Thursday, October 12, 2023
When I became a Christian at age 43, I had a lot of bad habits to unlearn. One of the best pieces of advice I received was—when you remove a bad habit, replace it with a good one. Otherwise, that old habit may come back bigger and worse than before.
Oh, the places my pre-Christ thoughts would go! I determined that the best thing I could do was replace them with scripture. Although my middle-aged mind wasn't as supple as it had once been, I was determined to memorize Bible verses. I wanted to think the thoughts of God. And I had the best example ever … Jesus!
Matthew 4:2-4
2 For forty days and forty nights he (Jesus) fasted and became very hungry.
3 During that time the devil came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become loaves of bread.”
4 But Jesus told him, “No! The Scriptures say, ‘People do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
Jesus had memorized scripture so God’s words were ready when he needed them. He knew scripture and used it to great effect! After the third scriptural defeat, Matthew says the devil left and angels attended him! (Matthew 4:11).
The first verse I memorized was Philippians 4:6-7 to combat worrying:
6 Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. 7 Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.
What great verses! I’ve used them at weddings, funerals, life groups, and to encourage friends and family.
To help control my thoughts, I memorized 2 Corinthians 10:4-5 (NIV) (emphasis added):
4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
To fight off temptation, I memorized 1 Corinthians 10:13 (NIV) (emphasis added):
No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.
I wrote them down, I kept them close, and I passed them on. When my old habits and thoughts resurfaced, I focused on remembering those verses! Most often, by the time I remembered them, I had forgotten whatever was bothering me. That was just the beginning for me! I wish I could remember the entirety of all of the scripture I have memorized over the last 30 years of following Christ. But I will tell you, memorizing scripture has been one of the best habits I have developed along my faith walk.
You—yes, you—you really can memorize scripture! Maybe it’s the devil telling you that you cannot. Remember, he is not the boss of you, Jesus is!
Questions:
Have you ever tried to memorize scripture? What has held you back? Are you willing to give it another try?
Next Steps:
Grab yourself a buddy and begin a scripture memory program. You can find them easily on Google. Hold each other accountable! (Pro tip: many of the worship songs we sing ARE scripture put to music! You probably already know more than you think!)
Prayer:
Lord Jesus, Thank you for being our example of how we can gain victory over the temptations that come our way every day! Thank you for giving us so many tools with which to memorize scripture. Open our minds to the amazing truths contained in your word and help us learn to apply them to our lives as Jesus did! We trust you will do this, In Jesus’ name, amen.
Series Theme Verse:
John 14:26
“But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you.”
This post was written by Lauri White, a regular contributor to the LivingItOut.