Ep 25 - He Restores My Soul

***There was a technical difficulty that caused a bit of static in the first minute and a half of this show that we were unable to remove,  but after that, it is smooth. We do apologize for this, but we felt the episode was still worth keeping.  :) 

Psalm 23:3 NKJV:  He restores my soul.

Romans 12:2 NIV Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Phil 2:13 AMPC: [Not in your own strength] for it is God Who is all the while effectually at work in you [energizing and creating in you the power and desire], both to will and to work for His good pleasure and satisfaction and delight.

Psalm 51:12  Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

1 Peter 5:7 Casting all your cares on Him for He cares for you

Hebrews 4:15-16 For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

2 Corinthians 12:9: "My grace is all you need, for my power is the greatest when you are weak

Hebrews 10:39 AMP But our way is not that of those who shrink back to destruction, but [we are] of those who believe [relying on God through faith in Jesus Christ, the Messiah] and by this confident faith preserve the soul.

Psalm 19:7 NASB: The Law of the LORD is perfect, restoring the soul; The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple

Psalm 42:11 NLT Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad? I will put my hope in God! I will praise him again—my Savior and my God!

Psalm 62:5-8 BSB Rest in God alone, O my soul, for my hope comes from Him. 6He alone is my rock and my salvation; He is my fortress; I will not be shaken. 7My salvation and my honor rest on God, my strong rock; my refuge is in God. 8Trust in Him at all times, O people; pour out your hearts before Him. God is our refuge.

Psalm 149:6 TPT God’s high and holy praises fill their mouths, for their shouted praises are their weapons of war!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Let's grow in every way. Welcome to the Let's Pro Their podcast. I'm your host. I didn't prove with you today. Are you ready? Alright then. Let's prove there.

SPEAKER_01 0:24

Hi there. Welcome to the show. Thank you for joining me today. Um, as I was praying this morning, I asked, you know, asked the Lord, what do you want me to share on? Do you want me to keep on with what I've been going or do something different? And the scripture that came to mind was Psalm 23, 3, and it says, He restores our soul. You know, in life, we go through a lot all the time. I mean, there's opportunities around us all the time where, you know, it feels like our souls are uh bombarded with one thing or another, you know, the world is is full of hurting people, and you know, it's I've always heard it said hurting people hurt people. And so, you know, it's it's always a possibility and opportunity around to be hurt and to be uh to be damaged, to need healing in our souls, to be wounded. And um so today I want to talk about how God restores our souls because it's very important that we aren't living in those wounds, that we aren't living in those hurts, that we aren't hurting people ourselves so that we don't hurt people. Just like hurting people can hurt people, healed people can heal people. Healed people can bring healing to others. So we want to be healthy, we want to be whole, we want to be healed, and we want to be the ones who are bringing healing, who are who are bringing restoration, who are helping people who are hurt and who are hurting to find the answers in Jesus that they need, to find God's love and to heal and to be restored. So let's look at Psalm 23. We're not gonna read the whole chapter, just the first three verses verses. Um, I'm reading in the New King James, and it says, The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside still waters, he restores my soul, he leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. He restores my soul. I just felt like that's what God was speaking to me today, that he restores our souls. I just heard that just on repeat in my head as I was walking and praying. He restores my soul, and you know, all of us need that. What does uh restore mean? Restore means to bring back or to put back into a former or original state. You know, when God restores something, he doesn't just make it okay, you know, he doesn't, this doesn't even just mean as good as it was, like if you went through a situation with a loved one or a friend or at work or, you know, maybe it wasn't even a people thing, maybe it was just a situational thing, and you went through that and it it hurt you or it wounded you or it just you know wore you down. God will not only restore you, just that doesn't just mean just to where you were before that, but this is actually refers to him restoring us to our original state. So that is available to us to be restored to the original state that God created us to be in. God created us to be perfect with nothing missing, nothing broken, you know, in complete wholeness, in complete healing and health, in complete fellowship with Him. So, what is a soul? Our soul is our mind, our will, and our emotions. How does God restore our mind? What can we do to restore our mind? Romans Romans 12, 2 says, Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. And then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is, his good, pleasing, and perfect will. So this is God's desire for your mind to be restored. It's part of your soul, and he says that he restores it. But we, as in most of the promises of God, we have a part to play, we have a role to play, we have to receive that restoration, we have to partner with God, we have to do our part to have that restoration. And in this, in in this part of it, in our minds, we do that by not thinking like the world thinks, by not, man, that's a big one. Just not thinking like the world thinks. How does the world think? How does the unrenewed soul, the unrestored soul think it thinks me, all about me? You know, we've been talking a lot about love and abundant life, and and love is key to that abundant life, which we've been talking about that for the last, I think, three weeks. So I'm not gonna reiterate all that, but you know, love is unselfish. Love isn't thinking about itself, love is not preferring itself. The God kind of love prefers others. So the world isn't walking in the God kind of love, and therefore they are thinking about themselves, they are preferring themselves, they are wanting what they want when they want it. And you know, sometimes it's not just the world. Sometimes sometimes Christians are doing that too because they haven't got their their minds renewed, they haven't got their souls restored. Or, you know, sometimes, you know, just life happens, and sometimes we all, you know, we miss it sometimes and we have to repent. And we're all growing. I say that probably every single show. We're all growing, hopefully, hopefully, every single one of us is growing on a daily basis. I mean, I I see I see areas in my own life where I have to grow. In fact, this whole message is coming out of it of an area where I feel like I did grow this week, where or, you know, first I needed to grow and then I realized it, and then I submitted to that process