Listen up!

Sometime we need to remind our soul - that is, our mind, will and emotions - to bless God with all that we have within us. If you are like me (and I suspect you are), the mind wanders, will is weak, and emotions pull us a thousand different directions. David was not above this very similar struggle we face daily - to keep our attention squarely on God. How do we do that? We engage in "soul-talk". Look at what David does - he focuses his mind on the things God has done in his life - then he begins a little "soul-talk". He recounts the many and overwhelming blessings of God in his life, his family's life, and those he knows at the leader of a great nation. He determines to bless God - he makes it a matter of his will. In so doing, he is bringing his emotions into alignment - his "soul" gets talked into alignment.

O my soul, bless God. From head to toe, I'll bless his holy name! O my soul, bless God, don't forget a single blessing! He forgives your sins—every one. He heals your diseases—every one. He redeems you from hell—saves your life! He crowns you with love and mercy—a paradise crown. He wraps you in goodness—beauty eternal. He renews your youth—you're always young in his presence. (Psalm 103:1-5)

There are clearly a couple of things David seems to focus on as he engages in this soul-talk. A few of those things might just help us begin our very own 'soul-talk' with God today:

• God forgives our sins - not just in part, but completely; not just one or two, but all of them. There are times when I just want to cringe in shame when I remember some of the sins over the course of my life - and the enemy of my soul would love nothing more than to have me dwell upon those memories. When that happens, I have called to memory the fact that God is not "selective" in his forgiveness. It is complete and it keeps no records - even when my mind has a hard time letting go of them. What I seem to dredge up from my past in haunting memory of my sinfulness has already been forgiven - no longer remembered by God.
• God not only heals our spiritual condition through forgiveness of sins, but he heals our physical condition by healing our diseases. I've had a couple of worrisome physician's reports over the years, biding time until surgery could be done and the final pathology reports could be obtained. In those times, I felt his presence. He is my healer and I know that the reports were excellent because he is an excellent God! The healing of God goes beyond our physical diseases - it encompasses the mind, emotions, and spirit damaged by all of life's woes.
• God has redeemed us from hell - more than just forgiving us of our sins - he has ensured that we would never have to experience the horrific terror of hell. If nothing else challenges us to sit up and give God our attention, that should! If you haven't read what scripture tells us about hell, you may not fully understand the sheer awe at his goodness - being overcome with a desire to praise God for his deliverance from hell's torture. 
• God has crowned us with love and mercy. I've never been much of a "tiara" woman, but I am awed by the beauty of character that God produces in a life surrender to him - an adorned life. That beauty of character is like a "crowning glory" over all of their life. Love and mercy - the crown of eternal love - encompasses their life and it radiantly displays God to all who look upon it. Love evokes the best in others. Mercy overlooks the worst in others. There is nothing more beautiful that can adorn a child of God than the crown of his love and mercy.
• God has wrapped us in goodness - not greatness, but goodness. We have a warped view of how we value individuals in our society today. We often think that if they accomplish something "great", then that adds to or gives them value. God sees our value in the goodness of heart that he creates by the presence of his abiding Spirit within us. Goodness is really moral excellence - the best part of God created within us by the indwelling of his Spirit.

If all this doesn't elicit some praise from your soul, then the final point should - he renews our youth! We pay thousands for creams, tucks, lifts, and gym memberships - all to hold onto our youth. What is amazing is that in the presence of God I am made young! If you don't believe me - try it. There is a restorative power that occurs in the presence of the Almighty God. I want you to see one last thing - David recounts that God HAS done these things. It is not a "hope in the by-and-by" that God "might" do these things in his life. They are an accomplished fact. David celebrates the continual work of God in his life - continually forgiving him of his sins (past, present and future); continually healing his diseases; continually keeping him safe from Satan's evil; consistently displaying his love and mercy in his people so that it might shine through them; continually indwelling them with his presence; and continually renewing them. Feel like you have nothing to praise God for today - think again! Then do some serious "soul-talk"! Just talkin!

I don't have that piece!

Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out; you formed me in my mother’s womb. I thank you, High God—you’re breathtaking! Body and soul, I am marvelously made! I worship in adoration—what a creation! You know me inside and out, you know every bone in my body; You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit, how I was sculpted from nothing into something. Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth; all the stages of my life were spread out before you, The days of my life all prepared before I’d even lived one day. (Psalm 139:13-14 MSG)

Body and soul - marvelously made. Being a nurse, I understand much more about how the body's 'parts' interact - seeing the linked relationships between one system and the other. I studied hours upon hours to learn this stuff - because it helped me to understand the potential cause of my patient's symptoms. Yet, even with all my hours of study, I don't fully understand the human body. I went to Bible College and studied hour upon hour to learn the truths contained within the Word of God about the man's soul and spirit, yet I don't understand either of them very well. Sure, I know we have a sin nature and that nature gives us a whole lot of trouble in this lifetime. I even know that we can live with an exchanged nature, but do I really understand that nature all that well? Not really. There is so much about each of us that is 'complicated' beyond our full comprehension - yet the Creator knows all those intricate inner-workings of body, soul, and spirit completely. He knows how one plays off the other and then affects the whole. Why then would we look to any other source for our help for what troubles our minds? Why would we seek other 'spiritual guidance' when we have full access to the one who breathed that spirit into us in the first place?

From nothing into something - this is how God works in all of us. He takes what really amounts to nothing and from what others may write off as 'nothing' he creates a thing of majesty. I have come upon a pile of Lego blocks left by my grandsons on occasion as they hurried off to engage in some other activity that caught their interest. I will not shy away from admitting I love these little building pieces. They are so 'versatile' - allowing the imagination to create item after item until one's creativity is satisfied with what has been created. Yet, even with all my 'vision' of what I want to create, there are times some of the blocks just don't seem to be in the pile that will 'fit' my vision. God isn't limited by what is in the pile of our lives, though. He isn't bound to create only what others can see in us, but is free to create from 'nothing' - he doesn't need that 'one missing piece' because he IS that one missing piece!

Inside and out - we are known. There is no hiding from the one who does the creating because he already knows what is within and what has been put on display for all to see. He knows about that blemish on my chin long before it emerges, just as much as he knows about that blemish in my soul that emerges because my choices weren't always the best. As much as I'd like to be 'blemish free' in this life, I am not. Inside me there are struggles between what my body wants, what my spirit needs, and what my emotional soul is driving me toward. On the outside, I might not give the impression there is a battle raging on the inside, but trust me on this one - there is! Others may see what is on the outside of my life - those things I have carefully allowed to be on display. God sees what is inside my life - those things I am a little bit afraid to display! He even knows those things that I'd be ashamed to put on display - those things from within my soul that really don't belong there any longer. 

We aren't made haphazardly - we are a thing of created excellence. We may not be fully perfect, but in God's eyes, we are a things of magnificent beauty and purposeful intent. We may not have all the pieces of our lives together as some would see us, but in God's capable hands, all the right pieces are there - he is at work putting them together as only he can do. Just sayin!

This soul of mine is killing me!

From all we can read in scripture, we see that man is made up of body, soul, and spirit. Our body is the easy one - we see and feel that all the time. The soul and spirit are a little harder to understand because they are things we know exist, but aren't as "tangible" as the body is. Spirit give us our drive; without it, we'd kind of be "dulled" to the world around us. Soul is made up of three separate parts: Mind, Will and Emotions. Mind is more than thought - it is where we kind of "commune with" thought - sometimes it is a Plato put it: "Thinking: the talking of the soul with itself." You combine all the "soul talk" with a will that wants to go one way and not the other, or a bundle of emotions constantly giving you fits and starts in this direction or the other, and you have a mess of issues! 

11 Therefore, let’s make every effort to enter that rest so that no one will fall by following the same example of disobedience, 12 because God’s word is living, active, and sharper than any two-edged sword. It penetrates to the point that it separates the soul from the spirit and the joints from the marrow. It’s able to judge the heart’s thoughts and intentions. 13 No creature is hidden from it, but rather everything is naked and exposed to the eyes of the one to whom we have to give an answer. (Hebrews 4:11-13 CEB)

The soul has a tendency to talk more than the spirit - making it a little hard to hear God on occasion. This is why I often take time out to just listen to what the spirit is telling me - because I don't want to merely give into the mess of thoughts that invade my mind, or follow every whim my emotions create based on some "feel good" scheme I might fall into. The thing about it is that we often give more attention to our soul and the three parts working within it than we do our spirit and the communion we have with Jesus there. When all is said and done we wonder why we are confused, or in the muddle of a mess we find ourselves in because we listened to our soul instead of the spirit.

