The Apostle Paul exhorts us, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds” (Romans 12:2)

In the counselling and psychotherapy worlds, they talk about neural pathways in our brains being a bit like roads that long established patterns of thoughts go down. You perhaps find your mind wandering into thinking that is not helpful – patterns of worry or catastrophising (thinking the worst case scenario will always happen). If we think the same negative way often enough – it becomes a well worn path of stinking thinking.

So when Paul exhorts us to be transformed by the renewing of our minds – he is telling us to make new pathways of better thinking. In Phil 4:6-8 he explains how when it comes to anxiety – ending those verses with “whatever is true, what is noble, what is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things.” – in essence whenever you become aware you are falling into some stinking thinking, replace it with something that is true, noble, right, pure, lovely or admirable.

I have been reminded this summer of the power of Scripture memorisation to help us do this.

Dallas Willard wrote “Bible memorisation is absolutely fundamental to Spiritual formation. If I had to choose between all the disciplines of the spiritual life, I would choose Bible memorisation, because it is a fundamental way of filling our minds with what it needs. The book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth. That’s where you need it! How does it get in your mouth? Memorisation!” (From Growing Strong in the Seasons of Life)

This Summer I memorised Romans 15:13 “May the God of hope, fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” – I was somewhat lacking hope and I found learning the verse and then marinating on it was a source of rich comfort and as it soaked in, it opened the way for the Lord to minister fresh joy and peace and hope.

Here’s some other reasons to learn scripture…

Right Thinking

We have seen that the key to renewing our minds is being soaked and steeped in Scripture. Psalm 1 also talks of the blessed one not walking, or standing or sitting with those that drag him/her down, but instead being someone who is delighting and meditating in the word of God.

A verse learnt is a powerful weapon, a sword of the Spirit to replace stinking thinking with God’s thoughts.

Triumph over Sin

Psalm 119:9,11 tells us “How can a young person stay on the path of purity? By living according to your word… I have hidden your wod in my heart, that I may not sin against you.” The Psalmist had learned the power of memorising Scripture to quote to himself to keep him from falling when temptation comes.

Triumph over the Devil

When Jesus was being tempted by the devil, he quoted Scriptures he had clearly learnt back. You can read about that in Matthew 4:1-11

Helping Others

Apparently Smith Wigglesworth always had a Bible in his pocket and routinely told people, “If anybody here can catch me without a testament on my body, I’ll give him five pounds.“

I have a bible on my phone – and a pocket testament in my bag, but what about those times when someone has a question or a need of comfort? Then those learned verses will help so much! Prov 25:11 says, “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver.” Those words will often come from beautiful verses that have come from memory!

Yes, but How?

Hopefully I have convinced you of the value of beginning to learn Scripture. All well and good, but how do we do it?

• Start small – start by learning one verse and build on that with a habit. (Why not try Romans 15:13 or 2 Corinthians 5:17 for starters)
• Write it out while speaking each word – I find this the fastest way of learning as it is engaging the mind and not letting it wander. I will write it out while saying each word until I have filled a sheet of paper.
• Try and quote it out loud – and see if you got it right. If not write and read it some more.
• Spaced repitition – is a proven way of locking memories more long term. Basically that means review it every day for say a week and then review less often. As you add more verses, take a week to learn each one and review the older ones once a week or so.

I have downloaded the “Versify” app on my phone to help me learn – it has fun ways of testing recall like speaking it out, using the first letter or plain typing and it will remind you when to review. I tried multiple apps, and Versify was the best in my view.

May the word of God dwell in your richly and help banish stinking thinking.

Why not comment below with what verse you will learn this week…