How Salty Are You?

Salt is good for seasoning. But if it loses its flavor, how do you make it salty again? Flavorless salt is good neither for the soil nor the manure pile. It is thrown away. Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand! (Luke 14: 34-35, NLT).

          I'm sure you saw the title and thought, Angel must be ready for these 4th of July cookouts, what is she talking about how salty are you?!? Although I am indeed ready for a grilled hot dog, there's so much more to this title! Let's chat about salt right quick; it's funny how you can truly see anything in the natural sense and also make it applicable in the spiritual sense as well and it's no different for salt. Just follow me...salt has a number of purposes that it is used for which are very relevant to the believers life however, we forget the importance of it sometimes; let's have a quick refresher! So what exactly are some of the purposes of salt? I'm so glad you asked...

1. It acts as a preservative: Now I'm not going to give you a history lesson on salt so the short answer of this is salt acts as preservative to help food from spoiling and it can act as a deterrent for mold to grow. Due to the antibacterial properties in salt, it helps to destroy bacteria in order to keep the food from spoiling. Pretty much what happens is when the bacteria tries to creep in, salt stands up, gives it the hand, and says not on my watch, peace be gone! So what exactly does this have to do with being a Christian you ask? Everything!!! You see, salt can only work as a preservative if it is present. Ya'll didn't catch that; the salt cannot act, aka keep the food from spoiling, if it does not exist. As believers we're called to be salt in this crazy jacked up world. We are that antibacterial property that is helping to destroy the bacteria in the world better known as sin. When we are at our saltiest we should be impacting unbelievers to the extent that when they have an interaction with us (the God in us) it should encourage the bacteria (sin) in them to flee. Who we are in Christ should encourage and empower others to develop a relationship with Christ which acts as a deterrent for mold (sin) to grow in their lives. But how can we have this impact if we have lost our saltiness? 

2. It is used for healing: If you have one of them momma's like mine that grew up in the country and likes to use all those home remedies that Grand momma and em' always talked about then you already know what this purpose of salt is for. Once again, salt is used as an antibacterial agent to help wounds to heal faster. People might tell you about the healing part but they tend to leave out the fact that it stings like nobodies business! It burns and it hurts like no other but the end result is that the infection is removed and the healing of the wound can take place. As Christians we oftentimes struggle with  confronting people when it comes to addressing their wounds aka sin. We don't want to hurt people's feelings, we don't want them to think that we're judging them, and so on and so on. So we try to take a passive approach, beat around the issues, and never really address the problem or get to the root of it because we don't want to hurt them. Here's the thing, John tells us in Revelation 10:9 that an angel gave him a small scroll, told him to eat it and said that it would be sweet in his mouth but it would turn sour in his belly. The word of God is sweet as it encourages and reminds us of God's love for us but it also becomes bitter in the sense of the consequences of sin and the judgment that we must speak of for those who choose not to follow God. Furthermore, Hebrews 4:12 states that the Word of God is sharper than any two-edged sword! The Word of God cuts and it cuts deep because it has to deal with the sin that is deeply rooted. Jesus wasn't sent to play patty cake with sin; no ma'am not at all but He addressed it in a loving manner. It may have stung initially, but that sting led them to follow Christ which led to their healing. What believers must ultimately come to understand is that all confrontation is not bad; confrontation can actually be healthy and much needed when used properly. When you share the Word of  God with an unbeliever it can cause a sting initially because when a person's sin is addressed it is not comfortable. The reality however is, if the salt can get in and uproot the infection, healing can take place through Christ Jesus. It might make a person uncomfortable initially and it might sting them when you first talk to them about God and in some cases the people closest to you may feel like you have burned them but the end result is worth it. 

3. It keeps people from falling: I was having a conversation with my best friend a couple of months ago and we got on the topic of salt and she said you put salt down on the sidewalk in the winter when there's snow and ice to keep people from falling. We have to be mindful of the example that we are setting for people especially when it comes to new believers and unbelievers. Should people read their bible? Yes. Should they learn what Christ likeness is through reading the word and spending time with God themselves? Yes. Do they? Initially, for the most part (a very large part) NO! They're looking at other Christians as their example so what example are you making? Does this mean that all you can and should do is talk about Jesus all day every day and even in your sleep? Believe it or not the answer is no. Now before anybody tries to pull my Christian card just hear me out. People need to see real people living for God! There are so many counterfeit Christians trying to play the part of being a Christian just for the look of it all. You have so many people playing like they're so holy that oftentimes new believers and unbelievers see them and think that it's impossible for them to be saved. They're having some serious struggles and realizing that spiritual warfare is not a fairy tale but real life yet they see sister pretend faking the funk and they think they can't be saved or they're not doing it right. Of course we should not compare ourselves to others but let's be real, people do it all the time! It is so possible to be saved, love Jesus, and enjoy life and have fun with your salvation. It's okay to be transparent and share your struggles just as you do your high moments. People can relate to real people versus pretend ones and it encourages them to continue to pursue Christ in the midst of their pitfalls instead of falling away because they think that they can't keep up with the pretend crew.

         So what's the purpose of all of this? The enemy is more than aware of the purpose of salt and he will do absolutely everything in his power to make you lose your flavor. A lot of times as Christian we become tired, burned out, stressed out, unmotivated, uninspired, and we don't even know if we're still saved if we would be honest. We stop reading our bibles, we stop praying, we stop fasting, and we stop spending time with God. We go about our day to day growing further away from Christ yet we don't do anything about it! We continue to attend church and go through the motions of being a Christian but the truth is we have lost our flavor. One of the biggest problems with the body of Christ is that we fail to realize that we have power through Him and that satan is seriously going hard after us to keep us from exercising that power. The reason you don't feel like doing anything and have become stagnant in your walk with Christ or feel that it has become non-existent even is because the enemy wants you to lose your saltiness so that you are not leading others to Christ. The devil will attack you in all areas of your life but let's be clear, homeboy is working overtime to keep you from connecting spiritually with God!  Acknowledge the tactics of the enemy and stop allowing him to rob you of your flavor. He knows the power that you have in Christ to impact non believers and to help them realize the bacteria in their life and he will do everything to try to keep you from doing it. Christians, we have a responsibility called the great commission and we have no time to sit around idol not being about our Father's business. So you fell off? Okay, get back on that do better chair, repent, and get your flavor back! It really is just that simple; we can make things so hard sometimes! I encourage you to ask yourself the question how salty am I? Have I lost my flavor and if so what do I need to do get it back? How salty are you....

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