All the Days of My Life | Apr. 28, 2024

This morning we were blessed to come together, engage with our
Heavenly Father, and learn more about who God is and the
refreshment he offers us as we continued our series in Psalm 23.
Pastor Dale taught us about nephesh, the Hebrew word for “soul”.
In the Bible, people don’t have a nephesh, they are a nephesh––a
living, breathing, physical being.


The nephesh we discussed today is connected to our identity - who
we are and the battle for that place. Every person experiences
moments when they’ve said or reacted to others in ways we wish we
hadn’t. While these moments nag at us, the greater issue is when
those moments turn into a path, that turn into a way of life. We
create these paths for ourselves that can be incredibly difficult
to get out of, ways of thinking, ways of behaving, that we think
are righteous.


A shepherd is good when they keep moving you to different places,
even though it may be a difficult path to get there. Often, fear
can grab hold of us as our shepherd seeks to move us from one
pasture to another. The fear can hold us emotionally captive
where instead of self-confidence and freedom, we experience
anxiety and paralysis. Instead of hope and joy, we hold onto an
inner emptiness and sadness. Instead of living in the house of
love, where God dwells, we live in a house of fear.


Without even noticing, we can build our lives on the opinions of
others, and not on the path God leads us on. We ask ourselves
questions and tell ourselves stories that can trap us in a spin
cycle of emotional poverty. The invitation of Jesus is the
invitation to move out of the house of fear and into the house of
love. The paths of righteousness The Shepherd leads us
on are not just a set of moral thoughts, or modifying our
behavior. His path delivers our lives, our souls; it frees our
nephesh from being crushed by fear. 


The challenge for us is to let go of fear and claim the deeper
truth of who we are or could be. When we make space for God
in our lives and listen to His loving voice, we can start to
realize perfect love and gradually let go of our fears.


Pastor Dale’s encouragement - every time we feel afraid, open
ourselves to God’s presence with the community of God’s beloved
and with meditative prayer on God. It is by doing these things,
our souls can be restored.