Little Steps & Big Results

As many of you probably don’t know, my life has changed a great deal in the past couple months and it has forced me to reevaluate things. My heart was broken because, well, life happens. I knew I needed something to constantly remind me of God’s presence, and that I wasn’t ever as alone as I felt. I knew that memorizing verses would help me along the way.

This week, I was thinking on how I would go about memorizing these verses… I realized that I, in all honesty, look at my phone probably 100 times per day; whether it be to check the time, respond to a message, check my grades, or do whatever other silly insignificant thing that one does on their precious iPhones. I asked myself what would happen if I looked at my bible even half as many times per day as I look at my phone. So… I thought about a little change that would make The Word more central in my day than someone’s latest post on his or her social networking site.

I found a picture of the verse and made it my home screen photo. This way, every time I did check my phone, I looked down to see God’s Word first and foremost. This proved to be an awesome change to my typical scroll through Facebook or Twitter. Because of the habitual checking of my phone, the reminder was constant. Another thing I did was I scribbled and colored this short verse everywhere. Instead of checking my phone during downtime, I just doodled it more and more. Writing it over and over and having it in bold on my phone helped me memorize it and literally put it on my heart.

PSALM 119:11-- "I have stored up Your word in my heart, that I might not sin against You."

I love the idea of physically storing God’s word in our hearts. First off, the act of storing something is a verb that requires action and shows in and of itself that you treasure the very thing you are putting away… it implies safekeeping and utmost importance. God’s word should be what we treasure most and, because of this, we must place it somewhere at the very core of our beings, our true center of life, the deep pits of our red and beating hearts. Although some might think their phone is their life… the truth is His word is life.

His word is ever enduring… cell phones aren’t. His word can heal broken hearts… cell phones can’t.

Front and Center

Psalm 119:11 really summarizes what we're trying to do this year.

I don't think we generally sin out of ignorance, but having God's word in our heart, as opposed to the back of our minds, takes our knowledge to another, more practical level.

Think about things you've learned in school over the years. There's probably a lot you could recall if you really thought about it (the order of the planets or the formula for the area of a triangle), but that knowledge is different than the things that you use regularly, which can easily be recited.

To me, storing God's word in our hearts means that it is front and center and active in our minds. When we have that, we have God guiding our everyday decision making, which will help us to be more like Him.

Pslam 119:11 Printable

Psalm 119:11

I hope you have the fruit of the Spirit memorized and are ready for another verse! For the next two weeks we'll work on Psalm 119:11.
 

I have stored up Your word in my heart,
    that I might not sin against You.

If you have any thoughts on this verse, feel free to share. I'd love to hear from y'all. :)

Bearing Good Fruit

I think sometimes we can gloss over lists like this in the Bible, but these are amazing qualities. I have some more than others, but I would love to be a person who exudes all of these things.

As we work to memorize some of God's word this year, I hope the result will be more Scripture popping into my head - both in challenging times and day to day situations - which will help me to bear these fruits in my life.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
- Galatians 5:22-23

The Fruit of the Spirit printable

                                   

My attempt at some "Subway Art" let me know if you want the file. Trista shared a great strategy for grouping this list. The first three (love, joy peace) are all one syllable words, the next three are two syllables (patience kindness goodness), and the final three are three syllables and in alpha order (faithfulness, gentleness, self-control). Happy memorizing!