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August Devotional
Do you ever feel that there might be something seriously
wrong with you? If you are like most women, you long
to do the right thing ... but something inside of you
is ferociously growling and you are not able to contain
the savage creature!
Or perhaps, like me and millions of other feminine
souls, you often lay your head upon your pillow and
whine, "Who am I?! Who have I become?!"
If any of these situations are threatening to become
an expected aspect of your emotional make-up, let
me assure you today that there is hope! Many Christian
women are dealing with a soul out of control and a
spirit whose voice is lost in the din of our culture.
Allow me to explain ... You have a soul and a spirit
who might just be in constant conflict.
Your spirit is the life principal bestowed upon you
by God. Your spirit perceives and grasps eternal things
and is the part of man upon which the Spirit of God
exerts influence. Your spirit is the highest and noblest
part of you and it qualifies you to lay hold of incomprehensible,
eternal, invisible truths. Your spirit is where the
Word of God and faith dwell.
Your soul, on the other hand, is the birthplace of
your passions, desires, aversions and personality.
Your feelings and emotional responses to life germinate
in and are encouraged by your soul. When the Bible
references your soul, it is that which influences
your emotional responses to life.
You would never be able to walk by faith and not by
sight if it were not for your spirit. Your soul walks
by sight but your spirit walks by faith. Your soul
screams when it does not get its way but your spirit
quietly and gently walks in peace that passes understanding.
The problem is that most of us spend our entire lives
nurturing and feeding our souls and leave our spirit
languishing except for an hour of stale bread crumbs
every Sunday. We feed our souls by listening to secular
music, reading magazines and watching the loudly touted
television show of our culture.
We feed our spirits by reading the Bible, by tithing,
by listening to Christian music and by forgiving those
who have wronged us.
So ... let me ask you ... who is calling the shots
in your life? Your soul ... or your spirit? Your spirit
should be the big brother of your soul and when your
soul is throwing a two-year-old tantrum, your spirit
needs to tell your soul to "SHUT UP!!"
O.K. ... well maybe your spirit doesn't use words
like "Shut Up!" but it might use words like
"Grow up!"
"The strong spirit of a man sustains him
in bodily pain or trouble; but a weak and broken spirit
who can raise up and bear?"
Proverbs 18:14
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