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“and you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.”  (Mark 12:30)

Jeremiah spoke, as the voice of God, saying that the LORD had a soul.

 

I will rejoice over them to do them good and will faithfully plant them in this land with all My heart and with all My soul (psuche). 

(Jeremiah 32:41)

The Greek translation of soul (nephesh in Hebrew) found in Jeremiah 32 is, psuche. God has a soul.

In the same way He longed to live in the midst of Israel, so His soul longs to be with you.

 

Moreover, I will make My dwelling among you, and My soul (psuche) will not reject you.

(Leviticus 26:11)

The Messiah Jesus is God Incarnate. He was the perfect image of His Father. He is the image of God to this very day.

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. (Colossians 1:15)

God Incarnate has a soul.

As the image of God, Jesus spoke of His own soul:

 

Now My soul (psuche) has become troubled; and what shall I say, ‘Father, save Me from this hour ‘? But for this purpose I came to this hour.

(John 12:27)

Soul, most simply, means a person’s life. To illustrate this, look at what Jesus said.

For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life (psuche), as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life (psuche) more than food, and the body more than clothing? (Matthew 6:25)

Jesus answered (Peter),

 

“Will you lay down your life (psuchen) for Me? 

(John 13:38a)

On another level, from my perspective, the soul is the center of inner human awareness and activity. It is the place where body, spirit, emotions, desires, intellect, feelings and volition converge and interact.

In sum, the word, soul (psuche), can sometimes indicate the inner life of a creature or speak of the creature’s natural life. A human being is a living soul made as God’s image.

God is a living being, God has an inner life. This living one’s inner life loved us so much that He acted upon that love and gave His only Son. And Father really loved His Son.

 

Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold; My chosen onein whom My soul (psuche) delights. I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the nations.

(Isaiah 42:1)

He is a Father that is devoted to His children. He is a Bridegroom that loves His wife. He is the LORD of Hosts who is committed to the victory of those who fight beside Him.

As our Father, He is looking for children who really love their Father. As our Groom, is looking for His bride to be just as devoted to Him as He is to her. As the Warrior King, He is looking for His army to be with Him wholeheartedly in the battle.

We are called to reciprocate God’s love. His soul is utterly engaged. He is not asking for our soul’s love while, at the same time, His soul is apathetic towards us.

He loves us with all His soul.

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Also, David wrote a book about God’s love for the Jewish People called, For the Sake of the Fathers

Check out David’s new worship album, Looking for a City

“and you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.”  (Mark 12:30)

Here is a question not specifically answered in Holy Writ: Does God require more than He is willing to give? Does He want us to love Him with all our hearts and, at the same time, withhold His whole heart from us? Since it’s not spelled out for us we get to make up our own minds about this.

To me, it seems incomprehensible that our Creator wants more from His creation than He is willing to offer. Do you agree? Let’s look at the LORD’s heart concerning His beloved people.

I will rejoice over them to do them good and will faithfully plant them in this land with all My heart and with all My soul. (Jeremiah 32:41)

What a prophecy about Israel’s restoration! What an amazing declaration of God’s intent.

If I hadn’t read this prophecy I wouldn’t have guessed that anyone would be bold enough to say that God had a soul. If I hadn’t read this prophecy I would not have felt like I have an unshakeable confidence that God will do things with all His heart, and all His soul.

To me, this seems like a hint. It sounds like the first commandment, to love God with all our hearts, is the type of love that God has for His children.

What did God hold back when He gave His only Son to die in our place? Nothing. He abandoned Himself as the Son sensed abandonment. He gave His heart. He gave His Son. My mind is made up: indeed, it can be said that God says, “I love you with all my heart.”

Purchase God’s True Love

Or on Kindle

Also, David wrote a book about God’s love for the Jewish People called, For the Sake of the Fathers

Check out David’s new worship album, Looking for a City

By You I have been sustained from my birth; You are He who took me from my mother’s womb; My praise is continually of You. (Psalm 71:6)

The Lord Jesus knew the Scriptures. He knew His people’s history. He knew the oracles of Israel. He knew what specifically spoke of Himself (Luke 24:27).

The foundation of the Messiah’s confidence in Father was found, not only in His people’s history and prophecies, but in His own story. Throughout His life, Father sustained Him. Jesus never took that for granted. He continually praised God according to the Scriptures. He utilized the Psalms.

Upon the basis of Father continually sustaining Him in life, Jesus was able to entrust Himself to the Father in death. Imagine the Lord meditating upon the Psalms and praying that which was appropriate to His life situation. Look at this section of Psalm 31:

In You, O LORD, I have taken refuge; Let me never be ashamed; In Your righteousness deliver me. Incline Your ear to me, rescue me quickly; Be to me a rock of strength, A stronghold to save me. For You are my rock and my fortress; For Your name’s sake You will lead me and guide me. You will pull me out of the net which they have secretly laid for me, For You are my strength. Into Your hand I commit my spirit; You have ransomed me, O LORD, God of truth. (Psalm 31:1-5)

We know Yeshua meditated and prayed through this psalm. We know this because we recall the Messiah’s words from the cross.

And Jesus, crying out with a loud voice, said,

 

“Father, INTO YOUR HANDS I COMMIT MY SPIRIT.”

Having said this, He breathed His last. (Luke 23:46) 

The Lord believed that Father would raise Him from the dead. Jesus the Messiah knew the Psalm Peter quoted at Pentecost. I’m certain that Psalm 16 was a source of strength for our Lord.

