Yesterday He calmed my heart with a great passage. I will be working on memorizing it for the next month or so.
2 Corinthians 4:16-18
Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
Sometimes we memorize passages because it is a good word in general. We read it as truth and it easily applies to our lives and the lives of those around us. Sometimes we memorize passages because we aren't sure what else to memorize, but we know that through discipline He will shape our hearts through His precious Word. Sometimes we memorize passages because He has spoken deeply and intimately to our hearts. We long to cling to the revealed truth because the freshness the Holy Spirit breaths into us makes us more dependent on Him.
Where are you in this journey? Which category best describes what you are memorizing right now? Are you able to stick to it when it is out of discipline? Do the words stick more readily in your brain when He's massaged your heart with a specific verse?
Keep it up, friends! You are doing a great job taking His powerful Word into your hearts and minds!
18 important comments so far. What are your thoughts?
I've still been struggling with memorizing, but could not figure out why. I am realizing that I chose this passage I'm working on based on what I want to memorize, not what God directed me to. I don't think that's a bad approach, except for when God is trying to speak to me in a different part of His word. So, I'm going to spend the next 2 weeks seeking Him about my memorizing direction. For now, I will continue on with the passage I've committed to.
Chronicles 16:10
Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice.
I'm seeking verses to memorize out of "I know I will want to remember this later" and out of God speaking to me through my reading and our group discussions lately.
I just finished with 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 yesterday:
"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away."
I also want to do 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 as well! After our talk last night that really spoke to me about the purpose for the perserverance I want to develop. As always, thanks for the encouraging words - they are so appreciated!
Psalm 51:10 ESV
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.
Today is my stepmother Edna's 84th birthday. We have had a rocky relationship to say the least. I will be going to Kansas City over Mother's Day weekend for my niece's high school graduation, to visit my sisters and see Edna. I will pray the above repeatedly as I navigate the events of the upcoming trip as well as one of my "go to" verses Psalm 19:14.
trudging forward, as if through mud, to finally wrap up this chapter... i started it initially to give me better direction with how to love my family better. i'm ending it recognizing love is most and best refined (and delivered) when i start and end my day with him...
1 corinthians 13:12
"for now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. now i know in part, then i shall know fully, even as i have been fully known."
reminding myself that this world is temporal is often simultaneously terrifying and completely comforting. at the same time.
almost done with 1 corinthians. woot!
-lkm
“Forget the former things;
do not dwell on the past.
See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
and streams in the wasteland.
Isaiah 43:18-19
I am memorizing this as I move into the next chapter of my life and believing for the good the Lord has for me.
“Forget the former things;
do not dwell on the past.
See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
and streams in the wasteland.
Isaiah 43:18-19
I am memorizing this as I move into the next chapter of my life and believing for the good the Lord has for me.
I've been reading through the Psalms, and Psalm 50 felt so refreshing because it is God speaking about himself instead of humans speaking about God. It jumped out at me because I realized on a newer level how deeply personal God our father is.
The one who offers thanksgiving as her sacrifice glorifies me; to one who orders her way rightly I will show the salvation of God. Psalm 50:23, ESV (modified).
I feel like I've been memorizing mostly out of discipline, but not a heavy, burdensome discipline. It is a light, inspiring discipline. I picked out so many verses to memorize ahead of time, but they are still applying. This year is going so much better in the area of memorizing Scripture than last year.
I am moving on in 1 Peter 1 with vs 22-23.
Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart. 23 For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.
Also, I didn't get to Psalm 73:25-26 last time, so I'm going to try again this time. This may be too much for these two weeks, so I'm going to see how it goes.
25 Whom have I in heaven but you?
And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.
26 My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
God has recently been putting Ephesians 5:11 in my heart. I decided to memorize that verse and some surrounding verses this month.
For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible-and everything that is illuminated becomes a light. This is why it is said: "Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you." Be very careful, then, how you live -not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.
Ephesians 5:8-16
I'm stealing your verse this month. Definitely the exact one I need to memorize. Thanks Angel :)
I am so glad you asked about why we are memorizing what we are memorizing. I'm in the middle of Isaiah 55 and "stuck". I have come across several passages lately that have spoken perfectly to my heart and I have wanted to commit to memory but I feel obligated to finish Isaiah 55. I can definitely identify with Angela's comment above.
So, even though the rule follower in me is screaming, I am going to pause where I am in Isaiah 55 and shift gears for a little while.
So this go around, I will be memorizing:
John 15:5
I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
"Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your fallow ground; for it is time to seek the LORD until he comes and showers righteousness on you."
-Hosea 10:12
:)
This is a Second Mile favorite, but I am just now embracing it. And it is so timely too! All other distractions falling aside, Jesus before me - it's time to seek the Lord until He comes! In the words of my dad (and probably some others): Yeehaw!
I feel like every time the 1st or the 15th comes around, I say I'm slacking in memorizing. This time is no different. I've had very little diligence in memorizing James.
I've realized that I have allowed my stubbornness to get the best of me in the sense that I told myself that I would memorize this chapter no matter what, not because it's what I am suppose to do but because I am stubborn. I realized that I don't do things with excellence when that is my motivation.
All that being said, I am going to add verses 11 and 12 of James 1 because it speaks to where I am at, not because I'm stubborn. The second half of this month I'll most likely move on to another passage and I'm ok with that.
AHH! This is the first FIRST of the month that has slipped past me since September where I have not been memorizing. I'm so bummed. Must get back on track! Our whole church is memorizing Colossians 3 so I have even less of an excuse. Maybe I'll have a piece of it done by mid-month. Thanks for your faithfulness in this (and I've loved your vulnerability lately in the health posts. Great job.)
Continuing in Colossians 3...
Colossians 3:14-15
And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.
I am memorizing the next passage because of it being spoken intimately to Curtis and I, as well as wanting to instill its goodness in me/us for the long haul. I finally moved on from Isaiah 43, and I will focus on 2 Corinthians 6:2-10//2-3.
"Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation. We put no obstacle in anyone's way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry,"
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