For a season, consider meditating on Scriptures based upon your pain or trouble, if you are hurting. While we need to read all Scriptures, sometimes we need Scriptures specifically tailored to our spiritual and emotional wounds (Psalm 147:3, “He heals the broken hearted and binds up their wounds.”) Specific Scriptures can remind us of God’s many helps including these: calming, feeding, housing, protecting, avenging (enemies), uniting, freeing, loving, and more. Normally we want to have a balanced reading schedule from the Scripture, but not when we are facing intense struggles. At those times, we need to feed the areas of our lives that are deficient.
In this post, I share examples from my own life, as I have gone through seasons of intensity from fear to pain, to sorrow. I share how Scriptures have eased those burdens and also fed my hungry soul. I explained, in an earlier post “Not More Righteous, Just Starved for God,” (if you missed it, be sure to read it) that I pursue God, not because it makes me look or feel righteous, but because I am starved for him. Although I am not currently suffering in a season of intense struggles, I have not lost my strong desire to know God better. My current spiritual life is like a teenager’s growth spurt where she needs lots of food, because she is growing, except that mine is spiritual hunger and growth.
In those times of intense struggles, I turned to the Scriptures that reassured me based upon what hurt my soul. I first needed to feel loved by God because of my damaged relationships. My original family had trouble loving me, and I felt like a rejected child (John14:18, “I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you.”) I was rejected by some of the men I loved romantically, including my first husband, and I felt like a rejected wife, (Isaiah 54:6, “You were like an abandoned wife, devastated with grief, and God welcomed you back). Needing God’s love, I did not just read Scriptures about him loving me, but also verses where he said he adored me (Zephaniah 3:17, “the Lord your God is with you. He is mighty to save. He will quiet you with his love. He will rejoice over you with singing.”) I wrote these verses on note cards and also memorized them. If you would like to see how I did that, look back at my post, “Why memorize Scripture.”
If you have been hurt or even abandoned by your family, please do as I did, and pursue God based upon this pain. Soak in the verses that speak of how much God loves you and yearns for you. Add your name to the Scriptures, such as I might do if I said, John 3:16a “For God so loved Debbie,” except that you fill in your name in verses you choose. This is not a heresy, because it is what God means. When you read about God’s love in the Bible, realize this is God’s love for you. He adores you that much, and he is pleased when you read Scripture believing he intended his love for you.
I went through a spell when I was very angry with those who had hurt me, and I was tempted to strike back with angry words. I memorized Scripture about the foolishness of a person’s temper (Proverbs 12:16 & 26:4). I also memorized verses about the importance of holding my tongue (Psalm 141:3-4b), especially when I was angry. I memorized Scriptures about not retaliating with anger (1 Peter 3:8-9.)
I have had some times of stress when I wondered what to do next, and I felt anxiety. I memorized Scriptures about fear (2 Tim. 1:7) and also about God providing for me and his reminding me to remember how he provided for his people in the past (Psalm 111:4-5.) So much of Scripture tells us, “Remember,” and then God reminds us of the past. With fear and anxiety, we too easily forget how God provided for us in the past. We also forget how often God provided for his people in the Bible. We forget that in the book of Revelation, Jesus wins. The victory is already ours, but our frail minds don’t always remember.
We are such frail creatures, unlike the steady angels who come down to earth, glowing with light and needing to reassure the humans they meet to not be terrified of them. As humans, we forget. We worry. We feel stress so intensely we develop headaches and stomach aches. God is not angry with us for our frailty. He knows he made us this way, and he delights in us (Psalm 103:a4 “For He, himself knows our frame. He knows we are but dust.”) He just wants us to come to him in all of our pain and frailty. He meets us when we tell him how scared, angry, hurt or confused we are (Matt. 11:28-30.) He may not give us the answers we want, right away, but he lets us know he is there with us, and we are not alone (Matt.28:20, “For behold I am with you always to the end of the age.”)
God’s constant presence helps me. When my girls were little, just having them in the car gave me such comfort, I could make long drives, across three counties, or in other states. I felt fine, because my girls were there. They could not help me change a tire or give me directions, but they were there, loving me, and somehow this made all those long drives easier, even in the dark and unfamiliar places. How much more does God comfort me when I know he is there, and he is all powerful (Jeremiah 32:17, “Ah Lord, it is you who made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you.”)
Lately I have indulged in Bible verses about God delighting in me, just the way I am. I have spoken of our innate personality, and if you missed them, some of my earliest posts discussed the innate personality and temperament God has given us. My mom and siblings had opposite personalities from me (my dad was a workaholic, rarely home, so he was not involved.) They thought my personality was wrong, and I believed them. Only when I was an adult did I learn there were other people with my personality, and it was a valid way to be. But the brain washing was intense, and I tended to still feel less important and less sensible than other people. Yet there were children and widows who adored me, even as a child. As an adult, I found friends who enjoyed my personality. But it took accepting that God made me the way I am to fully embrace the reality that my personality is valid, even pleasing to God (Psalm 18:19, “My God delights in me!” Psalm 149:4, “For the Lord takes pleasure in his people. He adorns the humble with salvation.”) Naturally I have been gobbling up Scriptures that speak of God’s delight in me, because it feeds my intense, emotional (and likely spiritual) hunger.
Best of all, this emotional and spiritual hunger and its indulgence is good for me! How often have we eaten some gooey, sugary, fatty, and very processed food and known it was bad for us? But the opposite happens when we bite into a piece of fruit, or some well seasoned meat, or some savory vegetables and we think, “Yum.” Then we enjoy something, and it is good for us! So it is with God’s word when we seek his reassurance in the areas where we are emotionally and spiritually hungry. God feeds these intense hungers (Matthew 4:4b “Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”) We were built to love God and be loved by him, and this is why we have those times of emotional and spiritual hunger. Reading those passages, writing them down and putting them up where we can see them, and memorizing them feeds our soul in those areas, if we truly believe God means what he is saying.
So whether you hurt because of childhood pain, or pain from recent experiences, please let God’s specific words reassure you and feed you in those areas. You are not misusing Scriptures to seek those passages. There are seasons in our lives when we most desperately need those Scriptures, and God is happy for us to indulge in those verses. He adores us. He adores you, and he is pleased with you. I know this is true, because he has shown me he is pleased with me and adores me. If God can love me, a gal who was so clumsy and bullied as a child and adult, he can surely love you!
Thanks for joining us in this week’s post. I pray I have blessed you.