Ever have one of those days (or weeks, or months... or years) where you just felt so angry at every person you saw for no good reason? You keep focusing on how badly you've been hurt and you just want to keep everyone out and away so you don't get hurt again. But the worst thing is, it hurts even more because you are ALONE. Well, I've slipped back into that cycle and I really hate it. I've been struggling with it for most of my life and it hurts alot.
Desprate for something to take my mind off that cycle and to prevent making myself feel worse, I cracked open my Bible to the New Testiment. I opened it up just for a distraction. I came out feeling spiritually fed. I have to preface this with that I don't read the Bible as often as I probably should. (I have yet to get past Exodus when setting out to read the Old Testiment. I've only fared slightly better with the New Testament. I find the OT very intimidating, confusing and more difficult to read than the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants. I also feel pretty dumb when I keep having to looking up so many words in the Bible because I don't know what they mean. I guess it is partially wounded pride, because my reading comprehension in modern English is pretty high, I consistantly score past the 95th percentile in reading tests.) With that said, I found myself opening to Luke chapter 6.
Several verses felt like they jumped out and pulled the chain on the metaphorical light bulb that floats over my head. I'll just go ahead and quote them here.
"35 But alove ye your enemies, and do good, and blend, hoping for nothing again; and your crewarddchildren of the Highest: for he is kind unto the eunthankful and shall be great, and ye shall be the to the evil.
"43 For a good tree bringeth not forth corrupt afruit; neither doth a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
44 For every tree is known by his own afruit. For of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes. 45 A good man out of the good treasure of his aheart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the bheart his cmouth dspeaketh. 46 ¶ And why acall ye me, bLord, Lord, and cdo not the things which I say? 47 Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and adoeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like:"
What did I come away with from this?
1) I need to focus on trying my best to emulate Jesus. My reward will not come in this life, but the one to come. It is more than safe to say that His sufferings were far greater than my own. If I am to emulate Him, dwelling on my own hurts is NOT the best way to go about that. I may be suffering in the here and now, but it WILL NOT always be that way. (verses 35 and 36)
2) Actions speak louder than words. (verses 43, 44, 46 and 47)
3) What is in your heart will eventually come out of your mouth. I don't want hate and anger coming out of my mouth. Hate and anger have harmed me enough. I do not want to cause someone else to be hurt because of carelessness or maliciousness on my part. (verse 45)
The trend continues. When I open up the Scriptures when I'm feeling down, out, sad, angry or upset, I seem to open up to something I needed to hear. I feel a bit humbled. This has to be more than just a coincidence. If anything, it just further reinforces my belief that the Lord looks after each of us. Only someone who really cares about you would tell you about areas you need to improve in. In my opinion, people who sugar coat less than "happy" news are looking after their own well-being and not your own.
Well, those are my 2 bits. Any constructive comments are welcome.
**edit: I couldn't increase the font size of the Scripture quotes without borking up how they looked.
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Tags: Scripture Study Bible Luke New Testament
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