January 20
“If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you.” John 15:7
We have talked the last few days about the importance of the Word of God, the importance of having it inform us and transform us, the importance of studying it, meditating on it, and memorizing it. Hopefully this thumbnail sketch has shown the different aspects of studying the scripture and why they are important in our efforts to overcome temptation.
For example, I have had verses memorized for years that I never really understood until the Lord brought me through difficult situations and gave me new insights into them. Memorizing in and of itself does not guarantee that we will understand the verses we memorize. Likewise meditation without study can have us thinking a lot about things the verse simply isn’t saying! And study without meditation or memorization can be a great intellectual exercise but does little to help transform us or is not available to us when we need it to overcome temptation. So each of these practices is necessary and complimentary to one another.
This is really has been a rough outline, and other pastor and writers have given a much better and much more thorough treatment of the subject of studying, meditating, and memorizing God’s word. One book I highly recommend is Living by the Book by Howard and William Hendricks. This book is a wealth of knowledge about how and why to study the Bible. I think they have done an excellent job and highly commend this book to everyone.
What I am trying to do in this first month of the year is to cover crucial, foundational concepts of Christian disciplines that will make us strong in overcoming temptation. These are covered in the booklet Overcoming Temptation on this website. But hopefully these explanations are providing a bit more details and connecting the dots in a more thorough manner.
One thing that is kind of interesting to me is the parallels between these three types of Bible study and the three types of prayer we discussed earlier this month. Certainly this is not cut in stone, but it is interesting to think about. Look back at the table shown on January 13, and substitute “Scripture Memory” for “Crying Out to God”, substitute “Meditation on God’s Word” for “Pray Without Ceasing”, and substitute “Studying God’s Word” for “Daily Prayer Diligence.” The rest of the table somewhat fits. I just realized this and thought I’d pass it along for fun!
May God give you great diligence and blessing as you apply yourself to studying, memorizing, and meditating on His Word!