Survival skills - Bible edition

I think I have finally grasped the importance of reading and memorizing scripture. And It’s not necessarily only so that we don’t sin against God

[Psalms 119:11

Your word I have hidden in my heart,That I might not sin against You]

 (Ok that’s one of the major reasons but I think there’s another). It’s so God can use it to tell us something in our most crucial moments. Moments when we desperately need encouragement so we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Moments when we need to be tapped on the shoulder so we can pay closer attention to the rightness or wrongness of the things we are about to do. Moments when we need to tell a friend something other than the over-repeated and cliché ‘I’m sorry for your pain’ and instead need to give them something to hold on to. And so many other moments like these. In fact,

[2nd Timothy 3:16-17

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work].

   And the crazy thing is that He saw it all! He saw it all coming and made sure that there was a verse or several verses or even whole chapters and books dedicated to our predictable human existence. So reading your bible becomes something more than a game you play in Sunday school because the kid who knows the most verses will get candy. It becomes more than the chore you do on a Sunday morning during service so that the person sitting next to you won’t give you ‘that look’ when the preacher says you should open a verse and you don’t have a bible. It becomes a life-raft. The soap to your shower. The butter on your bread. The fuel to your car. It becomes the thing you cannot live without

[Psalms 119:97-100

   Oh, how I love your law!
    I meditate on it all day long.
98 Your commands are always with me
    and make me wiser than my enemies.
99 I have more insight than all my teachers,
    for I meditate on your statutes.
100 I have more understanding than the elders,
    for I obey your precepts].

   And at first it doesn’t feel that way but with time it becomes the story of your life. I know right now you’re thinking that I sound like a know-it all but it took me time to get how essential this is. And even more effort to try and establish the habit and in so many ways I’m still trying to improve. So don’t look at it like it’s some gargantuan task. A journey of a thousand miles always begins with one step.

Ciao and have a blessed day! J