In pre-marriage counseling, I told our Pastor, “I really hate folding socks.”
It’s still true today. Socks are annoying. You have to locate both of them, and then, more often than not, you have to turn them inside out.
Maybe it’s my innate laziness, or maybe it’s that I don’t really care if my socks are inside out, but it seems like such a lot of work for such a small garment.
When Adam and Eve first disobeyed God and ate the fruit, their souls were turned inside out. Whereas once they had been full of the breath of God and full of the Spirit of God, giving life to both body and soul, sin sucked the air and the Spirit right out of them, leaving them with inside-out souls, suffocating.
The Lord God told them, “For you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” If something didn’t turn their souls right side out again, their souls would remain breathless and Spiritless, forever separated from their loving Creator.
The Apostle Paul described them as “dead.”
Sin turned souls inside out, resulting in both physical and spiritual death.
Isaiah described the inside-out soul when he wrote, “In the path of Your judgments, O Lord, we wait for You; Your name and remembrance are the desire of our soul.”
The waiting he described is like the twisting and stretching of a taut rope, under tension while being pulled in two directions. Before we turn from our sin, we are struggling for a gasp of spiritual air, and the tension is like a baby pushing to leave the womb and be born in order to take its first breath.
Paul wrote to the Romans, “For I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes…For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith…”
The Gospel is the powerful fingers of God working the salvation of turning our souls right side out again. He kneads us through, helping us experience His gift of life by birthing trust inside of us and helping it to work its way out into our thoughts, words, and actions.
As the Psalmist wrote, “He restores my soul!”
Instead of being returned, or restored, to the dust, when His Salvation turns our souls right-side-out again, we can breathe the free air of eternal life, living lives of usefulness through the empowering of the Holy Spirit. We are no longer stretched taut between the old inside-out sinner and the new right-side-out servant.
Just as a sock turned right side out becomes useful and comfortable again, our souls turned right side out help us to breathe the Spiritual air that we need to be Christ followers, and once we breathe in His air, we can live useful lives pleasing to Him, loving Him with all of our right-side-out souls.
This week find daily devotions to help you love the Lord your God with all your soul at www.sarahdixonyoung.com/lent2022
Sarah Dixon Young 