In one eye…
24 Jan 2012 1 Comment
How often do you find yourself reading something on the Internet and say “Oh, that’s interesting!” or “I never knew that!” and then have the urge to immediately share it with others?
Do you find that your mind is easily “tickled” with new information, articles or videos on a variety of topics?
We live in an age where information often comes to us in clips, in the form of short articles, blog posts, or videos. It’s very easy to share these tidbits of information with others through mediums such as Facebook, Twitter or email. So, when we read or hear something interesting, it’s natural to want to pass it along to others. Many times the information is actually useful and could be of some benefit to someone else. There’s nothing wrong with that, right?
I’ve been thinking recently about my reading habits. I don’t know how many times I’ve read something that I’ve come across on my own, or that someone has “shared” with me and thought “Wow, this is so interesting/important/fascinating”, only to forget about it a few hours or days or weeks later. Like the old saying goes, “In one ear, out the other”, except for in this case, it’s “In one eye…”
I often find myself really fascinated by a short article or new thought, but it’s for only a fleeting period of time. It’s as though there is a steady stream of information that is flowing in one side of my brain and out the other. It’s rare that I find myself taking information that was passed along to me and dwelling on it for any length of time.
I sometimes remind myself of the scripture in Acts that says:
”…For all the Athenians and the foreigners who were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing.” - Acts 17:21
I have to ask myself, am I actually retaining anything that I’m reading? And if not, what’s the point of me reading it at all? I really want what I read and/or hear to actually sink in and have an impact on me for more than a few minutes or days. But how to accomplish this?
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I heard a message a few weeks ago about the use of the word “meditate” in the Bible. In the Old Testament, the word can mean:
to murmer, utter, ponder, roar, speak, talk, study, converse (with oneself), reflect
Many of these words are talking about someone who is verbalizing (out loud).
So, when David talks about meditating on God’s laws, precepts, and statutes, he is referring to speaking them aloud.
“My hands also I will lift up to Your commandments,
Which I love,
And I will meditate [muse, complain, talk] on Your statutes.”
Another example is in Joshua 1:8:
“This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate [mutter, ponder, devise] in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.”
It would seem that meditating would be a good way of keeping something in remembrance and also, a way to understand and apply deeper meaning to the things that may seem insignificant on the surface.
Speaking God’s Word aloud through the day and pondering it deeply is not something that I do on a regular basis. Part of the reason for this is that I can’t always have my Bible in hand throughout my busy day. Memorization is one way to overcome this obstacle. I have committed many individual Scriptures to memory over the years, but I’ve never attempted to memorize longer passages.
I was inspired by a fellow blogger with the idea of memorizing Scripture not verse by verse, but book by book. I put this off for a long time, because I didn’t think that I would be able to actually do it. This year, however, I’ve decided to try it and I’m using this guide to help me get into the practice of it:
An Approach to Extended Memorization of Scripture
The author of the article uses Ephesians as the example and that happens to be the book that I had already decided to memorize before I read his paper, so it will be even more useful for me! The guide offers reasons for memorizing large passages of scripture, ways to go about it, how to break a book down into “bite-size” chunks, and the importance of daily review. I highly recommend it!
I am hopeful that I will be successful in this endeavor and that it will give me more to meditate on as I go through my full days. I’ll plan to update my progress here on the blog so that I can be sure to keep up with it as time goes on. This week, I’ll be working on committing Ephesians 1:1-1:6 to memory.
Are you working on memorizing any scripture right now? It doesn’t matter as much whether you are memorizing single verses or longer passages, but that you are putting God’s Word into your mind and heart and keeping it there. Let me know so that I encourage you along your way!
Jan 26, 2012 @ 22:09:08
Anna, it’s funny that you should post on this topic, because I am just starting to try to memorize scriptures. I have never really done that (well not since I was a kid, and not much of those scripture have stuck with me!), and I think God must really want me to do it because every time I turn around someone is talking about it in front of me or to me directly! I chose my first scripture today, which is simple and won’t take long to memorize, and really speaks to my heart right now in this phase of my life. It is James 1:19-20 – “My beloved brethren, let every one be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.”