It could just be that what we need to do is get more of God's Word into our spirit so our souls can be "contradicted" on occasion when the need arises!  There are thoughts we need to get out of our minds, equally as much as there are emotional reactions to pressures which create more panic and worry than is humanly possible to overcome. The truth of the matter is that we are ill-equipped to deal with life on a totally "soulish" level. We might do a lot of thinking, sorting things out to the best of our ability and formulating some sort of "plan", but how many times have we done this only to find we cannot maintain the enthusiasm in our emotions toward the thing we have planned despite a little "will-power" exerted toward the goal? Emotions, will, and thoughts don't carry us for the long-haul - spirit does!

God reminds us to focus on the spirit above all else - allowing his Spirit to strengthen our inner man, giving us fortitude for the tasks ahead. The spirit of man is "hollow" without his presence - it is "hallow" when we connect with him. Just sayin!

You riding a bicycle or tricycle?

Ruined lives surround us no matter where we live.  People start out well, but somehow through a series of misadventures and wrong turns, their lives end up in a state of shambles, almost like falling down shacks.  Along the way, they may have heard advice to not take a certain path, or to turn away from what they were pursuing with such earnest.  In ignoring the warnings, they compounded their misfortune and increased their speed of decline.  Now, at the bottom of the pit, they live with nothing more than regrets and the constant wondering of the "what if".  The worrisome part of their decline into the pit is the possibility of them having blamed God for the decline - for putting them in the pit.  In reality, it was their failure to heed warnings, to turn away from their self-directed pursuits.  Why is it we blame God when things end in ruins?  He isn't a God of "ruin", but of "hope", "possibilities", and even "impossibilities".  

People ruin their lives by their own stupidity, so why does God always get blamed?  (Proverbs 19:3 MSG)

Scripture is quite plain, no matter which interpretation or version you consult - people ruin their lives by their own decisions, actions, and self-directed paths. On the other hand, people do not really "improve" their lives - at best, we can do a little self-help regimen which might create a different set of circumstances for ourselves for a while, but true life change only is accomplished by the indwelling of God's Spirit in our lives.  Try as we might, we cannot change ourselves.  Scripture calls following our own path "foolishness" or "folly".  It ends in disaster, defeat, and decline - in other words, the bottom of the pit!  What seems good at the moment results in a "pay-out" much worse than we counted on.

Self-directed lives have a natural "flaw" - they are directed by emotion and reason (two quite unreliable sources of direction for our lives).  Yesterday, we spoke about the importance of man's three parts - body, soul, and spirit.  As we explored those three aspects of our being, we discovered man needs the spirit to bring balance to the things "sensed" in the body and "experienced" in the emotions, rational intelligence, etc.  Relying upon one or the other exclusively (body or soul) is definitely leaving us at risk.  If man relies upon how he interprets life simply by what he "senses" with his body - sight, smell, touch, hearing, etc. - he will lack the help of the intellect and emotion to "interpret" what he is sensing.  On the other hand, if he relies solely upon emotions to give him insight into right choices, he may miss the importance of how emotions are affected by our senses.  Body and soul walk side-by-side - but they still need a "third wheel" to give them balance much in the same way we need a third wheel on a tricycle!

A bicycle is like relying upon the body and soul - we can go places, but we may lack the stability of balance.  Adding the third wheel to the bicycle makes it a tricycle. If you learned to ride one of these, you know you didn't have to work hard to keep yourself upright - the third wheel assisted us in balancing without much effort on our part.  In the same manner, the spirit is the place of balance in our lives - the place of connection with God.  I realize this is an over-simplified illustration, but when we begin to recognize how the Spirit of God influences our spirit and brings us to a place of "reliable balance" in our decisions, we become less reliant upon our own abilities to remain upright and moving forward (like we have to when riding a two-wheel bicycle).  The "third wheel" is not added to the back, but to the front.  Think of the body and soul as being those two back wheels on the tricycle - the spirit is the front wheel. As the wheel out front, when it is connected with God's Spirit, it is free to help direct our path, steering us around obstacles, and keeping us from ending up in the pit!

