I digress, the point is this, I was listening to the lyrics for the first time and they piqued my curiosity.
What was the song talking about? What message was he trying to put out there? What do the words ‘soul provider’ even mean?
It's probably not news to you that apart from the body and the spirit, human beings also have the third part i.e. our souls. The soul is our inner part that contains our mind, emotion and will through which we connect with the psychological world.
So when Michael Bolton sings that He wants to be your Soul Provider, what is He trying to say? I know some of you out there might feel that perhaps I am overthinking it, why can’t I just let the song be, right? Perhaps but....
Follow through with me anyway and hear me out.
Peter in his first letter to the believers writes that ‘’… you were once like sheep going astray but now you have returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls.’’ Some versions say ‘’Bishop of our souls’’
In John 10 and Psalm 23, Jesus categorically and implicitly tells us that He is the good shepherd and as a good shepherd:
- He provides for his sheep- he leads them to the food and the water
- He directs his sheep, and most importantly…
- He lays down His life for the sheep
I have often found that by nature, our souls- our feelings (emotions), our thoughts and our choices are extremely dependent on what we feed our other two parts. Our souls are rather wishy-washy and can be easily swayed. When we feed our spirit through prayer and the word, our souls respond to the leading of God. When we feed our body (flesh) our souls respond with carnal thoughts, carnal emotions and obviously carnal choices.
Pause.
Think about it.
As a believer, think about the last time you struggled with thoughts, ideas, feelings and choices that you knew were not godly. What had you been feeding around that time? Your flesh? Or your spirit?
A quick search on Google and you will learn that the song Soul Provider and the album under the same titled propelled Michael Boltons music career. Why? I daresay he appealed to the masses, he appealed to the flesh. The words sound pretty nice and romantic and they draw out the emotions that make music sell but he didn't quite understand the full intent of his words(see what i did there? no? Okay).
I put to you that, the activities of your soul which has such great influence on your walk on this earth, your interaction with yourself and with others are much too important to be directed by a mere mortal; not Micheal Bolton nor any other person for that matter.
Let Jesus be your Soul Provider.
