I sat down ready for a lovely morning visit with Him... EVERYTHING went wrong. Everywhere I looked, I kept seeing things in scripture that made me angry -- "Why didn't so-and-so confront this issue?", "Why didn't You correct this person's attitude, Lord?" and so on. I finally gave up in exasperation. I put my Bible away and went to do something else, really ticked off about what had just happened. To make things worse, I turned on "Living Truth" and heard Charles Price say something to the effect that a person reading scripture without the help of the Holy Spirit will misinterpret what he's reading.
Ha. "Thanks so much, Charles."
I came back to the living room and flipped the TV back on. This time Charles was relating how, in seminary, for a while he had begun to see the Bible as a very dry book, sort of like a textbook. A wise person had advised him that he should always begin scripture-reading by asking the Holy Spirit to show him Christ.
I'd heard Charles say this before, but the Lord had never brought it home personally like this. Nor had I ever really put it into consistent practice.
The enemy had taken full advantage of my vulnerable mood, pointing out all sorts of things he knew I'd react to emotionally -- "What about this? That's not very fair, is it?"
After being reminded of the principle "ask the Holy Spirit to show us Christ in scripture," I said, "Let's start over, Lord. The whole thing -- every passage I read before. Only this time, let me read with Your eyes. Holy Spirit, please show me Christ."
What I read the second time was phenomenally different. The story I had reacted to most vehemently turned out to be something I had only half-read earlier. (The enemy loves Christians to have knee-jerk reactions after half-reading, half-hearing, or misinterpreting things -- it makes his job so much easier.) I had completely misunderstood the point of the story the first time. The second time, the Lord not only taught me sweet things, but led me to passages that nudged me to open my heart up to Him further.
Praise You, Lord, for revealing Yourself to me in scripture, confounding Your enemy's attempts to twist scripture to turn me away from You. Please remind me always to come to before You with this attitude: Show me Christ! Show us Christ, Lord. He is all we need.