“Bless the Lord, O my soul;
And all that is within me, bless His holy name!
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
And forget not all His benefits:
Who forgives all your iniquities,
Who heals all your diseases!” (Psalm
103:1-3)
Introduction: When we embark on a long and perhaps uncomfortable journey, it helps us to ponder how wonderful it will be when we arrive at our destination.
When Jesus was facing the pain of being crucified and dying on the cross, the Bible says He endured the pain of it for the joy of the prize set before Him (Hebrews 12:2). Joyce believes Jesus was thinking of the resurrection of all the benefits it would offer to God’s children. He was looking forward to returning to His rightful place at the right hand of His Father in heaven, where He was before He came to pay for our sins and offer us a new life in and through Him.
Looking at the end from the beginning of a painful journey helps us not to turn back when it is difficult. Since you may not have made your journey yet, you might not be aware of all the blessings that await you, so I hope to help you see what is waiting for you as you work with God toward having a healthy soul.
It’s a wounded soul making you sick.
Wounded Soul
Although all sicknesses are certainly not caused by the wounds in our souls, some of them are. Many people experience physical healing once their souls have been healed. A great deal of pain and disease is caused by the stress we carry that God never intended for us. His will is PEACE and JOY, both of which foster good health, but the devil comes only to kill, steal, and destroy (John 10:10).
Apostle
John Prayed…
Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in every way and [that your
body] may keep well, even as [I know] your soul keeps well and prosper (3 John
1:2)
2 Things going on….
In this scripture, we can see a connection between the healing of our soul and our body. The better it goes with our soul, the better it will go with our body!
The More Peace….
· The More peace you have the better you will feel physically
· Emotional stress drains us of the energy we need for daily life.
The Condition of your soul affects your body. They are definitely closely connected and affect one another greatly.
You can look forward to better health and energy as you continue your journey of healing.
o When Jesus was on earth, He regularly healed people of their diseases
§ All Healing comes from God.
§ God works through medical technology and He has given someone the wisdom to invent, or He may show us a change that we need to make in order to promote healing in our body, or He may miraculously and do what no one else can do.
§ Trust God to work in your body as well as in your soul
§ Why you wait on your own healing, reach out to help other people in need.
§ Although you may not be able to solve your own problem, God does give you the ability to help someone else.
§ As we help others, we are sowing seed that brings back a harvest a blessing in our own lives.
· Psalm 41:1-3
o 1Blessed are those who have regard for the weak; the LORD delivers them in times of trouble.
o 2The LORD protects and preserves them- they are counted among the blessed in the land- he does not give them over to the desire of their foes.
o 3The LORD sustains them on their sickbed and restores them from their bed of illness.
Confidence
· Confidence is another side effect of a healed soul.
· God wants us to be secure in His love for us and to believe that we can do whatever we need to do in life as long as we know who we are in Him
Philippians
4:13: I have strength for all things in
Christ Who empowers me [I am ready for anything and equal to anything through
Him Who infuses inner strength into me; I am self-sufficient in Christ’s
sufficiency].
Meditate on the Scriptures
- There are promises in the word
- The Word transforms us.
- It strengthens us
- It encourages us.
We can be transformed from living with fear to living with a confident assurance that we are ready for anything in life.
Our confidence should not be in what we can do but in what JESUS can do through us.
Knowing beyond any doubt that we are loved unconditionally gives us courage to do things that we might have otherwise been afraid of.
We learn that even when we make mistakes, God still loves us and is ready to help us.
Proverbs 24:16 tells us that a righteous man falls seven times and rises again.
We may get knocked down in life, but if we are in Christ and our soul is healthy, we will always GET BACK UP AGAIN.
- If you have been lying in your pain and misery, watching from the sidelines as your life goes by, it is time for you to get up and get going again.
Confidence causes you to believe that you CAN instead of being afraid that you can’t. No matter what others believe about you, it is what YOU BELIEVE that really matters.
QUOTE by Henry David Thoreau
“Public opinion is a weak tyrant compared with our own private opinion. What a man thinks of himself, that is which determines, or rather, indicates his fate!”
On page 189, Joyce Myer’s father told her that she would never amount to anything. But as long as she believed him, her father was right. But when God showed her that she could do all things through Christ, she learned that her father was wrong in his assessment of her.
Don’t let what people think of you or say about you determine your destiny.
Confident People
- Confident people take changes and try things rather than fearfully assuming they will fail before they even try.
Story about Armanda and Bob – Page 189
Fear and Rejection
What could Amanda do to change things?
- She could start by believing that God loves her, and because of that
love, she can be confident.
- She also needs to change her self-talk (She has spent her life talking herself out of things, but she can change that and talk herself into things.
As a Man thinks in his heart….
Science is discovering what God has been telling us all along: As a man thinks in his heart, so does he become (Proverbs 23:7)
University of Victoria psychologist Danu Anthony Stinson said….
“Self-affirmation [contemplating personal values central to one’s identity] seems to provide a psychological buffer for insecure people, allowing them to put aside social fears and anxieties and behave in a more warm and inviting ways.”
Question: Why do many women and girls derive most of their confidence by how they think they look? And why do they determine their acceptance based on their looks and what society says?
God made all things beautiful. And since He made us, we are beautiful in our own way.
Just because we don’t look like someone else does not mean that we are not beautiful.
True beauty comes from the inside. We focus way too much on our various body parts and not enough on the hidden person of the heart that God speaks about in His Word. (Read 1 Peter 3:3-4)
QUESTION: How many times have you changed clothes before leaving the house in the morning?
Page.
191
Article by the
Dove Self-Esteem Project revealed that there is a self-esteem crisis among
girls in this country.
ü 62% of all girls feel insecure and not sure of themselves
ü 57% of girls have a mother who criticizes their looks
ü 71% percent of girls with low self-esteem feel their appearance does not measure up, including not feeling pretty enough, then enough, or stylish or trendy enough.
ü A girl’s self-esteem is more strongly related to how she views her own body shape and body weight than how much she actually weighs.
ü 61% of teen girls with low self-esteem talk bad about themselves.
ü 25% percent of girls with low self-esteem say they engage in negative activities like overeating, cutting themselves, smoking, or drinking when they feel bad about themselves.
Our confidence and beauty can be found in knowing Christ and becoming like Him.
Your Healing Affects Family and Friends
Just as the people in our lives are affected by our wounded souls, they are also affected by our healing. Keeping that in mind may help you press on toward victory on days when giving up is a temptation.
Relationships are a large part of life, and we all want to enjoy good ones. Doing so becomes very difficult if we live with wounds, bruises, and pain in our inner life. We don’t mean to hurt people, but we do. Because what is in us, comes out of us.
In life, you should not only press for yourself, but press for your FAMILY AND FRIENDS.
Everywhere
we go, we are affecting and touching people.
Everywhere we go, we leave an impression on people.
An act as simple as smiling at others can make them feel better about
themselves. Our contact with others may
be brief, but in some ways it may be lasting.
People may not remember what we
said to them, but they remember how we made them feel.
The better you feel about yourself, the better you will make others feel about themselves.
Look for all the good things that are waiting for you. God always rewards those who are diligent in seeking Him (Hebrews 11:6). Samuel Johnson said, “What we hope ever to do with ease, we must first do with diligence.” Doing things in a new way requires diligence, but I know from experience that what may feel almost impossible to you right now will one day be easy if you don’t give us.