REPETITION IS THE KEY TO MENTAL OWNERSHIP
Last week I challenged you to memorize and meditate on one MegaVerse a month for the next year. For many people, that strategy seems doable except for one thing:
how do I memorize that much Scripture?
Memorizing can be a challenge, but there are some tips that will help. And if you are committed to the goal, you will be able to achieve it.
Tip #1. Begin by accepting that
repetition is the key to mental ownership. If you repeat something often enough, you will be able to remember it.
In the first days of the month, you may still be in the process of memorizing your verses, but the information will be going through the new neural pathways, so it will still be having its positive effect. But when it is fully memorized, you can let it go through your mind at any time, which gives much more freedom and creates much more impact. I usually go to sleep reciting Scripture in my mind. And if I wake up in the middle of the night, I usually go back to sleep reciting Scripture. That is the power of having Scripture deeply memorized. You can mentally rehearse it any time your mind is not employed elsewhere.
There are three ways to learn:
- Visual learning
- Auditory learning
- Kinetic learning
Visual learners may read the passage over and over. They may also create pictures in their mind to aid memory.
Auditory learners may recite the passage over and over, or may record it into their smart phone and listen to it over and over.
Kinetic learners may write the passage over and over, reciting it as they do.
For many,
using all three of those strategies will be most effective.
Tip #2. Here’s another major tip! After you have mastered the passage for the first month, don’t drop it the second month. Add the second passage to it. You will have the first passage, Matthew 22:37-40, deeply memorized by the end of the first month, so it will take very little effort to keep reciting that one as you add the second passage, Romans 12:1-2. See the initial
12 MegaVerses here.
Then, you do the same the rest of the months, and at the end of the year,
you will be able to recite all twelve passages effortlessly.
Oh, ye of little faith!!
Remember.
Repetition is the key to mental ownership! I am not a great memorizer. I am just relentless. You can do this if you simply don’t give up. And, it gets easier as the brain rewires itself. In fact, you may experience your brain working more effectively in unrelated areas and in unrelated ways, as you become a habitual memorizer/meditator.
It is through repetition that information in the conscious brain sinks into the non-conscious brain, where our true attitudes, values and behavior reside. As we repeat these passages over and over again, the brain rewires itself, creating new ways of responding to life’s circumstances, sinking into the subconscious and transforming our attitudes, values and behavior.
This is life-altering information! That is why Psalm 1 says that the one who “meditates day and night” on the law of the Lord will be like a tree firmly planted by rivers of water, which yields its fruit in its season; and its leaf does not wither, and in “whatever he does, he prospers.”
The Psalmist didn’t know about neurological reconditioning strategies, but he understood that
meditation on the Scriptures day and night is the key to spiritual success. Modern neurological reconditioning information simply tells us why.
If you have not yet adopted Scripture memorization and meditation as a habit in life, I challenge you to do so now, using the
“inch wide and mile deep” approach I described in
the last blog. Memorize fewer verses, more deeply. As I said then, if you do,
you will never be the same.
Update: If you haven’t downloaded it already, I’ve created a 15 minute video with some tips on not merely knowing verses from the Bible, but on repeating them until they change you. You can still get that video for free here:
Master the Bible So Well That the Bible Masters You.
This is a new blog and I am hoping to expand my readership. If you know someone you think may find this blog valuable, please forward it to them. I am always glad to hear from readers. Write to me at
max@maxanders.com. I will not be able to answer all emails, but I may address in future blogs the questions/issues you raise. And, follow me on
http://www.facebook.com/maxanders.author