and I let God do that work in me and reveal to me what I needed to grow in and make the adjustments in. And so that's that's what we want to do. We want to let God restore us to think like him, to to be like him. Because originally, how did he create us? He created us in his image to be like him. So God's not going around wounded, wounding people. God's not going around um selfishly thinking of himself, he's thinking of us. He's proved that he loves us, he's going around loving people, right? He's he's going around, that kind of sounds funny. God's just going around. No, but I mean, God is love and he is loving, and we are like him. We are created to be like him. So if he is restoring our souls, our minds, our wills, and our emotions to be like him, then he's restoring us to be able to have the capacity to be able to love like he loves. And like I said, we've talked about love for the last couple of weeks. So I'm not focusing on that today, but it is, I mean, it's part of it because if we go around with unrenewed minds, if we haven't renewed our minds to what the word of God says about us, if we're transformed, uh, I mean, if we're conforming to the pattern of this world, the patterns of this world are the opposite of the patterns of God. They're the opposite of love, they're the opposite of righteousness, they're the opposite of all that God is. So if we are not, um, if we're not going to be like the world, then we have to not conform to those patterns and those behaviors, and we have to transform our minds by putting the word of God in, like we've been doing week in and week out, day in and day out. I hope you're in the word of God. You're getting it in you for yourself. It's great to watch the show. I'm so thankful and so glad when people tune in and people are tuning in all over the world. We have really had an uptick in people watching in Europe, and um it just makes me super happy to see those, see the growth curves on the stats um just going up and up and up. And you know, when we when we have a when we go down a little bit, it doesn't go as low as it did before on the I'm talking specifically on the stats that it shows me on the um podcast um platform, uh not platform, but the thing that sends out the podcast to all the platforms, it shows me how many downloads there are, where the downloads are, which specific episodes were downloaded. Um, and of course it just gives me like a city and a country. It doesn't like tell me exactly who downloaded it. So I don't know who, as far as individuals are listening. But I know that in in different places that there are repeat downloaders. So that that just thrills me. And it's been um it's been so great to see that growing, though, especially the last two weeks, it's grown so much. So um, sorry, I got excited there for a minute about that. Um, but you know, you're watching the show. It's good to watch the show. I'm thankful for all of you who tune in and watch the show because that's why I do it. That's why I do this. If you didn't, if you didn't watch or listen, and it it it'd be pointless for me to do it, right? So it's good to do this, but you know, you can't rely on me to bring you the word that you need every week. You have to rely on the word of God for yourself. You have to go to the word of God every day for yourself. You know, go to the word of God multiple times a day for yourself. It we don't go to the refrigerator just once a day, do we? Some of us go more than others, and some of us need to go a little bit less, probably, right? But how much more do we need the word of God multiple times throughout the day? Meditating on it, thinking about it, sitting down and reading it. You know, sometimes I just like to have it with me. I have, you know, multiple Bibles and and there's usually Bibles wherever I go because I work at a Christian business and, you know, I go to church and and uh I'm either there or at home, it seems like. So I'm always surrounded by Bibles, but sometimes I have like this my favorite Bible, and I sometimes I just want it with me. Like even if I don't even open it, I just want it right there beside me because I know what's in there and it's my source and it's my supply. And at any time I can grab it and I can look up what I need if I need, if I need strength, if I need joy, if I need peace, if I need wisdom, I've got it right there. And of course I've got it in me too, but sometimes it's just so great to just have your hands on, your eyes on the word. So you have to do that for yourself so that your mind can be transformed so that you'll know what God's will is, his good, pleasing, and perfect will for you. His perfect will for you is restoration in your soul. It's wholeness, it's nothing missing, nothing broken, it's that abundant life we've been talking about. It's that you will know his love and share his love. That's God's perfect will for you. It's his God's his perfect will for all of us to know his love. And so that's a theme on the show always to be in the word and grow. And so that's what we're doing all the time, right? So your your mind is renewed by the trans uh by the word is is what Romans 12.2 is saying, and you have a part to play in that. So you are partnering with God when you get in the word, when you say, Lord, I believe you're gonna restore my soul, but I'm gonna, I'm gonna actively partner with you in that. I'm going to do my part. I'm going to, you know, help the process along. We can fight what God wants to do in our lives. We can fight growing. We can drag our feet on it, or we can, you know, we can get our act together and we can apply ourselves and we can reap the benefits of applying ourselves and receive God's promises and receive the fulfillment of those things that He that He speaks in His Word, of that restoration. We can receive that so much quicker if we will partner with Him. And, you know, the Holy Spirit is a huge part in that. We have to listen to the Holy Spirit. You know, just I'm not talking just randomly reading the Bible, but you know, the Holy Spirit will bring a passage to mind. And when he does, if you don't know where it's at, Google it real quick or go check on the Bible app and you know, just put in a phrase and I guess you could ask chat GPT too. I'm not a big, I'm not a big uh AI person. I'm not a big chat person, but you can do that for sure, and it will tell you where that verse is, and then go get your Bible and read it for yourself and read the context of that verse and let the Holy Spirit speak to you about what that word is saying. And as you do that, as that becomes your standard um mode of operation, as you go about your life, you'll quickly step up and you'll quickly step into the promises that God has for you, and you'll you'll heal more quickly when things happen in life. And a lot of times, just doing that, it helps you to see things differently, to perceive things differently, to where you're not even actually hurt or wounded in the first place. Because that's very, that's a really um, that's a benefit to walking in love. And when you live by love, like I said, I didn't, I don't know if you did it or not, but I told you guys last week, go read first Corinthians 13. When