Shepherded: The Renewed Mind

 He restores my soul...Psa 2:3

About twenty-eight (28) years ago, while conversing with my father, I said 'you are growing old' surprised, He said ‘yes’, rather excitedly, then I said ‘you would die’. I never wanted him to die and was scared at the prospect of aging and death. My thought used to run wild, I’d think deeply about everything I saw and heard; it was weird. These thoughts often got me worried instead of being excited. I would later understand how the mind works and how to guard it against destructive elements.

There is a continuing work that God does in us, this work is ‘the renewing of the mind' Rom 12:2 and it will continue till the redemption of the body, Rom 8:23. The soul is a critical part of every human; it interfaces between the spirit and body of man; it is the seat of understanding, will, and emotions.

When the soul was activated in Genesis; Gen 2:7, it was a living soul, man became a living soul meaning that it was responsive to God's Spirit via the human spirit. The soul was in perfect sync with the spirit and was able to instruct the body and make the best decisions in line with God's will, Rom 8:6. 

The fall of man brought man into another reality Rom 3:23, sinful, carnal, and sensual, thereby becoming God’s enemy Ja 4:4. We became self/sense dependent; the mind became carnal, it depended on the senses/flesh to discern life. This model was patterned after the god of this world 2 Cor 4:4 who ruled man from without to within.

This soul needed to be saved, the process began with the completion of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross and continues daily with the cleansing by the word, hence the psalmist’s affirmative confession, ‘He restores my soul’ which is a continuous action, and this means that it is an ongoing process.

You are a work in progress.

 

The living soul is such that is responsive to God