Remember the Daily Benefits of God in Your Soul
Worship isn’t a single act encompassed within a singular moment of time (like a Sunday morning!)- it’s a lifestyle. Living a lifestyle of worship is rooted in gratitude and expressed by remembering the daily benefits of God in your soul. That’s not as easy as it sounds! Life has plenty of misery to throw your way, not to mention your enemy, Satan! But remember that you are in command of your soul. Other than God, you know yourself best and whatever you have need of, whatever you are missing, whatever you crave, or fear, or whatever aspects of your past still linger- all of those things reside within yourself.
Your human soul is made new at the point of salvation, (2 Cor. 5:17) but the ravages of this world and the attacks of the enemy will continue until you die. So, you cannot allow yourself to become a passive observer in life. You must command your soul and require it to obey the spirit of God that resides in you. Hello, battleground!
The Daily Benefits of God Are More Than Enough
You must remember the good things the Lord has done. This is what stirs your soul and ignites worship: Gratitude for all of things you recall that God has done- those are your points of origin for worship.
Yes, worship is a big part of the winning strategy, but there’s more! No one, even in the natural world, wins a war using just one weapon, or just one strategy. You can’t even win a football game that way! Jeremiah 31:21 says, “Set up road signs; put up guideposts. Take note of the highway, the road that you take.” You must take time, every day, to remember the good things the Lord has done. Let’s be honest- sometimes this is a moment-by-moment endeavor! Remembering the daily benefits of God is what stirs your soul and ignites worship: Gratitude for all of things you recall that God has done- those are your points of origin for worship. Take note, write them down, hold them in your heart and meditate on them in worship, thanking God – every day.
Psalm 103:2 says, “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits…” and from there? It’s a huge list of things God has done! Here are just a few from Psalm 103:
- Forgives your sin
- Heals your diseases
- Redeems your life from the pit
- Crowns you with lovingkindness & tender mercies
- Satisfies your life with good things
- Renews your youth
- Justice for the oppressed
- Slow to anger
- Abounding in mercy
- Will not repay according to your sin
- Removes your sin as far as the east is from the west
- Shows compassion to His children
What a fantastic list of wonders! But it’s more than wonders – it’s promises! These are words you can stand on in faith, lean on, hide under. Another benefit of God is that He watches over His Word to see it come to pass. (Jer. 1:12) He is faithful! But you know what happens? Life happens. And if you don’t make a point to remember, you’ll forget. And when you need a point of origin for worship, to really enter into His presence and minister to Him, you’ll draw a blank. Satan will convince you that you don’t have anything to give thanks for. “Forget not all His benefits” – you must command your soul to remember, as the Psalmist did. You must command your soul to bless the Lord. Battle for it. Breakthrough. Beat a path to the holy God with your grateful remembrance of what He has done and bless His holy name!
Thought for today: Remind Your Soul to Forget Not His Benefits
David wrote these words in Psalm 4:4 – “Commune with your heart on your bed”, which means to meditate, search and be still. The philosopher Socrates said, “Know thyself”. In Hamlet, Shakespeare wrote, “This above all: to thine own self be true and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.” It is important that you take time to not only commune with the Lord, but also with yourself. Get quiet, stop and think about what you’re walking through, where you’ve been and where you want to go. Your soul will try to override your spirit, but you are in command of both! It is important to understand your own soul, the human part of you that once was apart from God, but is now sanctified through your acceptance of God’s Son, Jesus Christ as Lord. Then, bring your soul into the subjection of the Lordship of Christ, remembering the benefits of God daily – and don’t allow yourself to forget what God has done for you. Bless His holy name!
Dig deeper into what the Word says about the soul:
- “Lift Up Thy Soul Unto the Lord”
- LIVE Devotions: “FIND the New Song- and Sing it!”
- “Require Your Soul to Bless God”
