Males of a certain age are hard-wired to think about sex about once an hour. Females are hard-wired to think as frequently about food. I think if a poll were taken about how often people of any age think about the state of their soul, the results would be nowhere near once an hour. It would be more like once a year or once a decade or even once in a lifetime, and yet the state of our soul is all that really matters, not sex or food.

God commands us to set aside at least one day a week to focus on things pertaining to the soul. He called that day the Sabbath and made it holy. But the truth is, as born-again believers, we need to spend much more time than just one day a week focusing on the state of our soul. Thinking about where we are in relation to God and Jesus should be a daily activity that we look forward to and enjoy, not avoid and dread.

So how’s your soul? Have you thought about it lately? If your time on Earth ended today, do you think your soul would be ready for Heaven? Obviously, we can’t know for sure, but we can have a sense that we’re at least trending in the right direction. Those who claim they know for sure they’ll end up in Heaven are only fooling themselves. Scripture gives numerous examples of people who thought they were on their way to Heaven because they had a certain heritage or went to church and did charitable works and even performed miracles, but Jesus told them he never knew them and so they had no place in his home. There are other examples in scripture of people who started down the right path and then veered off at the end. It was where they were at the end of their life, not where they started out, that determined their place in eternity.

Judgement isn’t an aggregate of your good and bad works; it measures your soul at the point of death, not at birth or rebirth or at some other point. Which is why the question “how’s your soul?” is not something that should be asked once a week or once a decade, but several times a day. We should be examining and scanning the state of our soul morning, noon, and night, or at least as often as males think about sex and females about food.

But how is that possible? Jesus says that with God, all things are possible. OK, we can always believe what Jesus tells us, but still – how do we examine our soul day and night? Through prayer. Paul says we should pray without ceasing. Prayer is simply talking to God and Jesus and being conscious that they’re always with us through God’s Spirit. When you spend all day in prayer (that is, when you’re conscious of the presence of God and Jesus and talk to them every now and then), you can have a pretty good sense of where your soul is in relation to them. If you go off-track, they have no qualms about letting you know, and they’ll use whatever force is necessary to get your attention. (I speak here from extensive personal experience lol.)

Just like Linus carries around his blanket as a comforter, we have God and Jesus through the power of God’s Holy Spirit as our comforter, and like Linus and his blanket, we should cling to God and Jesus with everything we’ve got and consciously take them wherever we go. There’s no better way to stay on the straight and narrow than being aware that God and Jesus are right there with you all the time, watching your every step and knowing your every thought. If your soul is right with God, his constant presence should be a comfort to you. It’s intended to be a comfort. Jesus promised us it would be.

But if your soul isn’t right with God and the thought of God and Jesus always looking over your shoulder makes you uncomfortable, you’ve got some soul work to do, and right now would be the right time to start.