My Soul Waits, My Heart Rejoices

As I came across Psalm 33:20-22 yesterday, God spoke to me about my heart.

Here are the words that struck me…

1.  OUR SOUL WAITS

Since I know my soul is made up of my mind, will, and emotions, the first line could read,

“my mind, my will, and my emotions wait for the Lord”.

But is this true in my life? Is this something I honestly practice, or do I let my soul run on ahead?

I know it is my nature to approach things in life by trying to come up with a solution intellectually, letting how I feel lead my actions, and by making a decision based on my own goals.

2.  OUR HEART REJOICES

My physical heart is easy to locate, but this verse is not talking about an organ in my body. It isn’t part of my soul either, although some confuse it with feelings and emotions. It is an aspect of my spirit. I’m not getting all mystical, it’s just a documented fact. Each of us is made up of a body, a soul and a spirit. There has also been research to identify and locate that evasive thing we call the “heart” of a person.

In verse 21, we see it is possible to make our mind, will and emotion wait,and take a back seat, while our heart rejoices in Him. This isn’t the same as just being happy or having gladness in our heart. Rejoice is a verb: Glad is an adjective. There is an action or expression involved with rejoicing, but gladness is a feeling.

So, the question is how does my heart rejoice? For me, this takes me back to something Jesus said to His disciples in Luke chapter 6.

“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven.”    Luke 6:20-23 NASB

Jesus instructs His followers, and this includes us, to rejoice when faced with hunger, grief and sorrow, any kind of mistreatment, and rejection. So, rejoicing is not based on being happy with the conditions of life, it is done in the midst of everything going wrong. This type of rejoicing can only be done when we choose to put our soul in the back seat, put off our old unredeemed nature, and respond out of our spirit that has been transformed by The Spirit of Resurrection Life. Many receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior, but not all walk in His Way. To truly follow after Him, and experience all His goodness on this side of Heaven, we must put off the “old man” and our natural way of living and put on the “new man”. This passage in Luke is just one illustration of doing that.

We shouldn’t be surprised when we choose to rejoice from a place in our spirit, and then experience every obstacle known to man giving us reason why we just can’t do it. But we must not listen! There is a battle raging over our heart but following Gods path leads to victory. It’s already there waiting for us to apprehend.

Verse 22 says, His lovingkindness will be upon us, according to the hope we have set on Him. Wow, just reading this causes hope to well up within me toward my Heavenly Father, who is ever-present and always faithful to me. I am going to stir up my heart to rejoice and today my soul is going to wait.

Join me in praying Psalm 33:20-23 today. Let’s make it personal!

Blessings,  Tami Gaupp

To learn more about breaking through in your life, check out my book, Soft Spot in a Stone Wall .

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