Now we come to our soul. Our soul is also made up of three parts: our mind,
our emotions, and our will.
Our mind includes our thoughts, our intellect, our memories, and our
beliefs about ourselves, others, God, and life. Our beliefs are formed from
what happens to us when we are young and the conclusions we draw from those
experiences.
Our emotions include everything we feel: happy, sad, angry, jealous,
lonely, frightened, peaceful, worried, loved, embarrassed, upset, trapped.
Our emotions are a direct reaction to what we are thinking. Think about the
last movie you saw. Your emotions were stirred up. Perhaps you cried.
Perhaps your heart pounded in suspense. Perhaps you were afraid. But you
were sitting in a chair in a completely safe environment, and the things
happening on the screen were not real. Your emotions were not due to your
circumstances, they were due to your thoughts.
~Our emotions are a direct reaction to what we are thinking.~
Our will is our decision-maker. We choose to react to life based on our
feelings and beliefs. Here is a great visual.
So, our mind is very important. Our beliefs about ourselves, others, God,
and life affect our emotions and our decisions. I’ll give you an example
from my past. I used to believe that nobody could be trusted. That belief
caused me to try to protect myself by being aloof, fearful, and
self-conscious, I had very few friends. I lacked confidence. I rarely tried
anything new. I would “hide” in books. I became a loner. I was also very
prideful. I pretended that I had all the answers, but it was just a show to
hide my insecurity. That doesn’t sound like abundant life, does it?
Remember John 10:10?
“Jesus came to give us a rich and satisfying life.” (paraphrased from NLT)
That is the second part of the verse. The first part of the verse tells us
what our enemy, the devil, wants to do.
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. ~John 10:10a
And who is the devil?
John 8:44 The devil is...a liar and the father of lies.
When our beliefs are based on lies, our actions will be motivated by the
one who wants to steal, kill, and destroy. By believing that lie, I allowed
the devil to steal my joy and destroy my love for people, because you can’t
love people if you are afraid of them.
There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear
involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.. ~1
John 4:18
I needed God’s love. I became a Christian when I was about twelve years
old, but I didn’t know how to be perfected in love. Being perfected in love
involves surrender. Being vulnerable. That is hard to do.
Now, if we are believing lies, can’t we just read the Bible and learn the
truth, and everything will be O.K.? Here is where we start tying it all
together!
God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.
~John 4:24
We can’t change ourselves. If we try to change ourselves without the Holy
Spirit, it results in Bondage (and yes, that is a capital B; I’ve been
there, done that, got the T-shirt). Just like the Israelites throughout the
Old Testament, we will fail. Our beliefs must be lined up with the truth
through the Holy Spirit. Truth grasped by our own effort equals bondage.
You’re forgiven, but you’re not blessed with abundant life.
This deserves repeating: Our beliefs must be lined up with the truth
through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit dwells in us and is our life! This
will take time to fully grasp, but it is oh, so freeing! Truth plus the
Holy Spirit equals Abundant Life!
*All Bible references will be from the New American Standard Bible unless otherwise noted.
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