October 6, 2016 RESTORING THE SOUL
Psalms 23:3: “He restores my soul;”
Psalms 42:11: Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him, the help of my countenance, and my God.
As I was searching for a concise definition of ‘soul,’ I found that there were none! The best summary of the definition of soul is that the soul is the seat of affections and desires of man. Man is a triune being made up of spirit, soul, and body. The soul and the spirit or not the same; the spirit is the part of us that relates to God, and when we are born again, our spirit is regenerated, or made new. When we think of a person’s soul, we think of their personality, the way they relate to others, their temperament, and their demeanor. Perhaps, to our own hurt, we do not pay much attention to our soul, letting our soul be ‘independent’, and we just take whatever message the soul is putting out. In our soul we can experience joy and peace, and in our soul we can also experience feelings of despair. I started thinking about our soul as I watched a movie about a wealthy elderly lady who had become bitter in life, but through a series of events, she came to live with a young lady who lived on a house boat. Living on the river, brought back many wonderful memories she had of living on the river as a child. Now as an elderly lady who had exchanged her mansion for a river boat, she proclaimed that she had “found her soul.” I fear that there are many believers who need “to find their soul.” Unmet expectations, disappointments, hurts, broken dreams, and failures, if not properly dealt with, will result in an unhealthy soul. Even though we have a triune makeup-body, soul, and spirit, the three aspects of our makeup are not independent of the other. However, the key to having a healthy soul, and to a great degree a healthy body, is to be renewed in our spirit. When God regenerates our spirit, when His Spirit comes to reside in us, the result is a healthy soul. We must remember that even a healthy soul will at times experience a sense of sadness or grief, because life is not always as we want it to be. The Holy Spirit within us enables us to live life as God designed, where the body, soul, and spirit are in sync-one complementing the other. If we are expecting life to be free of trials and tribulations, we have wrong expectations and we are setting ourselves up for disappointments. We do have influence over our soul because Christ lives in us, and as we walk in step with Him, we will find that our soul rejoices because of His presence. Let us not forget that God gave us a soul, and His intention for doing so was to bless us. No matter what circumstances we face, not only can our soul can find comfort, but it can also find reason to be confident in whatever God is doing. We do not have to live on a river boat to find our soul, but we do need to make sure that our soul is healthy by being under the influence of the Spirit within. Go ahead-decide to rejoice, decide to enjoy life, and let your soul find its rest in the Lord.
2 John 1:2: “Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well.”
Blessings,
Buddy
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