Single as Salt

 

Does my life make others crave Christ?

“You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.” Matthew 5:13

Jesus calls us the salt of the earth (Matthew 5:13). As salt, we infuse life into a dying, decaying world. We are ambassadors of God’s healing. We help preserve. We bring flavor through our love & service. We are small grains in the palm of God, poured out to share the good news of the redemption He offers us through the cross.

Recently, God led me into a deeper understanding of what it means to be salt. Salt is crave-worthy. The salty crunch of chips, crispy salty french fries, sweet & salty morsels of cookie dough, the briny smell of the ocean as it wafts upon a summer breeze - these are things we tend to crave. We hunger for just one more chip, one more fry. We roll down the window & drink in the salty aroma of the sea, a summer perfume as we drive past the setting sun.

Salt is crave-worthy. Salt also triggers another craving - a craving for water. We need something to quench us after we consume salt. Salt causes us to thirst. In nature, we swim in oceans of salt swirling in water. Salt & water are in a way coexistent, codependent. They appear in conjunction with one another.

As believers, we are called to live salty lives. Lives that cause others to crave what we have - Jesus Christ living on the inside of us. As we live set apart lives marked by the fruit of the Spirit, sacrificial service, genuine care for others, & true heart transformation, we bring glory to God & provide a picture of a good life possible through Christ alone. The good life does not mean a life without hardship or heartache, but it does mean a life worth living, full of God’s love & spiritual richness. It means a renovated heart. While renovations can be long, arduous, inconvenient, & costly, the end result is lovely, valuable, & beautiful. Our lives made new in Christ are crave-worthy to those who have tried everything to find peace, hope, & healing & have yet to find it in the things of this world. Make people crave your heart that you may point them to the heart of the Father to receive new life. Allow them to taste the flavor of Christ in your life, a flavor that builds a hunger & thirst for more & yet satisfies like nothing else.

As people taste your saltiness, their craving for salt will become a craving for Living Water - Jesus Christ Himself, the well that never runs dry. The hunger for the evidence of Christ in your life - the salt represented in your peace, love, joy, light, hope, generosity, authenticity - becomes a thirst for Christ Himself. It no longer is about the things but about the supernatural quenching that Jesus alone provides. It is about Jesus Himself. The quenching found in Jesus’ presence empowers us to continue being salt so that we can continue to be a taste of heaven in a dim world.

Be salt, that others may taste God, crave Him, & seek the soul-satisfying refreshment of His Living Water flowing in their lives. Salt is the spice of evangelism. Salt paves the road to Living Water.

Sometimes life gets hard. Even when we love God. Even when we pray. Even when we read our Bible. We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed (II Corinthians 4:8). Still, life gets hard & it’s okay to admit that. In our struggle we find more of God & we receive portion after portion of His Spirit. God has been showing me that even when it’s hard, even when I’m sad & discouraged, I am still salt. God is the same yesterday, today, & forever. I am made in His image & I am still salt. What God calls me does not change with circumstance. My identity is rooted in an unchanging God.

As I struggle with being single after my long-term dating relationship came to an end several months ago, God is asking me to be the salt of the earth even in unfavorable conditions. (I use the term unfavorable loosely, because if I’m in the will of God, is the condition ever really unfavorable?). God is calling me to exude the crave-worthy flavor of Christ even though my life doesn’t look the way I expected it to look at almost 25 years old. He is calling me to live a life that displays His goodness (because He is good) even when things don’t feel good to my human heart. This is not an invitation to ignore trauma, abuse, mental health conditions, or anything of that nature. This is an encouragement to those of you who, like me, are on a journey to embrace the life story that God has written rather than the story that you’ve tried writing for yourself. Unbind the book that you want your life to read as & let the pages dissolve like salt in the sea. Step into the story that God has perfectly prepared for you. He cares about every detail & weaves everything together in His timing, wasting nothing.

I desire to be a single Christian who makes others crave God, not a romantic relationship I can post online. Marriage is beautiful & it is God’s intention for many people but it is not better than God Himself. Am I in love with God or the gifts that He provides? Am I submitted to God or to an idealized timeline so that I can feel worthy? I am processing my way towards saying yes to the first half of those questions.

As an uncoupled, unmarried woman in my mid-twenties, I can either be salty about being single or be the salt of the earth. I can either live in a prison of disappointment or I can be a witness for Christ’s faithfulness in my life. As I seek to give off the flavor of a faith-filled, Spirit-led life, I can savor the flavor-giver - Jesus. I can savor uninterrupted time with Him. I can focus on serving just Him. I can find companionship, fellowship, & friendship with Him. A coffee date with a husband would be cute, but I can also have a date with Jesus where He fills my cup with Living Water. Times of loneliness are often times of refinement that bring wholeness, healing, & preparation for the season to come.

I don’t have all the answers but fortunately Jesus does. Even when life doesn’t feel so fun, we can be the salt of the earth, savoring Jesus in our lives, flavoring the world around us as we pour out the love that was first given to us, & watching the flow of Living Water like a never-ending river. Even a single grain of salt can be useful.

Some Encouragement

  1. Search the Bible for examples of ordinary people succeeding due to God’s power working on their behalf. Places to start: David vs. Goliath, Gideon vs. the Midianites, Joshua at Jericho. These examples inspire us to live from a place of strength, victory, & dependence on God as we seek to draw others to Christ. We don’t have to be salt in our own strength. We can rely on God’s refreshing power & constant presence to renew us from the inside out.

  2. Choose an encouraging Bible verse & meditate on it for as long as your heart desires. Read it in different translations (ex. NKJV, ESV, NLT, AMP, etc.). Write it down on sticky notes & put them in places you often look (such as your desk, nightstand, mirror, car, journal, etc.). Memorize it so that it is written on your heart & return to it in times of need. Reflect on what God is speaking to you. Begin to saturate your life in God’s Word & watch your mind, heart, & life transform.

  3. Live a life of worship. Praise God through music. Invite the Holy Spirit in with this song. Worship God throughout your day by choosing to accomplish things both at work & at home with excellence. Worship God by being kind, warm, friendly, & helpful to others. Seek to sow peace in all your relationships. Worship God by being thoughtful about the words you say. Are my words life-giving, edifying, peaceful, loving? Serve others in small ways.

  4. Find things to be grateful for right where you are. Life is far from perfect for many of us, but there’s always something to thank God for. List out just a few things & continue to add to the list as the days roll on. You may begin to notice joyful things that fill your life that you hadn’t noticed before.

  5. For my single friends: Are you waiting for marriage in order to really start living? Are you waiting for marriage in order to start making an impact for God’s kingdom? God’s blessings aren’t just for married couples. His richness & abundance are available to us in our single season. What’s something you’ve been putting off doing just because you’re single? How can you do things that make you feel loved, joyful, & fulfilled in the season that you’re currently in?

I am so happy that you are part of the Daily Selah community & I hope you feel encouraged to experience God’s presence in fresh ways! Until next time xx

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