you because it's the love chapter, and when you live by the principle of love, the God kind of love, agape love, it changes how you perceive things. And a lot of things that we get hurt by, a lot of things that we get weighed down by, a lot of those things, if we were seeing them through the eyes of love, it would we wouldn't even get hurt in the first place because we would see where that person was coming from. We would see more clearly what's going on and have grace for people and grace for situations. And but like I said, of course, we're all growing. And until we get to being perfected in all ways, there's going to be opportunities for hurts, and there's gonna be opportunities for things that we need our souls restored. If we didn't need our souls restored, the word wouldn't say that he would restore our souls, but it does say that because we need that. We're walking and living in a fallen world, and hopefully, the more we learn and the more we grow, the less we're affected by that because we we learn our authority, we learn our identity, we learn what's available to us in Christ. But along the way, there's there's opportunities. And even Jesus said that, you know, in the world you would have trouble, but to be of good cheer because he has overcome the world. So we can we can know there's gonna be trouble along the way. And sometimes that trouble affects our souls. But we have this hope, we have this promise that he restores our souls. And so the second part of our soul is our will. Man, I experienced that this week. Sometimes we go through things and just depending on your personality and depending on it's just situations. Sometimes we can have a uh want do a 180 in our will and what we want and what we're willing to do. And sometimes we we go from being willing to do the right thing or wanting the right thing, um, to all of a sudden we don't want that anymore, and and we don't want to do that. Sometimes it's a it's a sometimes it's an issue of rebellion, you know, coming in and being like, well, that person told me to do this, so I'm not gonna do it. And I don't want to do it because they said so. Sometimes that happens, and uh, you know, that's probably not a good attitude right there without even without even having to to do a whole lot of thinking about that. You can probably figure that if you're having an attitude like that, probably better check yourself, right? Probably better take a step back and pray and get um get your emotions and your feelings under control and you know, under the blood and ask the Holy Spirit to help you, to counsel you, to show you why you feel that way, to show you what it is that's making you respond with that attitude. You know, I'm kind of I kind of made light of it the way that I said it, but you know, the Bible says the rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft. So when when you're unwilling to do what you're supposed to do, what you're told to do, I mean, obviously I'm not talking about anything immoral or illegal or what whatever. I mean, hopefully none of you are in a situation where you're told to do something that's wrong. So assuming that you're not, you know, if you're told to do something and your attitude is I don't want to, or I'm not going to, or I don't have to do what you say, that's not that's not a good indicator. And it's it, it's it's it is a good indicator that you need to check your heart, you need to check your attitude because we do not want to give the devil an inch. And if you know, if we're in rebellion, then we're we're flirting, we are flirting with with the devil there. If we are unwilling to do what we're supposed to do, whether it's uh a boss telling us, whether it's a a leader or uh, you know, whatever, a parent, if you're if you're a child listening to this, a teenager listening to this, and your parent tells you to do something, or your teacher tells you to do something, and you are uh, you know, defiant and unwilling to do it, that is that's rebellion. And you want to get rid of that because that's not, you know, your restored soul wasn't in rebellion. You're I mean, your original, originally your soul was not in rebellion. Originally, your soul was in harmony and unity with your creator, with your heavenly father. And that wasn't part of your original design at all. That came in because of sin, because of the fall of man. And so we don't want anything to do with those things. Those are things of darkness, and the Bible instructs us to flee from darkness, to stay out of it, to have nothing to do with it. So anytime we have those kinds of feelings come up or those kinds of things come up in us, we need to stop and we need to take a step back and we need to ask the Holy Spirit to help us, to reveal to us what is making us respond that way, what is making us feel that way. And you know, he will help us and he'll help us to make the adjustments. And sometimes it's just that we're in the flesh. It's it's that we haven't been in the word enough or we haven't been spending enough time in prayer. And sometimes that's that's what it is. And you know, God is merciful. And when we when we have those moments and we have those things happen, uh we if we will do the right thing, if we'll say, God, help me. I don't want to be like that. I want to be willing and obedient, you know, the willing and obedient eat the good of the land. So I want to be willing and obedient, and he will help you, he will, he will forgive you, he will cleanse you from all unrighteousness, like it says in John. Uh first John, it says that if we if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And as we do that and he washes that away, you know, that's part of restoring our souls, because our, like I said just a second ago, our we weren't made to be uh at enmity with God or men. We were made to be in harmony, in unity, to walk in love, to be one with God and and um one with those who are fellow Christians, one with his children, right? And so we want to grow in all of those areas where there's hindrances there so that we can so that we can be all that God's called us to be. And, you know, I said in the very, very beginning of this show that part of what my calling is, is to prepare the bride of Christ for his return. You know, he doesn't want to come back for a bride that's he's is the Bible says he's not coming back for a bride that's that's full of spots or wrinkles. And, you know, that's part of those spots and wrinkles. It's when we're not in unity, when we're not in love, when we're not in peace with one another. And so we have to, we have to let God work on us in those areas and make us willing and and obedient. Philippians 2 13 in the Amplified Classic says, not in your own strength, for it is God who is all the while effectually at work in you, energizing and creating in you the power and desire both to will and to work for his good pleasure and satisfaction and delight. So this is saying that he he's not expecting you to do it all on your own, he's he's told you what. To do. He's told you how to get the blessing. And then he's telling you that it's all up to you. I'm going to help you do what I told you to do. So it's not in your own strength. It