In my couples discipleship one of the things that stood out to me was the power of learning and memorizing scripture. It is Step 4 of 10 in the ten steps to Grow Godly Character. To give you some context, the character trait I was working on was pride (not necessarily by choice but as things transpired throughout the week, pride seemed to be the culprit of my transgressions). During the process of dealing with my pride, I found that memorizing scripture was not as helpful as I thought it would be. I was memorizing 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 “ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud…” whenever I said it I expected my pride to diminish but in reality I would end up getting frustrated and bitter because of the lack of results.
It wasn’t clear at the time but I had missed one of the most important parts of memorizing scripture, which is to help us fix our eyes on Jesus. If you’re like me, when you see 10 steps to do something you’re more interested in getting to Step 10 than going through the process of each step.
In our discussion, Gabe highlighted that we are constantly having negative thoughts in our head and one of the things that memorizing scripture does practically is take away space from having negative thoughts. If I’m focusing on memorizing scripture, my mind doesn’t have time nor space to focus on negative thoughts.
It is no mystery that we need to focus our thoughts on more positive things. Even the world teaches that. But what makes memorizing scripture more than just a positive habit or practice is who the scripture leads us too. I believe it is not always the scripture itself that changes you but who the scripture leads you too that changes you. It is God through the Holy Spirit that gives life to the scriptures that enables us to change.
Perhaps my pride had kept me from believing that memorizing scripture had any power to change my behaviors and maybe it was the lack of faith in the word of God that stopped any possibility for change.
I’m reminded of words spoken by Donna:
Word and No Spirit = Dry Up
Spirit and No Word = Blow Up
Word and Spirit = Grow Up
I was clearly dried up and needed to grow up. If I fix my eyes on Jesus and continually seek God through memorizing scriptures, then by the power of the Holy Spirit I can be changed and the breakthrough I longed for can be attainable. It is not a one-stop-shop for our broken character but an on-going process of humility in going to God and asking Him to “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting (Psalm 139:23-24).”
So whether you’re doing a Discipleship lesson or trying to memorize the Church memory verse, I pray that it will lead you to the one true God and that you would be transformed by the renewing of your mind. I pray that your memorization will be undergirded by the power of the Holy Spirit and that you will see and experience God in new and tangible ways.