How Is the Most Important Part of You Doing?

Our soul is the most important part of us. We see in the Psalms how important it is that our soul is well and healthy. So, how is the most important part of you doing?  #Biblestudy #Psalms #WomensBibleStudy #GoodMorningGirls

This summer I have been walking my dog Snowball on a regular basis.  Snowball is a very fluffy dog with short legs but she moves fast!  So as soon as she hits the road – often she is walking me more than I am walking her.  Just last night when I was walking her, a gentlemen commented on how my dog was pulling me up the hill. Lovely! Lol!  Guess it’s noticeable to passers by – perhaps I need to get into better shape so I can keep up with my little dog! 🙂

It’s been a hot summer here in Ohio, so when we finish our 30 minute walks, she is always panting hard and very thirsty.  Once Snowball laps up all her water in her bowl, she lays flat on the cool kitchen floor and rests, totally content.

This reminds me of the deer that David writes about in Psalm 42 – he says:

1 As a deer pants for flowing streams,
so pants my soul for you, O God.

David says that just like a deer that is on the run and panting hard with a dry mouth – looking for a stream of water, David’s soul is panting for God.

His soul is panting for God!

Is your soul panting for God?

The soul is the part of us that lives forever. Like Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, our souls were made to know and walk with God.  Everything that happens externally of us is just temporary but our soul is what lasts eternally.

Your soul is the most important part of you.

How is your soul doing?

Last spring, I was on the phone with a close friend of mine, Karen Ehman, and we were talking about how busy this season of life is right now.  Keeping up with my teenagers is not for the faint at heart!  I’m experiencing the same problem I have when I am walking my dog – the kids are pulling me along and I am trying to keep up!  Karen recommended to me a book titled Soul Keeping by John Ortberg . So I have spent time reading it this summer and really pondering the state of my soul.

In a rushed and hurried world, it sure is hard to keep my soul well but it is the key to living well!

We can have everything externally in order but if our soul is in chaos we will not be okay. BUT if everything in our soul is at rest – then there can be chaos swirling all around us externally but internally we will be okay.

And so David writes:

My soul thirsts for God,
for the living God.
When shall I come and appear before God?

David’s soul is thirsty for God. He is desperate for the living God.

David continues:

My tears have been my food
day and night,
while they say to me all the day long,
“Where is your God?”

These things I remember,
as I pour out my soul:
how I would go with the throng
and lead them in procession to the house of God
with glad shouts and songs of praise,
a multitude keeping festival.

And then David speaks to his own soul and says:

Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation.

David asks his own soul –what is wrong with you? Why are you down and in turmoil?

Dear reader, are you down and in turmoil within?

Maybe you need to ask your soul – what is going on in there?

So many times we are tempted to try to fix our souls by doing external things like eating, shopping, scrolling on social media, talking to a friend, going on a vacation, getting a new hair color or lipstick color –but none of this helps our soul!

Our souls were made to find rest in God alone.

And the only way we will find rest in God alone is by creating slow moments daily – so we can meet with God and drink from his living water.  Without it – we go through life panting – trying to find streams that will quench our thirst but we end up unsatisfied and at a dead end road every time.

And David knows this and so he says to his own soul: “Put your hope in God!”

That’s it!

All hope that we put in other things will fail.  All of our irritability, anxiety and frustrations point to a need that is not being met. It’s a need in our soul – a need to hope in God and walk with God.

And this is not a one time thing.  If you decided to do a cross country drive on one tank of gas – you’d run out of gas.  Instead, you have to make a plan to stop regularly to refuel. Our lives are the same – we have to stop regularly to tend to our souls.

Look at what Jesus says to us in Matthew 11:28 & 29:

28 Come to me, all who weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest FOR YOUR SOULS.

It is our souls that Jesus cares about.

How Is the Most Important Part of You Doing?

Is your soul weary, burdened, down or in turmoil?

Put your hope in God alone.

God is your water source – he is what your soul is thirsty for.  Don’t drink the garbage this world offers.  It cannot quench your thirst and do not try to lean on the people in your life to care for your soul.  That is simply too high of an expectation to place on other people.  God wants you to turn to Him.

This is the highest form of self-care —> soul care.

Tend to your soul daily by meeting with God in His Word. Only you can open the Bible and drink from the living well for yourself.  God loves you!

Walk with the King,

 

 

Did you see the Fall Bible Study announcement?  If you missed it – you can find all of the details on this blog post here: Introducing the Good Morning Girls New Fall Bible Study. I really hope you will join us – I know it will be good for your soul. 😉

15 Comments

  1. This post was felt like it was written just for me! Like a remindee from God, that with everything going on and after the trying day I’ve had, I need to look to Him who made me to refuel me and keep me going.

