Held <3

I just wrapped up the Psalm 34 study  this morning. 

No coincidence God would teach me the lesson in real time before I listened to the last video. You can check it out here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmliq-y0wds&feature=youtu.be&ck_subscriber_id=234651462

Psalm 34:22 reads: 

The LORD redeems the soul of His servants, and none of those who take refuge in Him will be condemned. NASB

The video that accompanied this passage was a reminder that while we are saved into eternal life upon receiving Christ, we are also saved over and over through the rest of our days as God works on our souls. 

Our soul…the headquarters of our mind, will and emotions.

He is in the long term business of redeeming us from our natural tendencies until He comes back for us once and for all time. 

This is good news for one like me. 

Because; as all the rest of humanity does, I struggle with a soul that is in the process of redemption. 

It is called sanctification and it is, at times, a bloody skirmish as the flesh that still clings to entrenched places in my heart wars against the regenerated spirit that longs to mirror Christ. 

I get my feelings hurt. 

I feel rejected. 

I feel misunderstood or taken advantage or out of favor with those who matter to me. 

And I respond in a way that does not line up with the truth that it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives within me. 

In these moments, the turmoil within me opens wide the door to all the lowest parts of my nature.

The resulting fallout can leave me assured I am the biggest failure and disappointment to God and humanity….yet again. For one who can dwell in self-condemnation as a comfortable cave…this is not good. 

But I look at the verse today and reflect on recent soul battles, and I see God’s redemptive truth calling out to me. 

I am a servant of the Lord…even when I fall short.

My heart and my life are committed to serving Him. 

He redeems my soul from the challenges I face at times to surrender my will, emotions, feelings and mindsets.

I take refuge in Him by lifting hot tears and cries for help, holding out the opposing forces fighting inside my heart and thoughts up to Him and pleading for His help.

Sitting still and letting Him love me just as I am, I face the voices of condemnation that would sentence me to accept the verdict of impossibility that I will ever change…

and in the shadow of His wings…

this daughter of the King…

is held and loved and is a little more transformed into the image of Him who died for me <3