My child, pay attention to my words; listen attentively to my sayings.

Do not let them depart from your sight, guard them within your heart;

for they are life to those who find them and healing to one’s entire body.

Proverbs 4:20-22

A series of unfortunate events led to a sadness so deep, it was going to take some time shake. My spirit was in terrible disrepair and in great need of restoration. It was going to take a lot of work. I wasn’t even sure that there was a remedy to be found that heal my soul.

I don’t know how it came about, but during this dark time, some years ago now, I began to write out scripture. I wasn’t really sure where to start, so each day I chose a single word to research and I looked at every scripture containing it. [Not so daunting now with access to the Bible search tools on nearly all electronic devices.] I would then take the time to jot them down in my journal, occasionally making side notes about how they applied to my situation. Some verses led to investigating longer passages. It was comforting, but God was doing something else under the surface. He was replacing my thoughts with His words. He was healing me from the inside out.

Surely You desire integrity in the inner self, and You teach me wisdom deep within. Psalm 51:6

In this next little portion of Psalm 51, we see David acknowledging that God wants us to live a life of integrity. That will come when God’s wisdom is found in our hearts.

When speaking of the heart, the word itself in the Hebrew can mean a variety of things including—knowledge, determination, or understanding. The English dictionary would define the heart as this: the center of the total personality, especially when referenced to intuition, feeling, or emotion. In each of those things, whether from the Hebrew or the English definition, God wants to find His influence there.

As we continue through this Psalm, we see more and more how God is forming that heart of David into being one like His. David’s heart would need that kind of wisdom in his total personality. He needed God’s heart to rule his.

Us, too. We each need His ways to become our ways. That was the whole point of the scripture writing I was doing for ‘comfort’. God’s words and His ways were creeping into my soul one verse at a time, and making themselves at home there. Good thing. They would be put to use over and over in the days to come. There was something pretty sweet came about, as well. Along with those words from the Bible, joy showed up. It was an unexpected but very welcomed side effect. It proved to be very good medicine for the soul.

Blessed is the one who finds wisdom, and the one who obtains understanding. . .

She [wisdom] is like a tree of life to those who obtain her,

 and everyone who grasps hold of her will be blessed.

Proverbs 3:13, 18

This blog post is linked up to Literacy Musing Mondays, where you will find other inspirational posts from some great writers.