Using the scriptures for cleansing and healing

While in the shower one day my thoughts turned to water.  What would it be like if we didn't have any available?  We use water to keep our bodies hydrated.  We also use water to keep our bodies clean.  Whenever one of my children gets hurt, I clean the wound before bandaging it up to avoid infection.  As I thought about the cleansing power of water my thoughts turned to the scriptures.  We know that Christ has said if we drink of the water he gives us we will thirst no more.  This water is referring to the gospel or God's love for us.  I have thought many times about the living water quenching our thirst for righteousness, but I had not thought as much about the cleansing power the living water can have.

Whenever I have been camping and return home the first thing I want to do is take a shower to wash off the filth.  Everyone I know washes their physical bodies on a regular basis.  If we don't, we begin to become filthy.  Are we as anxious to wash off the filth our spirits must experience from being out in the world?  This cleansing takes place as we read our scriptures and, the same as our physical bodies, if we avoid reading our scriptures our spirits can begin to become filthy.  Scripture reading can also allow the living water of God's love and his gospel heal our spirits and hearts.  We have all been wounded in one way or another throughout our lives.  Scripture reading can cleanse our wounds to help begin the healing process and avoid the spiritual "infections" of  anger and bitterness that sometimes accompany hard times.

Jacob 2:8 reads "And, it supposeth me that they have come hither to hear the pleasing word of God, yea, the word which healeth the wounded soul."  I know from personal experience that reading from the scriptures can bring an added measure of the spirit into your life which can quench your thirst and heal your soul.

Additional study: John chapter 4