He Restores My Soul

He Restores My Soul (Psa 23:1)

God’s restoration means that He brings us back to a state of new strength, vigor and eternal perspectives. When we allow the Lord to restore us, He rebuilds and repairs our fraid nerves, worried mind and worn out bodies. God’s word, His Spirit and the presence of Christ brings joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control in exchange for self-destructive fleshly tendencies. Without God’s restoration we will quickly give in to discouragement, destructive attitudes and temptations. Explore how to allow the Lord to restore you emotionally, mentally and spiritually.

Illustration: Dr. J. Elder Cumming contended that "in almost every case the beginning of new blessing is a new revelation of the character of God--more beautiful, more wonderful, more precious."

J.O. Sanders, Enjoying Intimacy with God, Moody, p. 14.

Illustration:

Compared with salamanders and starfish, mammals have a dismally limited ability to replace lost parts. But now reports of children growing back finger tips and spleens are changing that.

In 1974, Cynthia Illingworth, an English physician specializing in emergency medicine, discovered that when children accidentally sever the finger tip (down to the first joint), the best treatment is no treatment. Cleaned and covered with a bandage, the finger tip, including the nail, grows back. In 11 or 12 weeks the new finger tip usually looks as if nothing had happened to it.

There seem to be three requirements for regrowth: the patient must be under 12 years old, the cut must be above the crease of the first joint, and surgeons must keep hands off the injury. Any operation performed on the finger destroys its ability to grow back. The last condition is the hardest to accept, admits Dr. Michael Bleicher, a pediatric surgeon at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York City.

Reader’s Digest, March, 1980.

1. RESTORES THROUGH REVERENCE - When we worship the Lord He revives our heart as Jesus promised, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst...The true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth." (John 4:13,14,23,24) Allow the Lord to restore your emotionally, mentally and spiritually through worshiping the Lord personally, devotionally and corporately. Praise God for His kindness, mercy and gracious sufficiency regardless of your circumstances and find out that He is more than enough for all your needs.

Illustration: I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation. If it were possible for a created soul fully to ’appreciate,’ that is, to love and delight in, the worthiest object of all, and simultaneously at every moment to give this delight perfect expression, then that soul would be in supreme blessedness. To praise God fully we must suppose ourselves to be in perfect love with God, drowned in, dissolved by that delight which, far from remaining pent up within ourselves as incommunicable bliss, flows out from us incessantly again in effortless and perfect expression. Our joy is no more separable from the praise in which it liberates and utters itself than the brightness a mirror receives is separable from the brightness it sheds.

C.S. Lewis.

2. RESTORES THROUGH REMINDERS - The Lord reminds us of all the good blessings we have in Christ. Paul wrote, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ." (Eph. 1:3) Paul wrote to Timothy, "Remember Jesus Christ." Often people burn out or wear out or grow weary because they have forgotten to consider Him who endured such suffering of sinnners against Himself, lest we become weary and lose heart. For we have not resisted to the point of shedding of blood in our battle against sin. (Heb. 12:2-4)

3. RESTORES THROUGH REPLENISHING - The Lord refuels us with new strength, energy and vitality every moment of the day. "They who wait upon the Lord will renew their strength, they will run and not be weary and walk and not faint." (Isa 40;31) Take time to replenish your mind with what is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, excellent, admirable and praise-worthy. (PHil. 4:8) Many people allow their spiritual batteries to run low because they have not taken time or effort to discipline themselves for godliness through personal devotions every morning and evening. Even Jesus needed spiritual replenishing every morning. Mark 1:35 says, "While it was still dark, Jesus got up and went out to a lonely place and there He prayed."

4. RESTORES THROUGH RESOLVING CONFLICTS - Praise God that he brings resolution to many interpersonal conflicts. "A harsh word stirs up anger, but a soft word turns away wrath." (Prov. 15:1) Put away anger, jealousy and put on a heart of compassion. Kindness, humility, gentleness and patience, forgiving one another just as God in Christ has forgiven you." (Eph. 4:28-32) There is no conflict that God cannot resolve if you will delight yourself in the Lord, commit your way to Him and He will bring things to pass. (Psa 37:3-5)