is in God's strength. He is working in you, creating in you both the ability, the power, and the desire, the willingness, so that you will want to and be able to do what you need to do, what he's called you to do, whether that's something that he's specifically telling you to do, or whether that's submitting to authority in your life that he's put over you that you're having trouble submitting to. So, you know, I wasn't so funny that I'm talking about submission. It's not the favorite topic for most people, but it's it's a godly concept and it's an important concept, and it's one that that we especially in America, we don't like the idea of submitting. We are, we like to be free, we like to be able to do what we want to do, what's best for us, and you know, that's just kind of the whole concept. Americans have um have a have a reputation for thinking about ourselves and what we want and and what we don't want. And, you know, a lot of times, really the definition for what we Americans is known as is rebellious. And I'm not saying we're all rebellious, but I mean, in a sense, we all are just just man in general tends to be that way. But in America, it's more prevalent just because of our history and in just different things, which I don't want to go all into that right now. But I wasn't thinking so much about talking about submission, but I mean it just makes sense because your will, if you're willing to do something, it's no big deal to do what you're told to do, right? It's it's not a big deal at all. It's when you're not willing to do something you're told to do that it's a problem. Um, I heard a preacher, and I don't remember which one has said it, but they said there's no such thing as submission until there's disagreement. So you're not truly submitting to an authority figure or to God when you agree with what they say. That's easy. You're just you're just doing it. It's not really a matter of, you know, you're willing to do it. So it's it's no big deal. It's when you aren't willing to do what they say, when you when you disagree, I'm sorry, it's when you aren't willing to do it. When you disagree that that's what you should do, or that's what you want to do, or that's what is best for you to do, or that's how you should do it. And it's when you have that disagreement with the person in charge that you have to submit, right? So, but God is so gracious because he helps us, he gives us the strength to do what he tells us to do. He gives us the strength to be willing and obedient. And that's part of how he restores our souls as well. Because if your soul is, I mean, if you're if you're constantly in your will, remember that's one part of your soul, one of the three parts of your soul. So if your will is unhealthy, if you're constantly in a struggle of unwillingness to do what needs to be done, then you're that's one area that your soul is not healthy in. And God wants to restore that. He wants you to live in peace. How I mean, when you are unwilling to do something, especially if it's something that you have to do, if you're unwilling to do your job or you're unwilling to do um, I'm thinking about teenagers again today. I'm not sure what that's about. Maybe there's some teenagers listening to this episode, but when you're thinking that you don't want to do the things that your parents or your teachers tell you to do, and you are struggling with that, there's a lot of times there's an we all know that teenagers can get attitudes and they're, you know, it's like there's an ugliness and there's a grumpiness and irritability because they don't want to do what they have to do, and there will be an attitude and they'll need an attitude adjustment. Well, God wants us to live in such a way that that's not, that's not, that's not a thing for us. We don't need our attitude adjusted adjusted because we're willing. We're willing to do what we're supposed to do. We're willing and obedient. Our souls are healthy, they're restored, they're whole. There's nothing missing and nothing broken. And there's another scripture in Psalm 51, 12, David was praying, and he said, Lord, restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me. You know, we see here that David asked for that, and we see in Philippians 2.13 that I just read, that that's God's will. And if we ask anything according to his will, we know he hears us and we will have what we asked for. So just be like David was and ask God to help you, to make you willing, to give you a willing spirit so that you will be sustained. And as he does, then you're gonna find that that area of your of your soul, your will is restored and it's made to be like him. So then the third part of your soul is your emotions. We all know what emotions are, right? Joy, sadness, happiness, you know, excitement, all the things, all the emotions. We all understand what emotions are. And some people are more emotional than others, some people have more varied emotions, some people are pretty even keel, and it seems like they have no emotions, but rest assured, every one of us has emotions. It's just a matter of which ones are most prevalent in our lives and which ones we um we yield to and which ones we're prone to. Everybody experiences emotions. Everyone, there is no exception. We all have emotions. Now, some people are better at disguising their emotions, at hiding their emotions, and some of us are not good at disguising and hiding our emotions. I'm guilty on that one. I uh I my husband says, you never, your subtitles are never turned off, they're always on. So by that he means you can always tell what I'm thinking and feeling because it's on my face, because I'm not good at disguising my emotions, and generally I don't even want to. That's kind of that's kind of where I'm at. I'm like, look, if I'm if I'm unhappy with you, then you should know I'm unhappy with you, or if I'm, you know, whatever, I think you should know it. So, like, part of me is like, I'm just want to be real, and then part of me is like just that's just what you see is what you get. And so for better or for worse, I'm one of those that doesn't do a good job disguising emotions, and and I know that. So um, I'm getting better at um submitting my emotions to the leading of the Holy Spirit and letting him help me because you know emotions in and of themselves are neither good nor bad, they're just indicators of how we feel, they're indicators of what's going on inside of us. And so, in and of themselves, they're neither good nor bad, you know, especially like I mean I don't know if I want to say it that way or not. Anyway, emotions are neither good nor bad, they're just indicators, but we can be unhealthy in our emotions when they're out of balance, when they're out of whack. I mean, you know, I don't know if you can be imbalanced and positive emotions. I don't know if that's a thing or not, but most people don't have a problem like that. Most people are dealing with an imbalance emotions when they're sad, depressed, uh, despondent, in despair, or, you know, angry and and full of just, you know, those things escalate and and one invites another. You have anger and bitterness and rage and and you know, just it's like