Formula For A Satisfied Soul

There is an amazing promise found in the writings of Isaiah: “If thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday: And the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not” (Isaiah 58:10-11).

Most words here are translated very well, but the meaning is a little clearer when you know that in the first verse the word darkness could have been translated gloominess. What this says to me is that when we reach out to help and assist the poor and the afflicted, the Lord will heal our poverty and afflictions. But the most important promise is that when we help others, the Lord will guide us at all times and feed our hungry souls even in times of dire distress so that we won't be gloomy. His Living Waters will flow to us continually.

These verses are encouraging to me because they are doable. All of us have the capacity to reach out to others. We can give a smile, a note of appreciation, a hug, a meal, or whatever we have because we all have something to give. And in return for giving what we have, the Lord gives us more. He will “guide thee continually.” What a great blessing!

Walking!

Today I went for a walk and it felt so good.

In the past I’ve taken for granted what a great blessing it is to do something as simple as take a walk, but with the stress fractures I have been out of commission for six weeks. This morning as I walked and was finally able to exercise everything was new again and wonderful. The trees nodded their branches in greeting, the Provo River gushed a joyful welcome, the green foliager soughed gently along the path, and everything was amazing.

I’m trying to tell myself not to take it for granted again. I fear I’ll get used to it and forget how marvelous it is. But I am going to try to remember the awe of it all. This world is so beautiful and I love it!

Rescued from the Pit

Wow! (I hope you can feel my excitement through cyberspace!) During my scripture study this morning I found gold!!!!

If you’ve been reading this blog for long you know I’ve been studying and writing about Living in Truth where joy and faith and love abound. When you don’t Live in Truth you fall into the Pit of Illusion where despair and discouragement hold you in bondage. I thought I had made up the term “Pit of Illusion,” but this morning while studying I came across this verse of scripture: “Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and he saveth them out of their distresses. He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions” (Ps 107:19-20).

As part of my study I looked up the verse in Hebrew which our Old Testament was translated from and found that the word the King James translators recorded as “destructions” is shchiyth (prounounced shekh-eeth’), which means pit. Thus a more accurate translation of verse twenty would be, “He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their pit.”

And that sheds light on what it means to Live in Truth. When we slip into the Pit, we can cry out to the Lord to save us from the vexing stress we are in, and He will send his word to heal us and deliver us from the Pit of Illusion. The word comes as we read scripture, read the words of the brethren, or listen to the still small voice within. The word sent from God, however it comes, can rescue us from the Pit!

Give Thanks

"And he commanded them 

that they should observe the sabbath day, 

and keep it holy, 

and also every day 

they should give thanks 

to the Lord their God" 

(Mosiah 18:23).

"Wise in Our Ways"

In 1 Samuel 18:14 we are told that “David behaved himself wisely in all his ways; and the Lord was with him.” The word translated as wisely is sakal and it means “to be prudent, to act circumspectly, to have insight, or to give attention to.” When we look at all the definitions of sakal it gives us a better feel for what David did to “act wisely in all his ways.”

Too often we move through our days like water flowing down a stream bed--without really thinking about what we are doing or where we are going. We just go where the stream bed takes us. But if we want to be like David when he was favored of the Lord, we need to “behave ourselves wisely” which means we need to pay attention to what we are doing. We need to consciously choose to Live in Truth and to avoid falling prey to Illusion.

This means we have to learn what Truth is all about and then when faced with decisions or circumstances that habit or tradition or the natural man have previously determined for us, we instead act prudently and with insight and give attention to consciously choosing to Live in Truth. In other words, we decide how fast to go, when to turn, when to stop, and which stream bed to follow instead of simply going with the current of the stream.

It takes effort, but it is worth it because when we Live in Truth “the Lord is with us.”

Don't Be Pulled Into the Pit!

It seems I learn a lot of life’s lessons in the School of Experience. In other words I learn by doing things the wrong way. But then, some of life’s lessons are best learned that way. I’ve studied Living in Truth for years now and have learned most from the trial and error application of the principles. From my experience I’ve found that one of the hardest things to deal with is when people you love have fallen into the Pit of Illusion because of accusations against you.

Strangers or casual friends don’t usually confront you when they are in the Pit because of something you said or did, but family members and people you love usually do confront you and if you are not careful they can pull you into the Pit with them. When they make statements such as “You shouldn’t have said. . .” or “Why did you do . . .” or “You always do . . .” (And, of course, that is always followed by something they didn’t want you to do.), can cause you to fight back or defend yourself which only puts you in the Pit with them.

However, if you can stay in Truth and simply listen to them vent their feelings, these kinds of experiences can teach you more about Living in Truth than any other experience. If you stay in Truth you see how their thinking you shouldn’t have done what you did has cankered their souls and distorted their reasoning. You see how they have clung to the thoughts like briars to a piece of wool, and you also see how much work it has taken to do that. Often you can even see the darkness in their countenance and always you see how the thought is eating away at their peace of mind like acid on a piece of cloth. You see how it is their continually thinking about the incident and not what you did that is causing them pain, and from there you can learn a lot about what happens to you when you think those kinds of accusing thoughts.

So when someone is “attacking” you, is when you need the Truth Tools the most. If you can stay in Truth and simply listen not only do you keep yourself out of the Pit, but you learn so much about the benefits of Living in Truth.

Down With Negative Emotions!

I don’t know if you’ve ever noticed, but the word emotions never appears in scripture. Instead the word spirit is used. For example in 1 Timothy 3:7 we read: “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” The 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language by Noah Webster gives this as two of the definitions of the word spirit: “Powers of mind distinct from the body,” and “That which hath power or energy; the quality of any substance which manifests life, activity, or the power of strongly affecting other bodies.”

The Random House Webster's College Dictionary of 1996 gives 24 definitions of the word spirit. The ones that best capture the King James usage of the word are “an attitude or principle that pervades thought, stirs one to action, etc.,” and “feelings or mood with regard to exaltation or depression.” The definition of the Greek word for spirit is “the vital principal by which the body is animated; the power by which the human being feels, thinks, decides; the soul.”

What all this helps me understand is that the negative emotions that send us into the Pit of Illusion are not part of God’s plan for us. That is why when the Savior encountered these bad “spirits” in people, He healed them. And He will heal us as we turn to Him and let Him do His work.