  2. Thank you Courtney for your words of encouragement today. Yes, our souls can only find rest in Him alone. Psalm 62 is one of my favorite psalm. Stay strong my sister! Love you! Hugs!

  3. This is just what I needed to read – hear in my soul. Even though I know what I need to do to replenish my soul, the busier I get the more I push it aside. Now I am out of balance, and in desperate need to renew and feed my soul. Thank you

  4. This was such a wonderful article. Even in this season of my life being a grandmother I find myself busy busy taking care of others ( which I am thankful I am able) but missing out at times tending to the most important one which is my soul and being refueled with Gods word to allow me to tend to my soul and others. So Thank you for the reminder.
    Lord help me to be like the deer who panths for water help me to desire you more than anything and anybody .

  5. Hey there, there is nothing wrong with your four paw drive, I use mine on a regular basis ????????. My senior rescue pup is healthier than I am, but I’m battling some pretty serious chronic diseases, chronic inflammation and pain. I’m on about twenty seven medications. There is the possibility that I may have Vasculitis.

    I am currently losing my vision and hearing from a Concussion ( I hit my forehead on the handle of my upright vacuum cleaner. ) that retriggered an old traumatic brain injury from a dump truck wreck I was in back in 1998. I walked out of the wreck with a five inch gash on the right side of my head.

    People feel sorry for me, but I don’t. Because I am knowing that God can use me in any shape or form.

    Give the fluff a hug from me and #princepepperpudpaws.

    1. Ooops! I forgot to tell y’alls that I tore the dump truck into three pieces,I went to take a picture of it and the rear dualies ( the back set of double wheels. ) we were sitting in the dump bed beside the cab of the truck. The passenger side was crushed in.

      I only remember the point of when the truck was tilting into the ditch before it flipped over and rolled –I prayed ” God if I have to go through this, then knock me out and pull me through it. ”

      I was DOA (dead on arrival). But I remember the warm golden glow of heaven. Feeling a gentle hand on my right shoulder telling me that it was not my time yet, for my work on earth was not done yet.

      Fast forward to 2004, I met my now husband online. my husband had essentially estranged his family. He lost ten years of his life that he cannot recall. He sunk into a deep depression from the previous relationship. It took about ten years but we are now a part of the family.

      I want to ask for healing for my husband as he is battling a disease that is enlarging his internal organs and his thyroid is so out of control that even the highest dose of thyroid medication is doing nothing.

      He is my best friend and I am not ready to lose him.

      1. Prayers, dear sister for you and your husband. God is not through with you yet! He has brought you through so much. He has a mighty plan ! Blessings and Hugs!

  6. I love that “The greatest source of self-care is soul care.” What a great reminder!! Gonna write that one down! Is Snowball a Bichon Frise? He looks exactly like my Bichon. They are such sweet dogs, so very smart and obedient and so willing to please. On another note, I’m looking forward to your new Bible study on Ruth. My book arrives today…Yayyy! I loved your last one on Ecclesiastes!

    1. Hi Sheree,

      Yes, Snowball is a Bichon Frise! She is such a blessing to us.

      So glad you are joining us for our study through Ruth. I can’t wait to begin!
      Lots of Love,
      Courtney 🙂

  7. Thank you for sharing this! I had a total Mom-fail kind of day yesterday. When I read this post this morning, I realized I’ve been trying to do everything on my own power – which isn’t much power to speak of. I need to rest and refresh my soul, turn to Jesus for comfort and care. Thanks for the reminder.

  8. *We had a Bichon (Sammy) for 10 years – miss him!

    Thank you for your post this morning – an excellent reminder to stop and take me with God each and every day…filling our tank and allowing him to take the wheel!

  9. I read that book a few years ago, and found it quite revolutionary. Thanks for all your posts they are so encouraging. And it’s lovely to hear how you are doing. You have a very cute dog.

  10. I read in Oswald Chambers today about Christ Awareness and Matthew 11:28 was the scripture included with the devotion. Then I read what you wrote here and it brought me to tears. My soul has been in turmoil and I was using everything else to ease or cover it up. I asked God this morning while in bed, “what is wrong with me” and he lead me to the things I read this morning. What a Miracle! Seems like for me it can be so easy to fall off the straight and narrow path and not even be aware of it. Thank you for ministry and listening to your calling that God has given you. I did the latest study with GMG and it was so good. my first! I plan to do the next one on Ruth.

    thank you for all the time you put in for the Bible studies!

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