Learning Scripture

Get over the idea that only children should spend their time in study.  Be a student so long as you still have something to learn, and this will mean all your life.  ~Henry L. Doherty 

I never thought I could learn scripture.  I don’t have a photographic memory and chemo killed a few of my good brain cells that I think helped with my memory, either that or I am getting old and it is said the memory is the first to go. 

What I have learned over the past few years is that when I spend time studying God’s Word, often I will remember a verse (maybe not word for word) but at least a paraphrased version of it.  The thing about this is that it often comes to me when I need it most. 

What I think is that first God wants us to spend time and meditation in His Holy Word.  When we need His presence most is when the Holy Spirit will bring to mind the exact verse we need to help us when we are faced with the challenges of life.  The thing is we will never remember those verses if we never spend time in the Bible. 

I have always heard the saying “you will not get it through osmosis”.  I am kind of a curious sort of person so I decided to look up osmosis in the dictionary.  Here is the paraphrase for it.

Definition:  1.    the passage of a solvent (Bible verses) through a semipermeable membrane (my brain) from a less concentrated (ignorant) to a more concentrated solution (wise) until both solutions are of the same concentration (equal).

 I am not going to remember verses by holding the Bible up to my head and thinking real hard.  The first step needs to be that I open it and read it.  It is not going to flow through my semipermeable membrane and make me less ignorant if I don’t read it and apply it to my life.

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, you gave us the Holy Spirit to help us in this life on earth.  If I don’t open your Word, read and meditate on it and then practice it in my time here on earth, I will never be what you have called me to be.  Thank you for loving me enough to provide one Book that can provide the answers I need for any trial I face in this life. I praise Your Heavenly Name.

Scripture: My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding — indeed, if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.  For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.  He holds success in store for the upright, he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless, for he guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones.  Proverbs 2:1-8

What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us.  This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. 1 Corinthians 2:12-14