they attract more of the negative side of emotions and things. And that's why God wants us to be healthy in our emotions and he promises that he is going to help us with that. He says in Psalm 23:3 that he will restore our soul, and our soul includes our mind, our will, and our emotions. So if you feel like you are imbalanced in your emotions, if you feel like you're struggling with a lot of sadness or despair, I want to encourage you today that God wants to restore you. And, you know, um, sometimes we're in a moment, you know, it's not our norm, it's not an ongoing thing, but we're in a moment where a situation happens and there's, you know, hurts, there's disappointments, there's um, you know, unfair things happen in life to everybody. And sometimes those things are a bigger deal than others, just depending on how it goes down, who's involved, you know, what what exactly happens, and and again, how how prone you are to certain emotions and things like that. But, you know, I found myself having gone through a situation recently and I was just like, I was hurt by the situation. And I didn't, I wasn't perfect in handling the situation when it happened. And, you know, that also bothered me because I don't want to do anything wrong. I want to, I don't want to do anything that that causes any problems or hurts anybody or anything like that. That's not my that's not my overall desire. It shouldn't be. If we're if we're saved, we should never be wanting to hurt people. We should never want to be a problem. You know, so we when we mess up, you know, there should be remorse. That's that's good, that's godly. So, you know, mostly in the situation, I was just hurt and it was kind of unfair, and and there was like mixed communications and and there was a lot of stuff going on. Quite a few people were involved in the situation, and just you know, my point is that I was hurt in the situation was one of the outcomes. There were other again, there were other outcomes again. Um, not just that, but that was one of them. And you know, because I'm saved, because I know Jesus, because I know God's love, I know that I don't have to bear that alone, and I don't have to keep it. He can redeem me, he can restore my soul, he can restore my emotions, and he will. He's willing and able and he wants to do that. And it's just like so many other things, though, we have to recognize that we, you know, we have a part to play, we have to give him those things. First Peter 5, 7 says, casting all your cares on him because he cares for you. If we hold on to those emotions that are negative, if we hold on to that sadness, if we hold on to that hurt, we're not casting it on him. And we're we're keeping it. And so that thing that we're keeping is keeping us from being healthy. It's keeping us from being restored. We have to open our hearts and we have to let him have those things that hurt us, those things that wound us, those things that, you know, that are negatives in our lives, that cause sadness, that cause pain, that cause anger, you know, that cause frustration. We that those things are going to happen to all of us here, you know, some sometimes more than others in different seasons and things, you know, uh you might be more prone to to experiencing hurts and and disappointments and stuff one season over another, you know, just life is is always doing something, right? And even when when things are good and you're happy and you're you're in a great place, the devil doesn't want you to be there. And he wants to do whatever he can to try to get a foot in your life, to try to cause you harm. And he will take any opportunity to do it. And like I said, Jesus said that there will be trouble. So it doesn't mean there's anything wrong with you because something happens. We're not gonna have perfect lives, nothing, nobody is gonna have a perfect life where nothing ever comes against them. We don't live in a literal bubble. There are things that come against us, and you know, honestly, a lot of those things are necessary to come against us because the resistance and those kinds of things help you to grow up, it helps you to see other things. Sometimes we're in situations just because we're human and it's not about anybody, um, it's not about a lesson. It's more about we haven't learned how to behave with one another, we haven't learned how to treat one another, um, you know, or like I said, somebody didn't have their uh quiet time that morning, and they were a little extra special that day. And because they didn't do what they were supposed to do, they lashed out at you or did something to you that caused you pain. When that happens, we have Jesus, we have the comforter, we have the Holy Spirit, and we have this promise that God will restore our souls if we will cast the care on him. He will take it and he will care for us, he will help us, he will heal us, he will make us whole, he will make up in us, he will make up to us what uh the enemy meant for harm. He'll turn it for our good, he'll bring peace, he'll bring joy. You know, Jesus quoted Isaiah 61. He's he came to bring the good news, to bring salvation. He was anointed to bring the good news, to set the captives free, to give beauty for ashes, to give a garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. So a lot of times those wounds and those hurts and those situations, they cause heaviness. And we can choose to throw that heaviness off and put on a garment of praise. And that's one of the keys of how God restores our soul that I'm gonna get to here in a minute. So, how do we receive the restoration that God promises us for our souls? It's just you receive it in there's a lot of ways, a lot of a lot of ways that God can use to restore you. But it's a lot like salvation. You receive salvation by grace through faith. So you have to, uh Hebrews 4:15 and 16 says that we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but he was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. I'm gonna pause there before I read the rest of it. You know, if you think that you're experiencing hurts, rejection, you know, rejection's a big one. I think every single person deals with rejection of some some to some degree throughout life. And um it's a huge, huge tactic of the enemy to make people feel unwanted, unloved, because God says we are loved, right? He the enemy wants us to believe we are not loved by God or people. That's one of his biggest tools is to to try to trick us into believing that we are not wanted and that we are not loved. And he will do that. He will use anyone he can to make us feel that way. And those are some of the biggest wounds in our souls that I know I've dealt with it in my life and throughout my life. Rejection hurts and feeling like you don't belong. And if you if you don't heal from that, then the devil will have a heyday in your life. He will keep you miserable, he will keep you suffering, he will keep you sad, depressed, oppressed, despondent, in despair. All the bad things. So we want to receive God's healing. But you know, Jesus was despised, the Bible says he was despised and rejected by men. Think of how hateful people were towards Jesus, how the religious people