Discerning What Your Soul Feels and Knows
Come to me with all of your questions, and I will come to you with stories. I will fill your heart.
Retreat to a quiet place. Let your own heart be the quiet place. Let your Father quiet you.
Breathe deeply for a few minutes, letting every inhale become a prayer (Jesus) and every exhale become a prayer (Jesus).
Let yourself relax, feeling your body release all tension. Relax your toes and calves. Relax your knees and thighs. Relax your hips and abdomen. Relax your shoulders, chest, arms, wrists, and fingers. Relax your neck and spine. Relax your ears and your head. Relax your mouth, eyes, nose, and mouth.
Invite in Holy Spirit. Ask Him to lead you deeper into your heart as you engage with Him there.
Holy Spirit, I give you my attention. Open my heart. Take me deeper into my heart. Help me to hear You.
Stay in this quiet space with Holy Spirit for at least five minutes, keeping your eyes closed, palms open, and your body and breath relaxed….
After five minutes, write your thoughts and feelings in your journal. What are you feeling in this moment? What are you thinking? Trust Holy Spirit to help you discern.
Father, Jesus, Holy Spirit, this is what I think and feel now…I want to tell you about this….
Option 1: Find some colored pencils—or crayons–and some paper. Choose the colors that represent how you feel right now. Spend some time using the colors with Jesus. Draw or write with Him. Be like a child, open-minded, curious, and loved by God, and do not question whether what you are doing is correct or not–or beautiful or not. Enjoy this time with Him as you create an illustration of what is on your mind and heart together.
Option 2: Close your eyes and ask Jesus to show you a picture in your imagination of the two of you together. Talk to him, be with him, listen to him. Let the visual of the two of you together unfold before you. Stay here in this space with Jesus for as long as possible. What colors do you see while you are together? What is the setting? How do you feel?
Next, spend some time exploring your heart’s interpretation of Psalm 42 with Jesus. Read it a few times, allowing yourself time to linger and reflect, particularly on the questions the Psalmist asks:
Where can I go and meet with God?
Where is my God?
Why, my soul, are you downcast?
Why so disturbed within me?
Why have you forgotten me?
Why must I go about mourning?
Consider which one of these questions is most similar to a question you are personally asking God now.
Jesus, this is a question my heart is asking…
As you read the Psalm, be aware of your emotional response to the Psalmist’s questions.
As the deer pants for streams of water,
so my soul pants for you, my God.
2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When can I go and meet with God?
3 My tears have been my food
day and night,
while people say to me all day long,
“Where is your God?”
4 These things I remember
as I pour out my soul:
how I used to go to the house of God
under the protection of the Mighty One[d]
with shouts of joy and praise
among the festive throng.
5 Why, my soul, are you downcast?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God.
6 My soul is downcast within me;
therefore I will remember you
from the land of the Jordan,
the heights of Hermon—from Mount Mizar.
7 Deep calls to deep
in the roar of your waterfalls;
all your waves and breakers
have swept over me.
8 By day the Lord directs his love,
at night his song is with me—
a prayer to the God of my life.
9 I say to God my Rock,
“Why have you forgotten me?
Why must I go about mourning,
oppressed by the enemy?”
10 My bones suffer mortal agony
as my foes taunt me,
saying to me all day long,
“Where is your God?”
11 Why, my soul, are you downcast?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God.
Now that you have finished reading the Psalm a few times, consider the following: What words in this Psalm intrigue you? Which ones trouble you? Which of the Psalmist’s questions are your questions, too?
Bring your observations and questions to Jesus now. Ask Him to help you understand what questions are in your heart (your soul).
Jesus, what do you want me to understand and know?
Consider speaking Psalm 42 aloud to God, allowing your mind and heart to absorb it more fully as you listen. Or, write your own Psalm, adding your questions and cries out to Him.
Jesus, this is on my heart to say to you…
And this is what I hear you saying….
Continue the conversation, allowing yourself to linger and feel His love for you as you engage with his heart for you.
Amen.
