Lover of Our Soul
I’m still celebrating the month of love and specifically the Lover of our soul! I’ll let you in on a little secret. Do you want to know what will change your life? And I mean change every aspect of your life? Deep-seated, lasting change?
If you expect me to say love changes everything, you might be surprised to find out that is not what I’m not going to say. Why? Because our so-called love void of Christ is completely in vain. The way we search for love and define love is meaningless without grounding it in the Origin of love, Christ. There’s more to this love thing. So much more.
While it is true that love changes everything, I think we miss the deeper search of our intrinsic nature. Deep down the search of our heart is more than looking for a temporal love. We long for the steadfast, unchanging love of the Home that is full of rich experiences and revelation of being fully known and fully loved.
Home for the soul is the place of its origin. It’s found in Christ—the One in whose image it is fashioned by and finds its likeness in. The soul innately knows where it belongs because it will never be satisfied until it finds the One who is Home.
Love is at first a longing of the soul to find Home. Once the soul finds Home, it rests in contentment. Our fickle wandering heart becomes satiated and no longer looks to people, titles, the next place, or the next new thing to find meaning.
When the soul has found the place where it can rest in safety, love, and acceptance, then life-changing transformation takes place. It’s safe to fail and try again without judgement. We have found the Solid Rock, our Home base to safely do life from.
Love does change everything. A simple four-letter word that has the power to disarm all the other four-letter words. But if love searches for its definition through the lens of the flesh, self-defined rights, self-perceived wants, just any ol’ human, conditional, fickle love and not the Origin of Love, the soul will continue to search for Home and the One who speaks its love language.
Jesus is the Lover of our soul, and He speaks its love language. He is the Origin of love, and He redefines our reference point of what love looks like and feels like. From a firsthand experiential knowledge, we can gain revelation that the God of the Holy Bible is the Fountainhead of truth and of love. Why look anywhere else for a fragile, cracked version of the real thing when you can get it directly from the Source?
Satisfying the soul requires intentional time. The good news is that it is really not much different than what you do to grow any relationship, and yet there is a maturing process of shifting what we know in our limited understanding to the value system of heaven and God. It is a transformation of moving from a simple faith in Christ into a love relationship with Christ.
The first new normal is that the power of satisfying the soul is found in the “being” with Christ over the “doing” for Christ. It’s spending time with God. Purposeful time with Him, His Son, and Holy Spirit.
Finding this new normal, the satisfying of the soul, is a personal experience, but here are some ideas to start with. How each one actually takes shape in your life will be unique to who God created you to be (for example, if you like lists, research, sketching etc.—these may be ways God communicates with you).
Put aside time to talk with Him about what is on your mind. Let Him problem-solve for you. Open your understanding to His way of doing things based on His value system and resources. Spend time giving Him your praise and worship. It’s about telling Him how much you love Him and listening to Him tell you how much He loves you. Time in church, growing in faith with likeminded believers is great encouragement. Ask Him how you can be His hands and feet to the world around you. Find time to read and study the Word.
It’s not a laundry list of things to check off so you can get points with God (I’ve been there). It’s the being with Him. In your time with Him you will begin to understand His great love for you. This is the love language of your soul. Your heart will be more settled, clear, focused, and energetic as you move out into your day and into the doing part of your life.
The most beautiful gift you’ll find in your time with the Lord is His presence. Between His love and His presence, you will experience a reality that you never even knew existed or at the very least hoped for.
Soaking in God’s presence gives you life. His very presence brings love, beauty, peace, joy, goodness, kindness, gentleness, patience, faithfulness, and self-control. His presence brings the full beauty of all that is good, honorable, true, noble, etc., and you have direct access to it all.
As we fall deeper in love with the Lover of our soul, the capacity for us to love the world around us grows exponentially.
The transformation of your soul doesn’t mean that circumstances or difficult people in your life will change. What it does mean is that you will change because your soul has found the One. It has found Home in the Lover of your Soul.
Live Loved and Thrive!
Self-Reflection
These questions are in no way a substitute for healthcare professionals or any level of professional counseling. I’m an advocate for taking care of oneself mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. These questions reflect my heart, NOT my profession.
This questionnaire is an opportunity to journal your thoughts and feelings. It can serve as a launching pad on which to evaluate your heart condition as you understand it. My hope is that you will take the truths you discover about yourself and hold them up to the Light to evaluate them against who God says you are.
- In what ways have you looked for love?
- Have you tried to find worth in things, titles, people, etc.?
- Would you agree that your soul has an ache to find Home?
- Do you believe the soul searches for home? Explain.
- With regard to love and the soul, is there a difference? Similarities?
- Have you ever noticed the difference between the searching soul and the searching heart?
Take Action
Use God’s Word to take control over the traumas in your life. Whenever you feel terrorized by your thoughts take them captive by replacing them with the truth of God’s promises in His Word.
Here is a scripture for you to print, cut and carry with you and/or post in places where you will see it often. Ground yourself in God’s truths not Satan’s attacks. Encourage your heart and mind every time you are reminded of His great love for YOU!
Here is what God’s Word says about His unfailing, relentless, unending love for you:
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” Matthew 22:37
Translation: The Lord’s instruction is not because He needs these things from us to make Him more God. His instruction is always for our good and so we can walk in freedom. He knows where your soul can find rest and your heart will be satisfied. You can live in peace, contentment, and safety.
