Bible Study Chat 15

Originally Posted by Fearnot: I can definitely say, that studying God's word since joining FH has greatly greatly healed my "mental/emotional sickness"!!
I can't say it's 100 percent because I still do have moments of depression, but I know what to do, and rather than having my life like it was 85 percent depression and 15 percent happy-ish ( but not true peace and joy)
To know, being 85 percent peace, and even some joy with 15 percent depression trying to bring me down, but I almost immediately start taking my depressed thought captive and I start talking to Jesus, and fairly quickly peace and calm come back, because I know He loves me and is in control!!
So I really am convicted of the truth that God's word 'heals' at least, my mental/emotional sickness. It's just that it seems like my phyisical pain is for the most part continuing on a downward slope.
But then, to be honest, I have not yet been in God's word the way, I know I ought.....so perhaps that is a clue why there is not the healing of bones in the manner I would like.
I am also fairly certain that years and years of sin and stress, took a hIuge toll on my body, but more than that, I wasn't walking with the Lord.
If the very little I have been in the word (mostly with you and your Bible studies), imagine if I were even 50 percent near what I should be?
I reckon if I just count Bible studies with you ( up to 1/2 hr generally) a day, that might be 5 percent of what I really ought to be studing God's word.
So I think that might be my answer.
I wonder if I could challenge myself to be a certain amount of time daily in God's word, for a certain amount of time, as an experiment? Would that be a wrong motive? Because of course the true main reason would be a closer relationship with Jesus.....but to sort of test out the medicinal healing power of God's word with some serious study?
I would not be disappointed if I didn't gain a speck of improvement, because of the many many years and multitude of sins,

 

Praise God Barbara! you're doing so well and have come so far! I know the Lord must get a great big smile on His face every morning when He greets you!

And yes, years of sin and stress have taken a huge toll on my body as well hon. Plus, there's "sin in general" that's infected the whole of creation and is what causes everything to decay. That affects our bodies too of course. Like you, I've also often wondered where I'd be if I'd started spending more time with Him and in His Word sooner. Then I have to remind myself that God is in control and working His perfect Will in me, and that He promises that He will finish what He started, so what's important is that I started and continued to spend time with Him and His Word, not "when" I did it or "when" you did it.

As far as setting up a time you want to spend with Him every day, that's always a good idea. BUT, not to test God or the medicinal properties of His Word. Why? Because think about what you're really saying if you do that.... you're saying that you're not sure if He is telling you the Truth, which means you think He might lie to you, and in order to find out if He lies or not, you're going to test Him. NOT a good idea! Instead set a time for yourself because you are obeying the Lord's command to spend time in His Word daily.

Matthew 4:7 —Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” *

Deuteronomy 6:16 —Do not test the Lord your God as you did at Massah. *

Psalm 95:8–11 —do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah, as you did that day at Massah in the desert, *where your fathers tested and tried me, though they had seen what I did. *For forty years I was angry with that generation; I said, “They are a people whose hearts go astray, and they have not known my ways.” *So I declared on oath in my anger, “They shall never enter my rest.”
1 Corinthians 10:9–11 —We should not test the Lord, as some of them did—and were killed by snakes. *And do not grumble, as some of them did—and were killed by the destroying angel. *These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come. *

Hebrews 3:7–13 —So, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you hear his voice, *do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the desert, *where your fathers tested and tried me and for forty years saw what I did. *That is why I was angry with that generation, and I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.’ *So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’ ” *See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. *But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. *

Originally Posted by Fearnot

I would not be disappointed if I didn't gain a speck of improvement, because of the many many years and multitude of sins,

 

Don't do that to yourself Barbara. That's a thought that needs to be taken captive because when you think that, you're accepting one of Satan's lies. None of your sins from the past are held against you. Remember what Jesus says to you?

John 15:3 —You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. *

Your sins have been washed away and you're cleaner and brighter then new fallen snow. Our Lord says this to us every day when we confess our sins to Him too. He saved us when we were still his enemy and hated Him. He did that because He loved us. He died for us because He loved us. If He was willing to go through all that for us personally when we hated Him, how much more will He do for us now that we love Him? I was reading a book during the night when I couldn't sleep and wrote down this quote which really said a lot to me:

‎The way we treat the Bible is the way we treat Jesus Christ, for He is the Living Word (John 1:1, 14) and the Bible is the written Word. If a father paid no attention to his son’s words, he would be admitting that his son was not important to him. If we ignore or neglect God’s Word, or if we treat it carelessly, we are admitting to God that He is not important in our lives. W. Wiersbe

God and His Word do heal us in many ways. But God doesn't heal us the way the world does. He heals us from the inside out and He starts at the roots of our problems, which are often things we're totally unaware of - at least until He starts working on it. And even then, we're often completely unaware of what that has to do with what's being healed or even that we are being healed. It's really hard to explain until you've been through it yourself.

There's one way He heals us that is fairly easy to explain though. I used to be just like everyone else, and worried about everything all the time. With 5 kids, I was constantly totally stressed out. There is absolutely no way I could have ever lived through the things that have happened in my life over the last 4 years or so and not wound up in a psych ward at the very least and most likely have been drugged up with valium long before that!

But the Lord prepared me before any of this happened, and He was able to do that because I cooperated with Him by spending time in His Word daily and applied what I learned to my life - or at least tried to. Including of course taking my thoughts captive etc. During the years that He was training me and preparing me, like anyone else we went through some hard times then too, although nothing like what happened later. While they were hard to go through, they weren't quite as stressful as these last 4 years would have been. So I got to practice on those somewhat smaller issues. (at the time they didn't seem so small to me though lol) Again, because I spent time in His Word daily, I became more and more at peace with myself and my world because I knew God was in control. It wasn't just something I thought I believed anymore. It was something I knew because of all He'd taught me from His Word. I was also at peace because I knew He loved me and that I was saved. There wasn't a sliver of doubt or guessing in my mind any longer and it was because of His Word. I could go on and on with all He taught me that made me KNOW He was in control and I didn't have to worry etc. That's one way He heals, because the more we know Him, the more we can trust Him, and the less we think we have to do on our own.