Battle for a Healthy Soul in 2019 (Part 1)

Those of us who are over 45 years old or more ( that was a long time ago for me ) rarely take seriously the tradition of making a New Year Resolution mostly due to that fact of not keeping those resolutions after January. Truth be told, what we call resolutions aren’t truly a solid decision to change but rather an admitting of a weakness in our life style we regret. Sometimes admitting we need to change is very difficult depending on how many areas we struggled with the year before and yet to admit a weakness of failure can be the first step in becoming healthier.

When I start a new year I often reflect on the Psalms, because I find King David’s confessions so honest and encouraging. As human being with social pressure to conform we are so occupied with what people think. This preoccupation is such a hinderance and so hard to break free from but we must struggle to do just that. Get honest and get free.

One of my favorite Psalms is chapter 103, because it sets the stage for remembering the good things of the past and not just the things that went wrong and never got accomplished. It is a Psalm of reflections that many of us would do well to start each year out with and develop a pattern of healthy thinking, for its is our thinking that must be changed if real change is ever to be realized.

Let me list the first few verses and dissect the significance of their importance in our transformation in becoming people we want to become and becoming the people God knows we can become.

Psalms 103:1-5                                                                                                                                                                                                               [1] Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name.                                                                           [2] Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget none of His benefits;                                                                                                    [3] Who pardons all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases;                                                                                                    [4] Who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with loving-kindness and compassion;                                             [5] Who satisfies your years with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle.

This Psalm of praise, written by David, is one of the most beloved of all the Psalms. The premise this Psalm from the beginning is David’s challenge to engage his whole soul to focus. Unfortunately, most people don’t know how the soul works let alone what their soul consists of. So they don’t challenge their own soul like David did, nor understand how David became the man he was and chalk it up to David having a special gifting from God that the rest of us don’t. You can’t do with your soul what you don’t understand. You can quote scripture all day long about the promises of God, but if you don’t understand what the scripture is saying to do or not to do you will be caught in a paradox of uncertainty. From my experience, paradoxes don’t help us, they hinder us. They leave us with unresolved conclusions that we end up leaving alone and relegated to the land of forgotten or ignored expectations. For so many years, I have heard Christian teachers and preachers claim some truth in the scripture is a “Paradox” only because they have never given enough thought and study to unravel the mystery or because they are hindered by some wrong perception of the scriptures or of the character of God. Mind you, some things are meant to stay mysteries for a time, but far too many are not. Some truth takes a great effort to unravel in order to gain the power it contains. Just like a gold mine, you have to put in the effort to get to the gold. Some gold is very deep and takes a tremendous effort.

Back to the issue of the soul; Your soul is that composite of your humanity that makes you who you are. When your body dies, your soul goes to be with the Lord if you have committed your life to him, or you go to a place for judgement. The three basic elements are Mind-Will-Emotions and these three operate together to either hinder our progress us in life or expand and develop it. If one or more of these elements are weak, for any reason, they can and often do cripple the life of the individual. If, on the other hand, the three elements are healthy and equally proportioned in strength they assist the individual in all areas of life. Now, I have not mentioned your spirit, which was given to each of us at conception, but suffice it to say your Body-Soul-Spirit are meant work together again to help or hinder our lives. If your soul is unhealthy, it affects the choices you make with your body and our connection with the spirit of God with our spirit. Here is what the apostle John said about these three:

1 Thessalonians 5:23-24                                                                                                                                                           Now may God himself, the God of peace, make you pure, belonging only to him. May your whole self—spirit, soul, and body—be kept safe and without fault when our Lord Jesus Christ comes. ²⁴You can trust the One who calls you to do that for you.

Paul is actually praying for people to be healthy in all three of these major components of each person – Body-Soul-Spirit. This potential can be wasted through neglect or ignorance or realized through the right application of wisdom. Each person has great potential, yet each person does not have a guarantee of success.

So how does a person help to make their soul healthy? We have to know our strengths and weakness and we need to know the reality of trusting God practically. Many people claim to trust God yet the evidence would speak otherwise. David, realizing that the focus of his soul is critical to his own success so he calls his soul to focus. It seems funny when you think about it unless there is more truth to this challenge than we all realize. David actually speaks to his own soul. How, you may ask? I believe David learned long ago while herding sheep to allow his “Spiritual Man” to take the lead in his life. This is one reason he could face a giant named Goliath down the road. This is no easy task, but very necessary. Our soul generally wants to take the lead rather than assisting our spirit. If the soul is functioning as God intended than our soul facilitates and supports our spiritual self and propels our lives to trust the Lord. If, on the other hand, our soul wants to dominate, our spirit is often muffled.

Let me close this first part on “Battle for a Healthy Soul in 2019” by encouraging you to consider the following:

First – We can Hope our soul is healthy, which in most cases it is not, or we can study the Scriptures to discover what makes our soul healthy. The truth is in the Word, so scheduling time each day to read starts us down the right path.

Second – We can Speak to our soul and direct it to focus on God and his goodness or we can float through life hoping we don’t hit any major problems. That’s like driving a car without training. We will hit things along the way without training.

Third – We can Focus more on what God has done in the past, to help our lives gain encouragement to trust more or we can focus on what mistakes we have done in the past first and get discouraged. Without proper encouragement about the goodness of God, we will not pursue the change we desire or need.

Questions:

1) Have you seen the wisdom of focusing on God’s goodness first rather than on your mistakes first for 2019? Your starting point will make all the difference in the world.

2) Are you scheduling time in the scripture each day? Start out with small amounts like 15 minutes and then as you have success, increase your time.

May God help us to see the BIG picture of His help before we look at the small picture of our failures in 2019.

Pastor Dale