Memorizing Bible verses to renew your mind
What are you looking at? What are you thinking about? What soundtracks are playing in your mind? If you’re anxious and stressed, or depressed and hopeless, your thoughts might be contributing to those feelings. My mind can get stuck on loops of stressing over things I can’t control, or simply don’t need to control. I dwell on what could go wrong, trying to plan for every possible contingency, “just in case”. To a degree, that can be helpful, but I think I take it too far.
What we think about feeds our emotions. What we’re looking at greatly affects how we feel. I’m not simply referring to the view from our home or office window, but what our minds are focusing on.
So how can we change what we’re looking at - what we’re thinking about?
“Set your mind on things above…” Colossians 3:2
“Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right... Think about such things” Philippians 4:8
God knows that what we think about sets the course for our lives. So if we want our lives to follow God and to embrace His peace and direction, we have to be thinking about Him. How do we do that?
Memorizing and meditating on Bible verses changes what we’re thinking about.
Memorizing isn’t easy, especially as we get older (at least that’s my experience). My brain is filled with so many other things and I’m so easily distracted that I have to work on memorizing the verse or verses sporadically throughout the day. If I only work on it in the morning when I read my Bible, the verse doesn’t stick in my memory.
But, that’s the point, right? To be thinking about God throughout the day? Absolutely! If I’m thinking about the verse I’m memorizing instead of all the things that I’m stressed about, it changes how I feel.
What does this practically look like in our modern culture?
1. Choose a verse or two that’s relevant to what you’re struggling with or need to remind yourself of. Here’s a great list of verses according to topic: https://dailyverses.net/topics Memorizing an entire chapter or paragraph is great, but I wouldn’t suggesting starting there. Start with just one or two verses.
2. Write it down on a note card. Yes, I’m going old school here, but there’s science that shows that the physical act of writing something helps our brains to understand and remember it. Note cards or index cards are handy because you can put them on your desk where you work, on your bathroom mirror, lay it on top of your phone to recite before you pick up your phone to check email or social media. You can put it in a purse to pull out when your in the grocery store line, in the doctor’s office, or the school pick up line.
3. Meditate on it. Don’t just say the words, but think about what they mean. Remember that this isn’t a legalistic box to check just to say you’ve done it. (I totally struggle with this!) The point is to get to know God better and to change what we think about. What does this verse mean? Can I picture some aspect of it in my head? If I were to illustrate it, how would I? Even if you’re not artistic, try drawing out what it makes you think of or how you would illustrate it.
Meditation in a Biblical sense is mulling the verse over in your mine and considering what it means, not to be confused with meditation related to eastern mysticism.
Try to review your verse a little bit at a time as you go throughout your day and see how it gradually transforms what you think about.
What could that look like for you? Do you memorize Bible verses? How do you work it into your day?