“He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake. Psalms‬ ‭23:3‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

I don’t know about you, but when I face disappointment, when I’m given unpleasant news, I first process it in my soul. Our soul is the Hebrew Word “nephesh” and it means our emotions, appetite, desires and passions. My soul can be unruly. My soul wants to seek revenge rather reconciliation. It wants to complain rather pray. It wants to scream rather than sing. My soul wants to be offended. My soul wants to tell my side of the story. My soul tells me my situation is hopeless. My soul fears and worries.

But thanks be unto God who not only restores my soul, He leads my unruly soul to paths of righteousness.

He restores, “shuwb”, repairs, refreshes, brings my soul back into agreement with His Spirit who resides in me. Through His Word, through songs of praise, through His still small voice, He brings refreshing to our weary souls by reminding us who we are and who He is. He reminds us of the good plans He has for us and how He is for us and never against us.

Now, we have to cooperate with the restoration of our souls. We must lie down our right to be right, our right to be angry, our victim mentality, and quiet ourselves long enough for His promised restoration to occur. Because our souls are so unruly, we may have to submit our souls to the Holy Spirit several times each hour.

But not only does God restore our soul, He leads us to higher ground. He gives us the strength to pray for others when we need prayer. He gives us the fortitude to bless those who have hurt us. He leads us to make godly choices in the midst of a storm.

I heard someone say the other day, “God gave us our emotions.” This is true. But our soul – emotions, passions, appetites, desires – are to be constantly restored, refreshed, and repaired by the Holy Spirit. We were not meant to be led by our soul. We are to be led by our Spirit. Allow the Holy Spirit to do His job – restore your soul.