Title: The Restoration of the Soul
Contents
“He leads in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake” (Psalm 23:3).
1. Introduction: The Joy and Plan of Soul Resuscitation
- The stagnation of the soul brings extreme suffering and suffering to the soul of the believer. When you experience the grace of revival in the midst of such stagnation in your soul, the joy and grace are indescribable. There is no happier time than when a believer is in the arms of Jesus. In the first half of verse 3, the poet who sang God's shepherd in reviving his soul, now in the second half of verse 3, he is talking about God's plan to revive his soul. The plan is to lead you in the path of righteousness for the sake of God's name.
2. Body: God's plan to revive the soul
1) Grace has a plan
- God's grace to revive the soul is given freely. But there is something to remember, that grace is a free grace, but grace always has a plan. And the two are not in conflict. As children of God, we can enjoy everything in God's house and live. Just as parents who raise children give their children everything for free, but have a plan to raise them as a person, God also has a grand plan to revive our souls.
2) The way of ‘righteousness’ is a life lived according to God’s righteous disposition
- “Righteousness” is used in several senses in the Bible, and here it refers to the right life of living according to God’s righteous disposition. The standard of the right life is given to us through the Bible. They are not people who live God's children as they please, but people who live according to the standards that God sets. If they live according to that standard, they will be loved by God and enjoy fellowship, but if they disobey, God will train them by chasing them through suffering to make them realize.
- The way of 'righteousness' is the opposite of the way of unrighteousness. The unrighteous way is to live life as you please. Because the standard of righteousness is not me, but God, and what is right in his eyes is righteousness. Therefore, we must learn what life is like for the children of God who have been saved, and we must live with the power to live that life through prayer and the grace of the Word. Otherwise, even after experiencing the restored grace before God, you will soon fall into depression again. If the Lord gives grace to revive the soul, we must keep and preserve the spark of grace in the ashes of a righteous life.
3) In the world as a revived soul...
- Because this age is an unrighteous generation, there is always pain in living a righteous life. In order to live righteously, there will be persecution and hardship, and material damage must also be seen. There has never been more light than darkness and more salt than perishing things in this world. But never in any era has the world been all dark or all rotten. God always leaves Christians who devote themselves to show Himself.
- God's plan is for those who have received a lot of grace to live not only with God, but with the light and salt of a dark world by using the grace they receive as the driving force for going out into the world. Standing in the middle of an unrighteous world with a revived soul, you must become a person who lives in the light because it is dark and strives to live according to the righteous word of God without making excuses for reality.
- Christians are the only lamps in this world that reveal God's heart and show what the life of God's people is like, just as countless ships can find their way out of the heavy rain with just one light even when full of dark clouds and storms. What God wants to see is that the world He created will return to the purpose of creation.
3. Conclusion: You must suffer for the sake of the Lord
- Since God has revived our souls, we must suffer for the Lord. We cannot live a perfect life, but we must become people who show the life of God's people to unbelievers by living according to the will of the Lord with love for the Lord in the sight of God. Remember what God has done for our souls when suffering is hard and temptation is hard to overcome. The wonderful grace and love that revives the soul is so great and beautiful that it is incomparable with the sufferings we face in order to walk the path of righteousness.
- Whenever we are in trouble, think of Jesus, and when we fall on our faces before the Lord, God does not leave us as orphans. We come to realize what it is to die for Jesus in the midst of suffering and difficulties, experience the things of being resurrected with Jesus when we prostrate ourselves in trust in God, and experience more grace and revival of our souls. Because we love the Lord, we overcome temptation in a dark world, face persecution, and live in obedience to God. With a restored soul, walk the path of righteousness and become saints who live by shining the name of God. 003-12-21