We may not always make the best decisions in life, but it is good to know that we have been given every resource to change those decisions and to see new outcomes.  As we connect with God's Spirit, our spirit is energized, made alive, and we can begin to see the influence of his "balance" in our daily decisions.  We may curse the place where our body and soul allowed us to end up, but we cannot accept that God put us there.  No pit is so deep he cannot rescue us from it - no despair so dark he cannot bring light into those dark spaces.  How?  Connection with his Spirit in our spirit.  Just sayin!

Got spirit?

After watching various individuals go through turmoil and trial in their lives, I have observed the tendency for some to rise high, soaring above that turmoil, while others sink lower into the pit of despair.  It made me wonder why some flourish so well, while others just barely eek by and often have a hard time even holding up under the pressures of life.  Most of us would think it is because some are anchored well in their faith, while others have little to no faith at all, so if faith plays a part in "holding up" and "conquering", then what part does it play?  I have observed Christians and non-Christians alike in both circumstances.  Why do some flourish and others not - maybe it is because of the condition of their spirits.  Scripture points us in that direction, does it not? A man or woman with a "healthy spirit" conquers adversity - a crushed spirit will get us down quicker than anything else!

A healthy spirit conquers adversity, but what can you do when the spirit is crushed?  (Proverbs 18:14 MSG)

The spirit of man is what animates him - it gives us the connection we need for life itself - the connection with the source of all life - God himself.  When the spirit is well, the entire man is well - regardless of the circumstances coming their way.  I'd like us to consider the three parts of man - body, soul, and spirit.  The body is made up of all we consider as being in contact with the environment around us - it is what we use to experience the sensations of sight, touch, sound, etc.  We interact with our environment in and through our body.  For example, your body crawls in between freshly laundered sheets and feels the coolness of those sheets against it, taking in the fresh smell of the laundry soap and softener.  You are interacting with your body - not your soul or spirit.  

The soul is made up of our mind, will, emotions - the things which help us to interact with reason, rational thought, choice, and responsiveness. It is also the place of our remembrances - the place where we lay up memories and recall them from time to time.  The spirit actually "plays off of" these other two parts of our being.  In other words, what we take in by our interactions through our senses, we form some kind of thought around, and this may trigger some sense of thankfulness, praise, worship, or connection with our Creator - God.  If you have ever sat in the midst of the forest, listening to the sounds of the wind in the trees, observing the scurrying critters, and taking in the majesty of it all, you might have been elevated to a place of worship in your spirit.  

Spirit elevates us - it brings us to new heights, taking us to new depths, and helps us to hold on when the climb seems too hard or the plunge seems too deep.  The spirit is what helps us to "stabilize" in times of trial and keeps us on course in times of temptation.  In the simplest sense, the spirit is a "rudder" directing us toward the good things God has for us to experience in life - even if they are buried deep within times of trial!  A ship's rudder is small, but it directs the big ship with the greatest of ease - simply because it operates to do only one thing - to point or position the ship in the direction the ship is to be headed.  Our spirit helps to point us in the direction we are to be headed, as well.  As we commune with God in spirit, we get direction which our emotions, reason, rational thought, etc., cannot provide.  Sure, they can suggest certain responses, but our spirit is where we find the assurance of faith and hope - something which keeps us going even when it gets tough.

So, a crushed spirit is something we cannot endure very long - for it robs us of hope, diminishes all steps we might normally take in faith, and in short, steers us in directions we'd normally not travel.  This is why it is so important to continually allow our spirit to be renewed - in times of prayer, praise, worship, thanksgiving, etc.  As we commune with God, we renew our spirit.  It is raised again into places of hope and faith - re-energized for the journey ahead.  Maybe it is time we move from periodic renewal to a constant "recharge" of our spirit!  Then we might avoid the crash and burn of a crushed spirit!  Just sayin!