“Only Jesus can satisfy your soul
And only He can change your heart
And make you whole;
He’ll give you peace you never knew
Sweet love and joy and Heaven too,
For only Jesus can satisfy your soul.”
(Lanny Wolfe)
I woke up to this song in my heart this morning….don’t ask me why…. I haven’t heard or sung it in years…..but I sat up in bed belting out the chorus like I was an accomplished singer. Which I am not!
But it’s been stuck in my head and I can’t keep from singing it. I’m sure (hopefully) this has happened to many of you too. So I stopped questioning the reason and started enjoying the message of the song.
Many of us have gone through awful and wicked abuse in our lives and going to church to find Jesus seemed the most natural thing to do. Problem is there are so many legalistic churches that we found ourselves trapped in a works-based religion that gave us very little joy and no satisfaction for our soul. So we left, bandaging our wounds and limping out of a building never to return.
Our hearts have been broken into so many pieces and our souls crushed and our emotions and feelings have been hardened and now we are numb. We feel anger against God and the church we left and let’s face it, we are just so angry.
Even with all the baggage we are carrying, our hearts and souls still long for Jesus. We still want that joy of the Lord and His freedom and His grace and mercy. Because we never found it in the legalistic churches, we are having trouble believing that it is even true.
Then God wakes you up with a song in your heart…..
“Only Jesus can satisfy your soul
And only He can change your heart
And make you whole;
He’ll give you peace you never knew
Sweet love and joy and Heaven too,
For only Jesus can satisfy your soul.”
I know when I left the United Pentecostal Church I was leaving a lifetime of teaching and spiritual works but I had become an Unbelieving Believer. I was lost in the wilderness with a hardened heart and an unbelieving spirit. And just like the Israelites, I wandered about in rebellion with a hardened soul so I couldn’t be hurt again. I guarded myself against God, His Word, church and people. I literally let the enemy of my soul encase my heart in ice so I couldn’t feel the pain….but I also couldn’t feel anything else but anger.
In a devotion I read a few days ago, Joyce Meyers mentioned, “The problem with being an Unbelieving Believer is you shut the door on God and what He has planned for your future” and dwell on things that has happened to you….the shame, hateful words, false accusations, and of course the shunning.
I’m seven years into my recovery now and the first thing God was able to get through to me was that to receive anything from Him, I needed to believe. As God melted the ice around my heart and let me know it was okay to believe in Him again. I chose to start believing little by little and not mix in doubt and unbelief.
Realizing that Jesus wanted to restore my heart, soul, and emotions I was going to have to let Him into those areas of my life again. I was going to have to change my ways and become like David and pursue God and ask him to change me and to give me the same kind of heart that He has.
I have come to realize that Jesus truly satisfies that longing in my heart and it comes from knowing God more intimately today than I did yesterday. I have become a Believing Believer again.
********
Shop at our Amazon store! As an Amazon Influencer, this website earns from qualifying purchases.
