Daily Devotions based on the Sermon Series: “Timely Teaching for Turbulent Times”
Week 4 of 6: “The Impact of Love!”
Full Sunday message, CONTEMPORARY or TRADITIONAL
THIS WEEK: LOVE God! How?
Everyone human being has one.
It is the part of us that drives our spiritual component.
What is it? Our soul.
The soul is that part of us that desires a connection with the divine.
The question is with what “divine” will your soul connect?
The Apostle Paul recognized the soul can wander to try to identify and understand the divine. The soul wants someone or something to believe in. The soul wants someone or something to hope in. The soul wants someone or something to give confidence of life after this earth.
Acts 17:22 Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.
Paul then revealed the living Jesus not just for their minds to understand, but for their souls to connect to.
Augustine of Hippo has famously said, “Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee.”
While we discussed the heart yesterday, it seems Augustine is referring to this spiritual unrest that our soul feels until it finds rest in the LORD our God.
When our soul finds rest in the LORD our God, here are three blessings:
1. The LORD our God gives our soul a certain and real God in whom we can believe, fully trust.
1 Peter 1:8-9 “Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, …”
2. The LORD our God gives our soul a certain and real God in whom we can hope.
Psalm 62:5 Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him.
3. The LORD our God gives our soul a certain and real eternity to look forward to.
1 Peter 1:9 “…for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”
Nothing and no one else can provide certainty in whom we trust, hope we can look forward to and eternity that allows our soul to be at peace no matter what the situation.
To love the LORD our God with all our soul, is to allow our soul to find true rest in the Lord our God.
Apply: What causes your soul to doubt or distance itself from the true God? What is that “god” promising that the Lord your God isn’t? A good read is Tim Keller’s “Counterfeit Gods.”
Prayer: Lord, thank you for my soul and for bring my soul to make its permanent connection with you. Let no false gods tempt my soul to deviate from its desire for you. AMEN.