He Will Restore Your Soul – A Mindful of Christ Encouragement and Reminder - Purity 1195

To see today's photo, go to mt4christ.org or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter. Good morning. Today's photo of a bridge over tranquil waters comes to us from Fred Dimmick, who shared this peaceful scene on social media this week, captioning it as "tranquility at the river." Well, it's Friday, and as we are observing Veterans Day tomorrow with the day off today, I'm at my wife, Tammy Lynn's Countryside Estate for a 3-day weekend where I fully expect to discover a measure of tranquility as we are scheduled to see a show tonight, Seussical the Musical at Charles R. Woods Theatre in Glens Falls this evening for a little fun, and I'm not sure what else tomorrow, um, but I do know that a long weekend with my wife will give me a peaceful, easy feeling just being in her presence. Last night after dinner and before my online Zoom cohort meeting with Deeper Walk International School of Prayer Ministry, I had a half-hour window of free time to spend. And instead of trying to get ahead of— on school or ministry work or do anything quote-unquote productive, I just asked Tammy Lynn if she would lay with me. Now don't get me any funny ideas. While I am a virile, sexy beast of a man when I want to be, I just wanted to rejoice in her presence by lying down and holding her in my arms, fully clothed. I miss my wife during the week, and while I had only had half an hour to spend, I wanted to invest all of it in my love for her. So we just held one another and rested in one another's arms until my meeting began. Simple times like that can build your relationship and give you rest. And I was reminded how blessed I, I was to— I am to have a wife who loved me and who could relax long enough to do that. Of course, I didn't always have Tammy Lynn. After my previous marriage was destroyed by divorce, I decided to follow the provisions of Gentile Christians highlighted in Acts 15 and remained sexually pure and was fully prepared to remain that way for the rest of my life, with the hope that I wouldn't have to, of course. And thankfully, the Lord brought Tammy Lynn into my life in 2021, and she became my faithful Christian wife on New Year's Day 2022. So how did I cope between 2018 and 2021? Where did I find my rest? Where did I restore my soul? Although I wasn't dating, I wasn't alone. I had friends in the body of Christ and family in my life, of course, but the relationship that has persisted and carried me through some of the worst days of my life was my relationship with the Lord. In His presence, I find strength, peace, love, and joy. He can restore our soul. So in the spirit of restoring our souls, I share Lauren Ross Killey's short encouragement based on Psalm 23:2-3 that she sent out this week as, as this week's Word for Wednesday from her ministry mindfulofchrist.net. You can subscribe to receive emails from Lauren's Word, of Lauren's Word for Wednesday for yourself and to be encouraged weekly and be equipped by other Christian resources by Lauren Ross Killey by going to mindfulofchrist.net. The cat is falling all over the place as I'm here with more cats than usual. Anyway, Lauren writes— well, she doesn't write this part, the Lord does. It's Psalm 23:2-3. The Word of God says from the English Standard Version, uh, 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. But Lauren does write, he will restore your soul. We all have the ability and privilege of being able to spend time with him in his presence. When you do, he will lead you by still waters and restore your soul. By simply sitting in his presence, you will also experience his peace, love, and joy—fruits of the Spirit—find calmness, hear his voice. So stop, take time out, and rest with the Lord, whether you are busy, stressed, or simply trundling through life. We all need the Lord. But perhaps you need to be intentional about it. For instance, make a Post-it note, add it to your calendar, set reminders. This week, challenge yourself to make time to sit still with him. So if you want to experience those green pastures, be led beside those still waters, and be restored, then make your time with him your priority. And that's what she wrote. Uh, thanks for that simple advice and encouragement, Lauren. So as much as— so as many of us have a 3-day weekend, let me encourage you to take my friend's advice and make time with the Lord a priority. Because while we may be able to find a measure of rest and relaxation in the world, only a close personal relationship with God through Through faith in Jesus Christ and time spent in his presence can restore your soul. Today's Bible verses come to us from the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Kruis. This morning's meditation verses come from the section on children, and today's verses are 2 Samuel 12:18-23. And the word of God says On the seventh day the child died. And the servants of David were afraid to tell him that the child was dead, for they said, "Behold, while the child was yet alive, we spoke to him and he did not listen to us. How then can we say to him, 'The child is dead'? He may do himself some harm." But when David saw that his servants were whispering together, David understood that the child was dead. 1 And David said to his servants, Is the child dead? They said, He is dead. 2 Then David arose from the earth, and washed, and anointed himself, and changed his clothes. 3 And he went into the house of the Lord, and worshipped. 4 He then went to his own house, and when he axed, they set food before him, and he ate. 5 Then his servants said to him, What is this thing that you have done? You fasted and wept for the child while he was alive, but when the child died, you arose and ate food. He said, while the child was still alive, I fasted and wept, for I said, who knows whether the Lord will be gracious to me that the child may live. But now he is dead. Why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him. But he will not return to me. Today's verses falls under the sixth point of our, of our Counseling Reference Guides resource section on children. And that sixth point is: David was comforted by the knowledge that his infant son went to heaven when he died, and that he would see him there. Today's verses remind us that even in the deepest tragedy of death, We can have hope because there is life after death, and the faithful know that they will see their faithful loved ones again. Some may have thought David was a