Soul Forfeiture

No one thinks their lives are at risk when they sit pondering in their chair. But the risk is greater than any stock market swing or mysterious pandemic. The danger is to profit in the world’s assets in such a way that the key asset, the soul, is forfeited.

Soul forfeiture is the gutting of the chip processor from the computer manufacturer. Or it is the bankruptcy sale of the farmland for the crop producer. Sure there are assets left over, but the assets that remain are pitiful in the absence of the key asset. Only Enron accounting can fudge such a balance sheet.

So forfeiture of the soul can happen with the ease of a settling thought during a few minutes repose in an armchair. That thought embraces the illusion of assets while discarding the key asset. The whole world is in inventory, yet the soul is gone, lost to bankruptcy. And such a calamity occurs by the time you drink a coffee.

Jesus said:

Forfeiture is vividly illustrated in three stages of life:

First, many young women and men forfeit their souls when they want to be married. They have found someone they are in love with and their previous devotion to God, their claims of loyalty to his Lordship, their covenants with the church, can all fall by the wayside. They will forfeit their soul rather than lose a lover. Ironically, they end up losing the lover too, which makes them doubly bitter towards God.

Second, parents who have aspirations for their families may choose to forfeit the souls of their children, as they pursue status in the world. Whether sports or academics, the kids are pushed to do things that will help them achieve status in the future, but will do nothing to secure a status before God in the future. This is how parents forfeit their souls and their children’s. It is like the selfishness of Adam in the garden of Eden when he sinfully ate the forbidden fruit. He wasn’t just forfeiting his own destiny, but every one of his descendants with him.

Third, mid-to-late career folks can abandon their first love, and forsake their souls because they are disillusioned with the pay-off that devotion to God was supposed to bring. Because people are not fulfilled, healthy, wealthy, pretty, nor happy, they blame the formula and decide to drop God. Of course they think that forfeiting their soul won’t happen in the process because they will still talk of God and spirituality, but such god-talk will be set on their terms, not his. It is very sad to see people who have confessed Christ seemingly go through the hard parts, only to forfeit their souls when the ripeness and sweetness of Christian life is coming into view.

For you who are tempted to forfeit your soul. Don’t do it!

Consider what is happening to you. As Paul said:

For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. (2 Tim 4.6).

Your life feels poured out. But it’s supposed to be that way. Your life is a drink offering, a libation to God.

Don’t forfeit your soul to hold onto something else.

Trust in Jesus for your worth and your meaning and your reason for being.

“Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” Hebrews 13:15

ACTIONS🥅🥅

1. Seek the Lord Today. Seek him simply and familiarly. Read the bible in the places you know warm your soul. Pick up an old devotional book like Spurgeon's Morning and Evening, or the Valley of Vision. Look to the Lord to draw you close to him.

2. Admit that you are tired, weary, exhausted, burnt out, or merely disappointed, disillusioned and sad. Look to Christ for his grand purposes and give up the grandiose ideas that you are the director of the program, the captain of the ship, the straw-boss on the cattle drive. You can relinquish control to the Lord and let him worry about it.

3. Go to church. The saints will remind you that you are not crazy. They will help you in your weak spots. They will help you repent, to turn from bypaths to return to the true path. They will journey with you to lift your head and look to the Eternal city, the New Jerusalem. They will help you get heaven back in your eye.