Michael Murphy
Contributing writer
‘He Restores My Soul Four’ – simple words that are life-transforming.
When I pray, I often pray for myself. Oh, I also pray for others. Sometimes it is a very long list of others.
People will say that they find it hard to pray for longer than a few minutes. Yet, when you think of all the people in your life and you love talking to God, there is a lot to pray for. I never leave myself out of the equation because I desire growth in myself. I want to change and be transformed.
God has promised to transform, renew, and restore us. If He is offering it, then, I certainly want it.
I had a friend in high school whose dad bought an older Shelby GT for (as I recall) $600. It was my first introduction to the name ‘Shelby’, however, years later, I would find myself working for my friend, Lamar Waller, and we would be dealing with none other than Caroll Shelby himself.
We finished a building for him in McKinney, Texas, and had the chance to meet and get to know the legendary automobile hero.
This car obviously had amazing potential. My friend, Tim and his father completely restored the car. It took them a few years, but they ended up taking the car completely apart and restoring every single part.
They even took the paint of the car down to bare metal before repriming and repainting it. They did it right.
Tim drove the car during high school and, as I recall, they sold the car for over $20,000. Today, according to Hagerty (a highly trusted appraiser of classic cars), the car would be worth between $250,000 and $400,000.
Your soul is the part of you that is the essence of who you really are. It is the part of you that is eternal. It is the part of you that also determines the kind of person that you are. We say a person with a ‘good soul’ is a person who does good things and has a positive impact on others.
The condition of your soul determines how you feel about life, other people, yourself, God, life, etc. It is also the part of you that determines how you are. It determines your behavior and how you interact and treat others. It also determines your psychological condition and mental health well-being.
Now, consider this for just a minute. In fact, focus on your soul for just a minute. You can feel it.
It is the part of you that is giving you life right now as you read this. It is the beat of your heart, the ability to think, the awareness of where you are, who you are, and what you are, right now in this moment.
You can feel it if you focus on it for just a moment. You may feel that your life is worthless. You may be reminding yourself of all of the mistakes you’ve made and how things have gone wrong in your life.
You may feel like a failure; much like the Shelby when it was worth only $600. But, God has promised to restore your soul. More than the Shelby (which is just a car), your true worth is more than 400 times what you feel or think right now.
If we take the lowest current value of the Shelby ($250,000) and divide it by what Tim’s dad paid for it ($600), then you’ll see that is 416 times more. How much more is your soul worth?
What can God do in a single instant when all you need to do is awaken to the fact that He can and will restore your soul.
You don’t have to do it. In fact, you don’t know how to do it. God can. God will. God wants to. God wants to renew your mind. God wants to make you a new creation. God wants to make the ‘old things pass away’ and for ‘all things to become new.’ God wants to make you ‘more than conqueror’.
God wants to make you like Himself. So, what do you need to do? You need to open your heart and allow Him to do the work of restoration in your life. You need to get focused about your relationship with God as a daily thing.
You need to begin to acknowledge his presence with you everywhere that you go. You also need to start reading your Bible so that God has something to work with in renewing your mind. Don’t you want that?
Do you want to be renewed, restored and transformed? Then, get started right now. Let the work begin and see what God can do with your life.
You’re going to be amazed. The blinders are going to come off of the eyes of your soul. You’re going to discover new possibilities.
You’re going to have dreams about your future to be revived and vibrant once again. I pray that you do it. The scriptures say, ‘Eye hasn’t seen, ear hasn’t hear, nor has it entered the heart of man what God has prepared for those who love Him.’
Michael Murphy is a retired minister from Sherman, Texas who now teaches English as a Second Language in Zhengzhou, China where he also hosts prayer meetings in the city park. You can follow Michael on Facebook.