For David says of Him, ‘I SAW THE LORD ALWAYS IN MY PRESENCE; FOR HE IS AT MY RIGHT HAND, SO THAT I WILL NOT BE SHAKEN. THEREFORE MY HEART WAS GLAD AND MY TONGUE EXULTED; MOREOVER MY FLESH ALSO WILL LIVE IN HOPE; BECAUSE YOU WILL NOT ABANDON MY SOUL TO HADES, NOR ALLOW YOUR HOLY ONE TO UNDERGO DECAY. YOU HAVE MADE KNOWN TO ME THE WAYS OF LIFE; YOU WILL MAKE ME FULL OF GLADNESS WITH YOUR PRESENCE.’ (Acts 2:25-28)

He trusted in God and God helped Him. Because we are in the Messiah there is a promised resurrection to every rotten circumstance.

Let’s joyfully, boldly, in the face of any adversity, entrust ourselves to Father. In the same way He cared for Jesus, He will care for us. He will preserve us. He will rescue us. He will bring us into the fullness of our destinies.

Remember God’s words. Mediate upon and pray the Psalms. Recall your history with God.

By You I have been sustained from my birth; You are He who took me from my mother’s womb; My praise is continually of You. (Psalm 71:6)

Relying upon Father’s love, Jesus entrusted Himself to God. Jesus lives in you because He loves you. By His power you can follow His example and, in fellowship with His Spirit, entrust yourself to God.

Purchase God’s True Love

Or on Kindle

Also, David wrote a book about God’s love for the Jewish People called, For the Sake of the Fathers

Check out David’s new worship album, Looking for a City

 

Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. (John 15:9)

In Hebrews, it seems to be indicated that the Lord Jesus is trusting God at this very hour.

For both He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one Father; for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, “I WILL PROCLAIM YOUR NAME TO MY BRETHREN, IN THE MIDST OF THE CONGREGATION I WILL SING YOUR PRAISE.” And again, “I WILL PUT MY TRUST IN HIM.” (Hebrews 2:11-13a)

His trust in the Father is communicated to us through His presence with us, and in us. Jesus is with us, and in us, by the Holy Spirit. Amazing. The trust in God we experience is an impartation of the Messiah’s trust in Him in, and through, our hearts.

Our trust in God is fellowship with Jesus.

Trust in God is a necessary ingredient of our emotional health. The more trust, the better. If things fall apart after having trusted God, the faithful, faith-filled, believer resorts to God for replenished strength and renews his trust in the God that any onlooker might say failed that trusting-person.

We revert to Romans 8:29-29. All things are working together for our good because we love God and are called according to His purpose. Even the worst things in life can be turned to gold if we trust in God because, through our trust based relationship, we are being transformed into the image of God’s Son.

Let’s talk about impossible circumstances… Look how Abraham negotiated the impossible demand to sacrifice Isaac.

By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was offering up his only begotten son; it was he to whom it was said, “IN ISAAC YOUR DESCENDANTS SHALL BE CALLED.” He considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead, from which he also received him back as a type. (Hebrews 11:17-19)

This is how Jesus trusted the Father.

For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps, WHO COMMITTED NO SIN, NOR WAS ANY DECEIT FOUND IN HIS MOUTH; and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously; and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed. (1 Peter 2:21-24)

Jesus entrusted Himself to the one who judges righteously. Amazing. Through your trust in the God who loves you, just like He loves Jesus, you can entrust yourself to God, too.

 

Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. (John 15:9)

As with Jesus, there is a resurrection awaiting all who trust in the Son of God. He loves you in the same way His Father loved Him. He has the power to bring all things to completion.

Trust.

Therefore, those also who suffer according to the will of God shall entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right. (1 Peter 4:19)

Purchase God’s True Love

Or on Kindle

Also, David wrote a book about God’s love for the Jewish People called, For the Sake of the Fathers

Check out David’s new worship album, Looking for a City

Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. (John 15:9)

When the Messiah taught the Sermon on the Mount He revealed how He lived in the presence of the Father. A major section in the Lord’s instruction was about developing our awareness of the Father’s care.

Here is His thorough teaching:

No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.  ²⁵ “For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?  ²⁶ “Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?  ²⁷ “And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life?  ²⁸ “And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin,  ²⁹ yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these.  ³⁰ “But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith!  ³¹ “Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’  ³² “For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.  ³³ “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. (Matthew 6:24-33) 

Challenging, right?

Please look at verse 32.

For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. (Matthew 6:32)

When the Lord Jesus said, “Your Father knows…” He was not merely speaking about that of which God is cognizant. Jesus was appealing to His listeners to believe in the care of the Father who cares.

Follow me in this: A normal father loves his children. A good father is an image of the good Father. A father is generally not considered to be good at being a father if he does not provide for his children. Is our Father good at being a father? Yes, He is.

Jesus had great confidence in His Father’s provision.

He taught us to pray for, and expect, daily bread.

Give us this day our daily bread. (Matthew 6:11)

In reliance upon His Father, He multiplied bread for multitudes.

He blessed the food, and breaking the loaves, He gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. (Matthew 14:19b)

We are to rely upon God through Jesus in the same way Jesus relied upon His Father.

Remember, God loves you, just like He loves Jesus. He will provide for you, just like He provided for Jesus and provided through Jesus.

Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. (John 15:9)

The Messiah was confident of His Father’s care. As we grow in our awareness of the love of God we will share that confidence. That type of confidence is part of the sanctification process. It is good for us. Rely on Father’s love. Surely, He will care for you.

Purchase God’s True Love

Or on Kindle

Also, David wrote a book about God’s love for the Jewish People called, For the Sake of the Fathers

Check out David’s new worship album, Looking for a City