OK. I know it. It's been a long time since my last post. (about a week)....I apologize. Life has been kind of consumed by medical junk...and no one wants to hear about that so I have to put my brain in gear and try to come up with something worth writing about.
I found a list today (in a pencil case) of my New Year's goals. And I've been sliding a bit. I wanted to read for a half hour a day. I have been reading but probably not daily...so that goal is partially met. I wanted to memorize a passage of Scripture daily. I memorized Psalm 34 and I've still been reviewing it daily....I started on the book of 2 Corinthians with the lofty goal of learning the whole book...and quickly quagmired in Paul's repetitious phrasing. My brain shut down. It was not due to lack of effort...I learned the first four verses with difficulty and just hit a brick wall. No matter how much I read and repeated and wrote and typed it...it would not stay in my head. So that is a quandary. What to do? Do I spend the rest of my natural life attempting to learn Chapter one? Do I chalk it up to experience and go to find a "friendlier" passage? OR do I take a step back, bathe it in prayer, and learn the passage "in faith" as author Adam Houge advises in his book on memorizing Scripture?
I tried that when I first read Mr. Houge's book book on memorization and the passage I learned was, yep, Psalm 34. I was in the hospital... and I spent some hours that day, praying, asking God to help me to recall the words, and then proceeded believing that he would do just that. And I learned the chapter in a day. However. I did not do as Adam advised. I did not repeat the chapter over several times a day for a prescribed number of days.
This time, the chapter was familiar to me but I could not recall the order in which the verses fell and that has been my focus in this season of memorizing that same chapter. I took it all apart and divided it into 5 or 6 passages and learned one passage a day and then worked hard to link the order of the cards together in my mind. It seems to have worked. And this time I am NOT going to fail to review it.
My plan tomorrow is to approach 2 Corinthians with faith in God that he will implant those verses in my heart. And then go on to finish the chapter.
I had other goals as well. One of which was to have God purify my heart of words that do not honor him. Whether bad language, or less than honest, or prideful words, or judging others. While I have been praying about this frequently and asking God to forgive me as I have failed here and there, I have found that I need to use some spiritual weaponry here. The enemy plants unkind attitudes that bring out harsh words about others, anger and impatience which foster bad language...you get the idea. This is not a simple task.
I've been reading the book of James which is replete with verses on the control of our tongues. He said the man who can control his tongue, can control his whole body and he is a "perfect man." Well I can see from this that it is a lofty aspiration...but still, a worthy one. So I will approach this with more prayer and more armor.
And lets' not forget the "Sword" - God's Word.
I know that the Bible talks about the "washing of the Word"...that when we are in God's Word, he cleanses us from entangling sins. I know that this is exactly the area in which my Bible memorization should be put to best use. So these two goals of mine kind of work hand in glove.
OK this is getting to be too long...I will be back to attempt to challenge you once again to walk the worthy walk as soon as I can think of something else to talk about...but as you know, not having a topic has rarely stopped me. LOL.
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