were towards him and the Romans as they crucified him. They were so hateful, they were so scornful, they were so cruel. And Jesus bore all of that. He experienced every single bit of that. And the reason that he experienced it is so that he can identify with your feelings, he can identify with what you've gone through, he can identify with your experiences, and actually his were probably a lot worse than yours. He has been through rejection, he has been through people hurting him on purpose and not on purpose. You know, it hurt Jesus when Peter denied him. Peter didn't mean to hurt Jesus, but he did. So Jesus knows what it feels like to be hurt, he knows what it feels like to be betrayed, he knows what it feels like to be rejected. And the rest of this verse says, so he can sympathize with our weaknesses. So the rest of the verse says, Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. So that grace, the grace of God is so, it's everything that we need. It's our salvation, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. That's just the very, very beginning. Uh, it's it's power, it's it's the empowerment and the ability to live life in abundance, to live life on top as the head and not the tail. It's the ability to do everything that God's called us to do, to do it excellently, to do it well, and to receive the salvation of our souls. To to, it's literally everything. It's like the secret ingredient, it's like, for lack of a better term, the magic wand. It's like it's everything. Grace is everything that we need, and we receive that grace through faith. 2 Corinthians 12 9 says, My grace is all you need, for my power is the greatest when you are weak. So, in those times that we're hurt, that um, you know, we're wounded, we're struggling, we're rejected, whatever the whatever the situation is, or maybe, you know, just going through a hard time in life and not sure what's going on, and and you know, questioning this or that, or not understanding this or that. Sometimes it's not something that people do to you. Sometimes it's just like where you are in life and and not understanding, you know, why you aren't further down the road yet, in spite of all your efforts. You know, where where am I missing it? Where am I not, you know, where am I not doing enough? Where am I not doing the right thing? How come I'm not further down the road? You know, how come I'm not to this other place that I thought it was going to be at by now? Sometimes it's frustrations like that. Sometimes it's not people situations, but you know, it doesn't matter what the situation is. We have grace from God and we can receive that through faith. Hebrews 10 39 says, But our way is not of those who shrink back to destruction, but we are of those who believe. We rely on God through faith in Jesus Christ the Messiah, and by this confident faith preserve the soul. So that's how I mean it all works together for that restoration of our souls, for the preserving of our souls, for the salvation of our souls. It all works together. It's God's plan to give us grace. Our part is to have faith and receive that grace for salvation, for provision, for healing, for wholeness, for restoration, for for again, for the restoring of our souls. We just have to believe God and we have to come before the throne of grace and say, Help, Lord, help. I need your help. And he's and we have to not come there begging desperate. He we don't have to beg God. We don't, you know, we might feel desperate, we might feel desperation, but it's not because God's not willing to help us. It's not because God's not there. The Bible says he's an ever-present help in time of trouble. So it's on us to believe what the Bible says, to believe that he is our ever-present help in time of trouble, to believe that he is willing to restore our souls, that he is willing to help us, that he is able to help us, that he is there for us. And we have to believe. We have to be believers and believe. That's another thing that I love to say on this show. We're believers. What do believers do? We believe. So if the word of God says it, we believe it. And if we don't believe it, then we work until we do. We work in the word and we work in ourselves and we ask God for help and He helps us. He's the Helper. He wants to help us. He sent the Holy Spirit to be our helper. And we can ask the Holy Spirit to help us every single day. We should. He wants to help us. He wants us to ask for his help. And we should be good at being helped. Some people are not good at being helped. Some people, uh, some people are not good at receiving help in the natural. How much more in the spiritual? Sometimes I used to be that way. I think I'm not that way as much anymore. Although sometimes I still am that way. Sometimes it's hard for me to be helped. I can help someone else. But me being the one that needs help, that's not as easy sometimes. And if that's how we are, then when it comes to needing God's help, then a lot of times we are, we're we're cheating ourselves, we're shorting ourselves because we're not receiving the help that he wants to give. He wants to make life smooth. He wants to make it level. It the Bible says it over and over again. It says that he makes our path smooth, he makes our path straight, he makes our path level. It's Jesus says, my yoke is easy and my burden is light. He is not looking or trying or having any plans for things to be hard for us. He is always trying to help us to, in a sense, make things easy. His grace makes things easy. His grace makes things light. Even he turns bad things good for us if we can just receive his help when he says, Hey, shut your mouth. Don't say another word. He's helping you. And if you listen to him, if you let him help you, if you receive his help, you will be glad that you did. And and he'll help you, he'll show you what's going on on the other side of the equation. If it's a people thing, he'll he'll help you have understanding. And if it's something that is wrong, he'll show you how to pray about it. And if it's something you need to take action on, he'll show you what to do. But we have to ask and I mean we have to listen for his help. He's always trying to help us. But we have to listen and receive his help. We have to respond to his help. You know, if somebody is throwing, you know, reaching out towards you with a um, you know, a life, a life preserver or whatever, if you're drowning, you have to reach out and take that thing. It's not going to just, you know, magnetically come to you and and grab a hold of you. No, you have to grab hold of that life preserver and let them pull you back or let it, you know, at least keep you above water. So you have to do your part. You have to receive it, and you have to take hold of the help that he wants to give you. So here are some practical things, some practicalities, and this is not exhaustive, but here's some practicalities. The first is get in the word. Obviously, that's the number one thing I'm ever gonna tell you to do. It's my number one, number one everything. Get in the word. The word of God is life, it is health, it is joy, it is peace, it is the answer, it's everything you need. It's God talking to