“Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies,” Colossians 3:12
Bowels: The seat of pity or kindness; hence, tenderness, compassion, a scriptural sense. Mercy: pity Seat: The place where a thing is settled or established. (Websters 1828)
During our last Roundtable the above citation was discussed. We were instructed that resentment is a poison we take ourselves. The question was asked, “How merciful are you?” We were reminded that when having trouble forgiving someone to pity them.
This story was used as an example.
“Talbot Mundy, in his volume, The Devil’s Guard, published in 1927, narrates the story of a man traveling in Tibet who is seized upon and tortured by a band of men that would be classified as malpractitioners, in that they were endeavoring to gain an erroneous mental control over the traveler. Despite their efforts, this adventurer endeavored to love these men who were torturing him, but, because they were so despicable, he found himself unequal to the task. But he found he could pity them. This he did. It was not until after he had escaped from their clutches, that he learned that these men constituted an organization of priests, whose motives were base, seeking his downfall through gaining a mental domination over him. It was then that he discovered, that his ability to pity them had saved him, because they could not gain entrance into his mind, as long as a sense of pity was flowing out. If they could have made him hate, that would have opened his thought to them.” Footsteps by Carpenter, Chapter 41
I was healed of a stomach issue during this class as the Truth was spoken and I changed my thinking regarding something I was feeling resentment about. Letting go of the anger was a blessing and want to continue to work on cleansing myself of resentment.
“The Christian Scientist cherishes no resentment; he knows that that would harm him more than all the malice of his foes.” By Mary Baker Eddy, Message 1902 p, 19