He Restores My Soul

Psalm 23:3 He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. 

When you hear the word restore – what comes to mind?  old – tarnished – scarred up – tossed aside. 

And then we restore. What was worthless becomes treasured.  What was unwanted becomes wanted. 

He restores my scarred, beaten, weary soul. God rescues our broken and hurt soul, and He restores it, makes it new, and gives us value. 

A few years ago I bought this old house. It was not in the best shape.  The first time I went to look at it, I brought my son and daughter-in-law with me and if I could only have captured their faces; they thought I had lost my mind.  It smelled like moth balls, was unlevel, and had a piece of plywood in the floor of the hall which was covering a hole.  The bathroom was disgusting. My parents went and looked at it and were sure I had lost not only my mind, but my money. 

My husband and I got in and started tearing it out, pulled out the bad and put in new cabinets, walls, and paint.  In the midst of it, my daughter and her fiancé fell in love with it and decided they would live there.  They ended up buying it and lived in it for 5 years as newlyweds and then as new parents.

Where people saw ugly and worthless, I saw what could be. God looks at our souls and He sees what can be.  He sees the beauty in us when we aren’t feeling very beautiful.  He picks us up, cleans us up, and gives us a new perspective, a new hope, and puts the light back in our eyes.

Jeremiah 30:17 says “For I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith Jehovah.

What in this life has hurt you? Beaten down your soul?  Loss of a loved one? The pain of failure? The shame of sin? God loves you and wants to “restore your soul.”

Sometimes it just takes being weary to make us withdraw. We get in our heads that when we mess up God is disgusted with us.  That is NOT what God wants for us.  He loves us and wants to bring back our joy.  Only God can restore the soul from whatever kind of hurts it may have faced. Only God. 

The second part of the verse is about our path, and where God leads us. The path isn’t the end goal or destination. The path is the journey we take to get there.  God’s path?  This path is a path of righteousness; it’s a good path. It’s His plan for us as we follow in His will.  It is a path that brings us to the quiet waters and green grass and the places where we are close to Him. 

So many times we allow other things to guide our paths.  Our emotions, our history, our own will, our family dynamics, our opinions, our habits.  And we end up on the wrong path.  I picture being on a hike with a nice smooth path and choosing to instead go through the briars and thick woods.  It really does come down to the choices we make.  And so often, we just get it wrong. We get it wrong because we choose a path that doesn’t lead to God, but in fact, keeps us from God.

Proverbs 3:5-6 tell us to Trust in God with all our heart, and lean not on our own understating; and in all our ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct our paths.  

Have you ever gotten on a float in the ocean right in front of your condo and just closed your eyes and relaxed? And then when you wake up you feel like you are miles away from where you started? I feel like so often, as Christians, we grow comfortable and complacent, and we just drift away from God. The world is a constant force pulling you away from paths of righteousness.

There is a show that has been very popular in recent years. I kept hearing people talking about it and I watched one episode and had this prodding that this is bad.  This is not a good show morally, and in so many other ways.  And I got caught up in the story line and even though I knew it wasn’t a good show, I recorded and watched all of them.  And then I start talking about it amongst friends and coworkers and we all love the show and tell others to watch it. I was no longer affected by it.  Because we become more tolerant, we drift and one day realize we are on a path that we did not intend to take. We must be intentional for God in order to stay on the path to righteousness. We won’t stumble onto the path of righteousness. It requires us making different and intentional choices.  (and yes, I stopped watching!)

God’s path is not an easy path.  It sometimes means taking an unpopular stand. The road to God is narrow and the other road?  Wide and popular.  The path to God has boundaries, whereas the other path has no boundaries.  Oh, we THINK we can travel this other path and not get caught up in the sin, but if we KNOW the choices we are making are not in line with Godliness then we surely can’t expect to be to find righteousness there. 

Don’t think that just because you sit in church every Sunday that you are automatically on the path of righteousness.  I’ve giggled before when I’ve heard (and I’ve also said) "oh I am so glad so and so is here this morning because they really needed to hear this sermon today".  My friend – we ALLLLL need to hear what God has to say. 

Are you on the path to righteousness? Pause long enough in life’s chaos to say – Lord – speak to me. 

The last part of the verse, “in His name”, when we are on the path of righteousness, our lives will reflect the glory of God and people will see it. Are you reflecting the glory of God? Can anybody tell? 

God looks at our broken bodies and broken spirits and when we trust Him and He restores us, finds our beauty and puts us on a life-path that is in His will – the very path that He created you to be on to glorify Him and His name.  What path are you on? It’s not too late to choose differently.