Based on Matthew 5:13

MEMORY TEXT:  “Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his saltiness, wherewith will ye season it?  Have salt in yourselves, and have peace one with another” (Mark 9:50).

Did you know that we cannot live without having a certain amount of salt in our bodies?  Salt loss is rare but can be dangerous.  You see, the body loses salt through urine, perspiration, vomiting, and diarrhea.  If too much salt is lost, the level of fluid in the blood will also drop.  In severe cases, low sodium levels in the body can lead to:

>  Muscle cramps

>  Nausea

>  Vomiting

>  Dizziness

Eventually lack of salt can lead to shock, coma, and death.  Fortunately this is very unlikely to happen, because most of our meals include more than enough salt.  Many foods contain traces of sodium, so we get salt even without using the shaker.

My son and his family live near Washington, DC.  Some years ago they experienced a very large snow storm.  Thirty inches (76.3 cm) fell in just a day and a half.  The neighborhood where he lives was closed until the snow could be removed from the streets.

Not only are snow plows used to clear the streets and highways but salt sprinkled on the roads by salt trucks helps the ice to melt.

When a lot of minerals are dissolved in water, it is called “hard water”.  When water is hard, soap will not lather (make bubbles), making it difficult to bathe and wash clothes.  One solution is to pass the water through a filter of salt.

What am I getting at?  Just as salt can melt ice and soften water, so the Holy Spirit can melt and soften the hardest hearts.  This is what Jesus meant when He said that we are to be the salt of the earth.  Often when we are around cold-hearted people, we react by becoming cold hearted ourselves.  Jesus cautions us that we must not allow the conditions around us to make us loose the ability to do the work that He has appointed us to do.

We can be pure salt only thought the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  I invite you to pray right now that the Lord will use you today to melt the cold hearts and soften the hardened lives of those who God may bring into your life.