little cold in quote-unquote getting over his son's death so soon, but we all grieve differently. And when we have a deep faith and knowledge that God has our loved ones in his hands, we can have a peace over our loved one's departure. For the Christian, we don't need to wonder where our departed loved ones go or if they— if they are leaving us was quote-unquote right. We know that God gives us life and he decides when to take it. We also know that he is good and that his ways are higher than our ways. So while we may not understand why our loved ones had to die had to die, when and how they did, we can trust that God either has them safe with him in his kingdom, or they have rightly been judged and sent where they chose to go. If you choose to reject God's presence in life, you can be assured you won't be forced into it after death. We are all responsible for the consequences of our decisions, and no one ends up where they didn't choose choose in the end. David knew this, and he knew God would lovingly welcome his son, an innocent baby, into his kingdom. And because David had a heart for God and a covenant, covenant relationship with him, he knew he would see his son again. Our faith in and relationship with God is the most important thing about us, and It holds the answer to life and death and determines where we go beyond this mortal coil. Until Jesus returns, death will come, but those in Christ will live, and the only work we will have to do in grief is to adjust from the absence of our loved ones from our lives here on earth, because if they knew Jesus, we will see them again. As always, I invite all to go to mtforchrist.org where I always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk. Today we continue sharing from A.W. Pink's The Arthur Pink Anthology, a collection of A.W. Pink's tracts brought together in one book and dispersed here on the blog for your encouragement. Today we're sharing the second half of of a track called Bearing the Rod. So if you want to see that resource, go to, go to mtforchrist.org, and you'll see it at the end of today's blog post. And you'll see part 1 of it on yesterday's blog post. So if you want to read that in its entirety, we broke it up into 2 parts to keep it, uh, to keep it short. And today is Friday of a 3-day weekend, so I'm going to keep it short. I do encourage anyone who's listening to check out our YouTube channel, basically, and the things we usually point to are classes that we have on YouTube. We do, you know, these encouragements for ourselves and whoever might be listening 6 days a week, but we also did, discipleship classes in 2021 at our old local church, Rock Solid in Hudson, and we audio recorded those and they're on the podcast. Those classes are, of course, Victory Over the Darkness, The Bondage Breaker, and Freedom in Christ. Those classes are all based on the word of God and the work of Dr. Neil Anderson of Freedom in Christ Ministries, and we share them and people actually apparently listen to them or or click on them, and I am, you know, I'm blessed by that. So we point people to those because those teachings tell you all about who you are in Christ. It tells you about the spiritual forces of darkness that oppress us, lead us into temptation, and condemn us. And most importantly, they point us to a prayerful repentance process called the Steps to Freedom in Christ, where we can resolve our spiritual and personal conflicts and cast out the enemy. So, well, we, we point to the Steps to Freedom in Christ to do that. If you'd like to be led through the Steps to Freedom in Christ, you can contact Freedom in Christ Ministries at ficm.org and ask for a trained encourager to prepare you and lead you through the steps. So So we do that. We also recommend Deeper Walk International. They do a lot of work with spiritual warfare and heart-focused discipleship, and they have a lot of great resources as well. So that's that. And we also have a class out there on Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Discipleship. We actually put together, you know, a video slideshow of the entire book. So if you ever wanted to check out Bonhoeffer's Cost of Discipleship, as it's sometimes known. We did a whole series on that as well. So, well, and all of this is just to encourage your life of faith. Basically, if you're all alone and don't have a wife to lay down with or a husband to lay down with and hold you, um, the Lord will hold you in his arms. And all you have to do is draw close into his presence to experience his love and his peace. Jump into his word to hear his voice, go to the church to, uh, to meet his kids and make friends with them, you know. Um, you know, you're never alone when you have the Lord in your life. And if you feel alone, you need to reach out and find community of other Christians. I know it can be difficult, but, um, you know, we're going to be together in heaven, so we might as well get to know each other now. And we'll be together after heaven when Jesus makes a new heaven and new earth. So it'll be pretty, pretty interesting developments, uh, coming, coming after life and into the future. But for now, we find peace and restore our soul in his presence. So let's pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we thank you so much for the life you've given us and the rest we can find in one another, but, you know, the rest that restores our soul in you. Lord, we just pray for you to bless us today, um, as some of us will be working, some of us will enjoy the day off, but none of us want to leave your presence. So we just pray for you to go before us today. Pray for the people who might be listening today or reading today's message. We just pray for you to bless them. We pray for you to come alongside them in their prayer requests. And guide their walk of faith. And while you're at it, Lord, we pray for you to bless our walk of faith as well. Pray for you to bless, bless our time, uh, this weekend with my wife Tammy Lynn, and, uh, to make, to make it a time of rest and productivity, whatever I want to do. I just pray for you to come alongside it. Uh, we pray for you to lead us in the way we should go to best utilize our time Um, and, um, we just pray for you to show us what you want us to see and lead us into what we should do today and tomorrow. Um, and, uh, we, we just want to represent you, Lord, and rest in your presence. So help us with that today. Lord, we thank you, we praise you, we love you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.