He restores my soul

We are studying Psalm 23 and how God relieves stress in our lives.

He restores my soul.

This is good news; we all need to have our soul restored periodically.  We get hurt -- life's tough.  We get beat up by discouragement, depression, despair.  We have fatigue, failure, frustrations, and fears.  We all have hidden hurts from our past.  We carry wounds, battle scars, and emotional garbage.  God wants to take away this stress.  He wants to restore your soul.

How does He do that?  He does that when you allow Him to relieve you of three things that cause emotional instability:

1.  Let God remove your guilt.
2.  Let God relieve your grief.
3.  Let God replace your grudges.

You cannot get rid of guilt by yourself. You cannot pretend that guilt doesn't exist. You cannot "rationalize" it by saying "everybody feels that way." You cannot blame other people.

You must give it to God to take care of. He is the only one who can remove your guilty feelings.

You must understand this: God relieves you of this guilt the first time you ask. And He does it immediately. God forgives and then He forgets. And this you must do as well.

Sometimes we suffer grief. Sometimes our heart is broken. What do you do when your heart is breaking? What do you do when the grief overwhelms you in life? Throw a giant pity party? Play the "if only" game? Withdraw into a shell, hide in a cave, isolate yourself from humanity and say "I'll never let another man hurt me!" Do you just pull back and resign from life and be miserable the rest of your life? There are other options. You can let Jesus restore your soul.

Please remember this. To get rid of the guilt, you must:

1. Accept what cannot be changed.
2. Focus on what's left ... not what's lost.
3. Pray it up!

Don't exaggerate it, dedicate it. Give it to God. You're going to be hurt in life. Pain is inevitable, but misery is optional. The Bible says, "Blessed are those that mourn," but too long we take our mourning and hold onto it and turn it into moaning. The Bible says, play it down and give it up. Give it to God. Psalm 37, "Commit your way unto the Lord." Instead of saying, "This is devastating to me!" say, "God, help me make it through this situation!"

When you hold a grudge, who does it hurt? It doesn't hurt the other person. They probably don't even know you're thinking about them. It only hurts you.

How do you rid yourself of grudges? Give it to God. It's as simple as that.

Romans 12:19 "Dear friends, never avenge yourselves. Leave that to God, for He has said He will repay those who deserve it."

You will never be healed from your hurt until you accept God's forgiveness through Jesus Christ and then you offer that same forgiveness to other people. Jesus Christ can remove that guilt and nobody else can. He specializes in new beginnings. It's called being born again. He can wipe the slate clean. There is no reason in the world for you to go on with a guilty conscious when He offers forgiveness. Just accept it. Stop punishing yourself for the past.

Jesus Christ wants to heal your damaged emotions. He will restore your soul if you'll let Him.

I hope you have a wonderful week and I hope you feel better already!