you. It's my most favorite subject, and I just feel the passion just stir up in me as soon as I start talking about it, about the word of God. It is our source for living, it's our source for life. And if you'll get in the word, you'll find everything that you need. You will find restoration for your soul. Psalm 19:7 says, the law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. Ah, I love that. I love, love, love that. The word of the Lord is perfect, it restores your soul. So get in the word. That's the first, most important, best thing you can do. Get in the word. And if you're going through something extremely difficult and you just you don't even know where to go, psalms is a good place to go. I saw a friend post about this recently. They're going through something difficult, and we're just having a hard time even studying the word. And the Holy Spirit told him, Go read the Psalms. And the Psalms is full of stories where David was struggling, where David was going through hard things, not just David, but others. And you can see how he walked it out. So many psalms, David, you know, so I love that. So many of the Psalms, David will be down in despair. But then by the end of the chapter, he's like, Oh, I love the Lord. He heard my voice, he is good, he loves me, he's he's the great God, he's the mighty king. What you know, whatever he says. But the psalms will encourage you. If you can't do anything else, get in the Psalms, but get in the Word. That's the most practical thing you can do to receive restoration in your soul. And then put your hope in God, trust him and pray. Psalm 42, 11 says, Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad? I will put my hope in God, I will praise him again, my savior and my God. That's beautiful. The beginning of that chapter says, As the deer pants for the water, so my soul longs for you, oh Lord. And we have to, we have to long and pant for the word of God, for God Himself. We have to thirst for him. And when we do, when we put our hope in him, when we trust in him, he will save us, he will rescue us, he will lift us up. Psalm 62, 5 through 8 says, Rest in God alone, O my soul, for my hope comes from him. He alone is my rock, he is my salvation, he is my fortress. I will not be shaken. My salvation and my honor rest on God, my strong rock. My refuge is in God. Trust in him at all times, O people. Pour out your hearts before God. God is our refuge. So getting in the word is key. Pouring out your heart to God is key. It's okay to tell God what you're going through. It's okay to tell God how you feel. In fact, it says, I think it's in Thessalonians, it says, tell God what you need, but then thank him for what he's done. So it's okay to tell God what you need. God, I need peace. God, I need healing. God, I need understanding. God, I need help. I need hope. I need, you know, whatever it is that you need. It's okay. It says to pour out your heart before him, but don't stay in that place. Pour out your heart and then let him fill you up with his love. Let him fill you up with his truth. A lot of times what's in our heart is lies, you know, that we've been believing, lies that the enemy has planted there. I talked a while ago about uh rejection, lies of rejection, lies of unwantedness, lies of not belonging, lies of not being enough. Whatever the enemy tells you, it's a lie. And sometimes we're carrying those things in our heart. And if we'll pour out our heart to God, let him fill us up with his truth. He says, You are loved. He says, You are enough in me. God didn't make you a mistake. God didn't make you junk. It says that he planned you out perfectly. He knit you together perfectly while you were in your mother's womb. He so so God says that you are good. You know, in him, you are good. He created you to be good, he created you to belong, he created you to be loved, and you are loved in him, and he'll fill you up, and he will he is more than enough in every situation. So when you pour out your heart to him, let him fill you up. Don't just do that, that pouring out part, but then receive his love. Receive that restoration, receive that healing, receive the word that he gives you. He'll give you a word, he'll give you a direction, he'll give you insight, he'll give you light to live by. The Bible says that over and over, especially in the Psalms, that he gives us light to live by. Trust him and pray. Pour out your heart to him. And then praise. Praise is a weapon, praise is a powerful, it's a powerful thing that I know I don't take advantage of enough. And I think in general we don't, because we think we have to feel like praising to praise. You know, you don't have to feel like it to praise. You can praise God when you don't feel like it. And when you do, that's called a sacrifice of praise. And do you know when you sacrifice to praise that you reap a huge reward and benefit, even right then in that moment, things begin to shift. The atmosphere begins to shift and it confuses the enemy of your soul. And the enemy doesn't know what to do because the enemy says, Well, I've thrown everything at her that I can. I have brought rejection. I have brought, you know, despair, I have brought lies against her, I have brought hurtful situations, I have brought, you know, problems. And she's praising. What is that? What's going on? What is happening? He gets confused. And when he gets confused, it it's great. It's good news for you when the devil gets confused. So, and when you praise in that sacrifice of praise, when you don't feel like it, when it looks like you don't have anything to praise about, it is so powerful. Psalm 149.6. I like the passion translation of this. It says, God's high and holy praises fill our mouths, for their shouted praises are their weapons of war. I love that. And I'm going extra long today, aren't I? Well, I don't want to stop. I want to finish this. So it's just gonna be an extra long broadcast. Um, you know, there is a movie that I'm I'm not a huge movie person, but my husband has always been, and so I've seen a lot of movies, and there's this one movie that I will actually, you know, want to watch every couple of years because the message that I got out of this movie, it's a completely secular movie and it's Star Trek Beyond. And um, but I got something so powerful out of this movie. There is this part in there where it's I gotta make this fast. So if you haven't seen it, uh I'll try to give you the idea of what's going on. So they are trying to figure out what's going on, they're on this other planet, and the um oh, how do I do this short? Um, so there's this loud rock music that goes that starts playing on this old ship that this uh person, this whatever thing, alien, whatever it is, is trying to fix. And if you watch Star Trek and you're a big Star Trek fan or a movie fan or whatever, I know I'm butchering this. Go ahead, feel free to laugh at me. Um, I won't know. And if I didn't know, I wouldn't care. Uh so there's this loud rock music that comes out playing, and this alien or whatever, this this being did not know what this stuff was, and they're like, What is that? And they called it the beats and the shouting, and they liked it. And um, so