positive words create and heal, while negative words harm and destroy. So throughout each day when we’re speaking or writing, we need to choose to communicate positive words to others as much as possible. When we hear the words that other people communicate to us, we must carefully analyze them to determine whether or not they actually reflect what’s true – and if so, embrace them, but if not, reject them. We must pay attention to our self-talk as well, and ask God to help us say positive words to ourselves in our mind.

Uncover our hidden sins. No sin is ever hidden from God, no matter how much we may deny it in our life or try to hide it from other people. God knows all of our sins (“you may be sure that your sin will find you out.” Numbers 32:23) and chooses to love us anyway, and He is always hoping that we will confess and repent of our sins so we can keep growing spiritually. So we are to regularly confess our sins (to God and sometimes other Christians) and repent of them so we can receive forgiveness and healing.

Dig up bitter roots from our soul. When we allow bitterness to take root in our soul, it poisons us and blocks us from experiencing the grace God wants to give us. So we have to get rid of bitterness by following God’s command to forgive people who have hurt us. Jesus says, “If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.” (Matthew 6:14-15) We can rely on the strength that God will give us the ability to forgive.

Get rid of envy. Envying people who have what we want but don’t have will only poison us. So stop comparing ourselves and our life with other people and their lives. Instead, make a daily habit of noticing the many blessings that God brings into our life, and thanking God for them. Ask God to help us be content in all circumstances and trust that, in His great love and wisdom, He will always give us what’s best for us.

Express anger productively rather than destructively. It’s fine to feel angry, as long as we don’t sin because of the way we express our anger. The Bible says “… don’t sin by letting anger control you.” (Ephesians 4:26) Pray for the wisdom we need to discern the difference between constructive and destructive anger, and for the self-control we need to let go of destructive anger (anger that causes us to sin by hurting ourselves and others). We can control our anger by making choices such as carefully listening and thinking to messages others are communicating to us before responding, so we can calm down and respond without sinning. We can also redirect our anger by using anger as Jesus did: to fight injustice and work for righteousness. Ask God to make us angry about what angers Him, and then to use that anger to help bring about justice in the world.

Break free of fear. Whenever we feel afraid, we need to remind ourselves that fear never comes from God; it comes from evil. God gives us a spirit of power, love, and peace – not fear. Rather than placing our faith in all the “what-ifs” of life and feeling afraid of what may or may not happen, we place our faith in God who is in charge of our future and wants what’s best for us. Pay attention to specific, persistent fears in our life, because they reveal the areas in which we’re trusting God the least. Pray about each area we identify as a problem, surrendering each one specifically to God and asking Him to help us trust Him more with it. Then be diligent about seeking God so we can consistently grow closer to Him. The closer we become to God, the less we’ll struggle with fear.

“Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6-7)

Get rid of toxic influences on our life. Paul writes to the Roman church: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Romans 12:2)

Break free of materialism and look to God (instead of money and possessions) to meet our needs for happiness, significance, and security. Whenever we consume media of any kind (from television shows and songs to Internet articles and books), honestly ask ourselves: “Am I being entertained by sin?” Is this pleasing to God?”, and “Does this lure me away from Jesus?” Then stop consuming media that we recognize is toxic to us. Since bad company corrupts good character, we need to set boundaries to protect ourselves from being influenced by unhealthy people, and cut off unhealthy relationships with people who are dangerous to our spiritual growth but won’t change. Ask God to show us when “religion” is corrupting the purity of the Gospel in our life, and to help us focus not on external behavior to try to earn God’s love, but on responding to the love that God has already given us by trusting Him in every part of our life.

Our needs of happiness, significance, security and God’s love can only be “supplied” by Him! Jesus says: “Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.” (Matthew 6:33)