Bowels of Mercy

Mosiah 15: 9 Having ascended into heaven, having the bowels of mercy; being filled with compassion towards the children of men; standing betwixt them and justice; having broken the bands of death, taken upon himself their iniquity and their transgressions, having redeemed them, and satisfied the demands of justice.

This verse talks  about the Savior, and the role He plays in our lives. The Savior is our salvation, and our strength, and our source of “becoming.   We can see  true principles here. The scripture begins by saying that the Savior  had the bowels of mercy, the compassion -- which gave him the strength to stand between us (sinners) and justice.  He could not have done that without the mercy and compassion that he felt.  

In a similar way, we are invited to learn to school our emotions, and to feel emotions of goodness and love, which will give us strength to do what we need to do also.  Everything is a type and shadow of our Savior, and all things follow a pattern.  I think of this as Principle #3 of emotional health:   Emotions leads to action.

It is my prayer that as we understand this, we will more fully appreciate the role of the Savior in our lives.  Truly he works with us to heal our “negative” emotions and help us come to peace.  As we learn of Him, we will be strengthened.

Feeling Alone?

Sometimes we feel lonely.  We might feel pain, sorrow, anguish……………

We just feel alone in our trial.  

So - when I feel that way - what do I think we need?  Sometimes the weight of a trial can be crushing.  We don’t know anyone who has gone through this experience.  We don’t trust anyone to really understand us without judging.  We know that we are weak, and we wonder whether or not we can make it through this hard time.  

Take heart.

Romans 8:31  "What shall we then say to these things?  If God be for us, who can be against us?"

Do we believe that?  Really believe that?  

I do believe God is there, and that He cares about me, and that He loves me.  But wait.  Have I carried those thoughts through far enough to understand that God might - just might - be FOR me?  What would that thought actually look like?  

It would mean that he might be as concerned about this as I am.  It would mean that He cares about this.  It would mean that it’s important to Him, and that He will speak for me - help me - plead for me - wait --

Could God really be my advocate?  Is he really for  me?  Me?

Perhaps the solution to feeling so alone is this:  to strengthen faith in our Savior, Jesus Christ.  

When our faith is strong, we know this to be true:

Romans 8:35  "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?  Shall tribulation?  Or Distress?  Or persecution?  Or famine?  Or nakedness?  Or peril?  Or sword?"

No.  Nothing can separate us God unless we allow that to happen.  With God, we are never alone.

Romans 8:38, 39   "For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,  Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus Our Lord."

The solution to our overwhelming feelings of being alone is about  finding faith in our Savior, Jesus Christ, and believing Him, and so trusting Him to be our support.    He is FOR us, not against us, not trying to break us to see if we can stand.  He is for us, strengthening us so that we can walk with Him.  Our support is there.  Our responsibility is to find faith to see and believe.

Trials refine our emotions. Then blessings come.

From the Doctrine and Covenants, Section 103, verse 12:  “For after much tribulation, as I have said unto you in a former commandment, cometh the blessing.”

                                            

                                           
This is an important scripture, and it applies to emotional health in several ways.

First, there is tribulation.  That's a fact.  Life is not easy, and it's not meant to be easy.  In the gospel plan we are taught that it's necessary to have opposites, and that we learn and grow as we experience the opposites.  

It's not wrong to experience tribulation.  It's part of the plan.  It wouldn't be called tribulation if it wasn't hard, and it is natural for us to struggle and to become emotionally involved in that struggle.  Sometimes we think we're bad because we are having a hard time.  NO.

However, this scripture gives us comfort in tribulation.  We know that blessings come after we are tried.  That can give us the strength to look for our source of blessings - the Savior and Heavenly Father, and allow us to continue in faith through the "enduring" process.

This is a very different philosophy than one we are taught in the humanistic Law of Attraction.  The Law of Attraction says that we attract what we want as we focus on  those things.  Yes, to an extent.  But when we forget that blessings come after tribulation, we may not realize that tribulation is part of the law and the process.  The Law of Attraction seems to say that if we can just get in harmony with the  vibration of what we want, we won't experience the pain.  That is false, and leads us away from the understanding that in tribulation, we rely on God, plead for grace, and endure in God's timing.