So a few weeks ago I caved and got myself some of the swanky Bible highlighters and clear sticky notes that every teenage youth girl is carrying around nowadays. I like to make notes in my Bible as I read. Of course, the one I primarily use has about 0.5 inch margins, so…not a lot of room for profound thoughts before you run off the page.
For a few years, I have underlined the passages stand out to me. Sometimes it’s because I really like the verse, sometimes because it stands out when I’m reading it, sometimes it’s because I’m confused, which usually warrants a ‘?!’ next to the passage. However, besides the occasional ‘?!’ or circled word, there’s not a ton of room for nuance the way I was marking things.
So I decided that it was time to get some highlighters. The reason the ones I got are the “trendy” ones that everyone has is because they are good quality. There are certain pens, highlighters, sticky notes made for Bibles, which makes it easier on the thin pages. My only gripe with the product is that the color the highlighter says it’s going to be and the actual color of the highlighter are often not quite the same. I think most owners of these highlighters felt catfished the first time they used them…
Anyway…I started using the aforementioned highlighters post haste, and I am quite enjoying the different experience. I decided on a few Biblical themes I wanted to highlight and take note of, and it’s amazing how often those things pop up now when I read.
Because I’m reading some of the prophets, I thought an interesting thing to highlight would be God’s justice versus God’s love. Because let me tell you – there is a lot of justice dealt out in the Old Testament prophets! That highlighter has been heavily used thus far.
I’m not exactly sure how this applies to life. I’m not telling you to go buy the trendy highlighters. But I think this does highlight something: the things we look for are the thing we find. If we are looking for God’s truth in a verse, we spot it a lot more. If we are looking for areas of hope, we will observe them more.
I think this is even more true in life. The things we dwell on have a deep impact on our hearts. That’s why taking thoughts captive is so important. If we are entirely focused on the bad things in our life, we will notice even more of those. If we focus on the hope of Jesus, or the truth of God, or the wonderful parts of people, the more we see of that, and the more we are lifted up.
