He restores my soul

I'm sorry it's taken me so long to return to this post.  I've been struggling with how to share what the Lord has taught me through Psalm 23:3. 

The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.

He makes me 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.
Psalm 23:1-3

The third verse starts out "He restores my soul."  Those words alone sound peaceful and inviting, don't they? 

He restores my soul.

The soul here is referring to the mind, the deep seated emotions.

Since the Psalm refers to God as our Shepherd, let's return to our sheep analogy. 

Sheep can easily become cast down.  This refers to the sheep falling down on it's side or back and not being able to get back up.  The sheep with flail its legs in an effort to turn over thus causing gas to build up in its body.  This gas paralyzes the sheep's legs.  This is called "cast."

This can happen to any sheep.  Do you see the parallel to our lives?  We can easily become cast down, discouraged and even depressed... Anyone of us can. I read that even Charles Spurgeon, the great theologian and preacher, suffered from depression due to his illnesses.

This discouragement and depression starts in our minds.  One tiny ounce of deceit enters our minds and it can lead down a very dangerous path. It's so easy for this to happen.  Anytime something that is untrue invades our minds, we are at risk for discouragement and doubt.  These lies are imaginations.  Anything that is not fact is an imagination.

I have a terrible time with this. My mind can so easily become filled with rubbish that I've begun to believe little by little and before I know it, I'm obsessed with an imagination that is consuming me.  Like any new mom, I was concerned about the health and safety of my first child but my worry was heightened by the fact that she had a compromised immune system and had heart surgery as a newborn.  I was obsessed with her dying. I'd lie in bed at night and imagine waking up in the morning to find that she had died in the night. I was paranoid. I was obsessed with the thought of her dying... even to the point of thinking through how I would tell Brad, what her funeral would be like, who would perform it, and on and on. I couldn't get the thoughts out of my head.  It consumed me.  And it wasn't until I went through Beth Moore's study Breaking Free that I realized that I was being held captive by my thoughts. So I want to share with you from this study what helped me to get rid of these imaginations, these lies.

I think women especially get so caught up in what could happen and speculations and reading into situations.  And so I want to spend some time on this point.

Isaiah 26:3 says "You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast because he trusts in you."

Look at the first part of the verse, "You will keep" -  You and I need a watchman sitting guard on the walls of our mind. And Jesus Christ is that watchman. The Hebrew word in the original text for keep is nasar ... to guard, protect; used to denote guarding a vineyard and a fortress. Those who performed this function were called "watchman."

"him whose mind is steadfast" - Every time a thought enters our minds, we must decide if we are going to believe that thought as truth based on God's word or as a deception based on God's Word. Note that your only standard is God's Word. Not something you've heard or read elsewhere or how you were raised or what you read on a blog or something your best friend or parents believe.  We must learn to bow our thoughts to the truth of God's Word.

Now look at 2 Corinthians 10:5 "We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ."

I love this verse.  The verb tense in the last phrase "we take captive every thought" implies a repeated and continuous action. Just because I claim a truth one time, does not mean my mind will from then on reject the lies that fill my head. I have to keep on meditating on the truth.

Picture the captivity of your thought life like a prison cell wallpapered with lies.  The only way to tear down the lies wallpapering your minds is with the truth of God. So you have to KNOW the truth of God. And the only way to know the truth of God is to study his Word.

One of the things Beth Moore instructed us to do is make a list of all the lies that we believed regarding our particular issue. I made a list and it was long ... really long. I had no idea that I believed as much rubbish as I did; it was truly amazing to see it all on paper.

Then once we had identified the lies that wallpapered our minds, she instructed us to find Bible verses that pertained to our particular issues, write them down on spiral bound note cards, and carry them around with us.  Whenever these thoughts would creep into my mind, I was to whip out my note cards and read the verses that refuted the lies.

A verse that made a huge difference to me is Philippians 4:8 "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things." 

I would literally go through the list in the verse denouncing the imaginations in my head.... Is what I believe true?  Is it noble? Is it right? Is it pure? Is it lovely? Is it admirable? Is it excellent or praiseworthy?

And as I was reading these truths from God's Word and memorizing some of them, I was tearing down the wallpaper of lies in my mind and replacing it with wallpaper of truth.  One things Beth emphasized was that the walls of our minds will never stay bear.  Unless you replace the lies in your head with truth, the lies will return.

John 8:32 "Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free."

I love Romans 8:6 "The mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace."  Doesn't that just sound freeing?

This couldn't be more true.... Once I replaced the lies of Kirsten dying with what God's Word said, a huge burden was lifted off my shoulders.  I do not deal with that issue anymore.  I did what 2 Corinthians 10:5 says and took these thoughts captive and made them obedient to Christ.

I am still amazed that these thoughts no long plague me.  I was truly obsessed. At times I couldn't even sleep.  The truth really does set us free.

Our Shepherd is here to restore our souls.  And he restores our souls through peace and rest as we trust him, as we dwell on his Truth.