Defibrillator for the Soul

Your heart has landed you in the emergency room and your life is on the line. The same heart that has sustained your existence for years has thrown itself into a chaotic rhythm, and now your life is slipping away. At this point, revival is the only way to survive—your heart needs its life back. “CLEAR!” shouts the doctor as he administers an electrical shock to your chest to restart your heart and keep you alive. The life-saving device used was an automatic external defibrillator (or AED), which delivered a pulse of electricity to your low-battery heart.

While this scenario is fictional, it is the reality for thousands of people whose lives have been saved by defibrillators since they emerged in the 1980s. Thanks to colossal advancements in medical research and the experiments of a few mad scientists of long ago, the defibrillator has been saving lives and reviving hearts through controlled voltage for decades.

Another defibrillator exists that is supremely more important, infinitely more powerful, and gravely necessary to keep you alive: the word of God, the holy Scriptures. David wrote in Psalm 19 that the Bible, God’s only authoritative and inspired word, is the defibrillator for the soul of man! He declared, “The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul” (v. 7a). The Scriptures function like a spiritual defibrillator to get your heart going again. When you read and study the word of God, the Spirit (who inspired the Bible) beams spiritual energy and vigor to your soul. When your soul is depleted of strength, God’s word restores and revives you with all the kilowatts you need.

Nothing else in the universe is able to revive your soul other than the word of the living God. When your heart is about to give up, no doctor administers Advil. Likewise, the only device that can restore your soul is God’s word —everything else is an ibuprofen substitute that won’t work. In order for your out-of-rhythm heart to praise God, you must “learn [His] righteous rules” (Psalm 119:7). If you want your heart to seek God, you must “not wander from [His] commandments” (Psalm 119:10). If the strength of your soul is melting like snow, let the Lord strengthen you “according to [His] word!” (Psalm 119:28).

Does your soul need a shock? Do you need revitalization and renewal on the inside? Lay the Bible open before you and savor its contents so that its restorative power may be unleashed upon you. Read and reread its promises to recharge your batteries. Heed its warnings and exhortations to restore a healthy heartbeat. Open the living and active word of God so that the Spirit may administer a life-saving jolt to your soul.

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Bible Gleanings is a widely-read weekend devotional column, written for the Murray Ledger & Times in Calloway County, Kentucky.