they kept playing it all the time while they were working on it, and um, it was loud and it was crazy. It was like heavy metal, it was like rock, and and it was just like she called it beats and shouting, the beats and the shouting, she said she would say. So when they are going back to this other planet and trying to escape the bad guys, um there is a concentrated, focused attack of these little small things. It's like a swarm of things that come off of this ship and it's coming all at them and attacking them from every direction, from all around, from all over the place. And they figured out that there was a frequency that these things were um operating by. And I'm probably doing a terrible job of describing this, but I I hope that it makes sense. Okay. So there's this frequency that these enemy uh things are operating off of, and they figured that out. The good guys did. And so they said, the beats and the shouting, she says, turn on the beats and the shouting, or one of them says that. And so they turn on that rock music and they blare it out, and it totally disrupts the frequency that the enemy is operating off of, and they start crashing into each other. They start, they go completely off course, they they completely lose control and they're destroyed, and the good guys get through because of this loud music, because of the beats and the shouting. And that is such a perfect picture of what praise does to the enemy. An example of this in the Bible, because you know, I would rather have a Bible. I don't just want a movie, a movie um reference. That's not me at all, but that that reference is just so it's so neat, just where the the enemy just gets completely confused. It's a very good uh image of what happens here in 2 Chronicles chapter 20. And I promise I'm gonna wrap up real quick here, guys. In 2 Chronicles chapter 20, uh, you probably know the story. It's when um King Um, oh goodness, what's his name? Jehoshaphat. King Jehosaphat is facing all of these armies. They're coming against him. He doesn't know what to do. There he knows his army is not powerful enough, is not strong enough to defeat all of these armies coming against him. And so they're like, he's he says, Lord, we don't know what to do, but our eyes are on you. And so I'm just gonna skim through this to make it go um faster. So the spirit of the Lord comes upon Jehaziel, the son of Zechariah, da-da-da-da-da-da-da. And he says, Listen, do not be afraid or dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours but God's. Uh, tomorrow go down against them. You will not need to fight in this battle. Position yourselves, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord who is with you. Do not fear or be dismayed. Tomorrow, go out against them, for the Lord is with you. And Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground, and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem bowed before the Lord, worshiping the Lord. Then the Levites of the children of the Kohites and the children of the Koh Korahites stood up to praise the Lord, the God of Israel, with voices loud and high. I can imagine it was beats and shouting. So they rose early in the morning and went out into the wilderness of Tekoah. And as they went out, Jehosaphat stood and said, Hear me, O Judah, and you inhabitants of Jerusalem, believe in the Lord your God, and you shall be established. Believe his prophets, and you shall prosper. And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed those who should sing to the Lord, and who should praise the beauty of holiness as they went out before the army and were saying, Praise the Lord for his mercy endures forever. This is this is the verse right here, the clincher. Now, when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushes against the people of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah, and they were defeated. Down here it says that they helped to destroy one another. Perfect picture of what I just talked about on that movie. So praise is a weapon, and it is a weapon that we do not use enough. So if you've been through situations lately, and you know, all of us do from time to time, sometimes more often than others, but if you're feeling that in your soul, if you're feeling that I was feeling in my emotions and in my, in my really, it was it was in my soul. It was it was not just in my emotions, it was in my will. I wasn't willing to do things that I needed to do because I had been hurt. So it made it kind of soured my attitude, it soured my willingness, and it affected even my mind and my ability to think through things that I needed to and do things that I needed to do. And it wasn't huge, it wasn't a big, big deal, big, big effect or whatever, but I it was enough that I noticed. And you know, the more that we live in God's peace and his love and his righteousness and and live in that in that place that he has for us, the you know, little things, as soon as some little things happen that get us a little, uh a little messed up or a little off, we want to make a correction because we want to get right back into that peace, right back into that flow, right back into that grace. And that's what happened with me. And God's saying, I will restore your soul, I will heal your emotions, I will clear your mind, I will renew your mind, and I will make you willing. He's saying all of that's available to us. He wants to restore our souls. We have to do our part though, right? We have to believe, we have to receive, and we have to come boldly before the throne of grace to find that help and do the things that help. Get in the word, get in prayer, put your hope in God, not in people, not in situations, not in man, but in God. Put your hope in the Lord, trust in him, pray, and praise and worship, and watch the enemy of your soul be defeated. Not people, but the enemy behind the things that people do, the enemy that's causing the havoc, that's wreaking the havoc, that's causing the strife, the division, the problems, the pain. And God will take care of that as you do these things, as you praise him. So receive that restoration in your soul today. And you know, it's kind of this is kind of like a twofold message here: the power of praise, the weapon of praise, and the restoration of our souls. Those are two powerful tools, powerful concepts that we have access to, that we have the ability to utilize in our lives. And that's what we want to do. So I pray for you today that in in every area of your soul that you feel and find that restoration in God, that you let him restore your soul today, that you let him lead you beside the peaceful waters, that he causes you to lie down in green pastures so that he can restore your soul, so that he can heal those places that are hurting, that he can heal those places that are broken, that he can restore you, and that you can find the grace that you need to help you in every situation in your life today and all week long. Well, guys, I think this might be a record long show. I hope it wasn't too long. But man, I got I got excited and passionate about the word there. So I hope it was okay. And I hope you'll be back next week on Tuesday. I'll see you then. Bye bye.