02 Oct When Memorizing Scripture, Go an Inch Wide and a Mile Deep
THE EVENTUAL GOAL IS TO BECOME A MILE WIDE AND A MILE DEEP
For most of my Christian life, I have gotten Scripture memorization all wrong. I wonder if you have, too.
As a good American, I assumed more was better, and subscribed to the “mile wide and an inch deep” school of thought.
I went on occasional Bible binges in which I “memorized” a range of verses just barely well enough that I could muddle my way through them without having to look at the Bible. Then, under the pretense that I “had” them memorized, I discontinued reviewing them, with the result that, a year later, I was merely familiar with them.
Having done that a few times, and having perceived no discernible benefit from it, my commitment to continuing the practice faltered.
I’m not sure what I expected would happen. Perhaps, if I had sorted out my thoughts, I might have been thinking that the Christian life would become a little easier because God would automatically reward me for my “good deed” of memorizing.
One of the verses I memorized initially, Joshua 1:8, says, “But this word of the law shall not depart from out of your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night so that you will be careful to do according to all that is written in it. And then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success.”
I think I thought that by memorizing the Scriptures, my way would automatically become prosperous and I would have success. But I didn’t. So I assumed it didn’t work, that I had misinterpreted the verse, and I pretty much gave it up for a very long time.
Since I had both the responsibility, as well as the opportunity, to study the Bible for a living (as a teacher and pastor), I inevitably became well familiar with a good bit of Scripture, and assumed that that was good enough.
And, to be honest, none of my significant mentors stressed memorization and meditation. I had the impression that it was in “studying” that the payoff was found. So, boy, did I study.
Three Things Happen When we Memorize and Meditate on Scripture
Decades later, at the intersection of personal crisis and new information, I began learning of the neurological implications of deeply memorizing as well as meditating on Scripture.
When we memorize and meditate on Scripture, taking it through our minds over and over again, three things happen.
First, we gain a conscious command of truth.
Repetition is the key to mental ownership. The more we repeat something, the more we own it, on a conscious level. The more we own it, the more we are able to bring it up in our minds and use it in day-to-day activities.
Second, the more we think about something, the more it seeps into our subconscious and lodges there as deep beliefs. And, because what we believe controls our actions, as our subconscious beliefs are renewed, our lives are transformed.
Over 90% of all mental activity is subconscious. Even the conscious thoughts we think are often prompted by subconscious activity. So, we feed our subconscious and then our subconscious feeds us.
Third, it engages the Reticular Activating System (RAS). The RAS is the part of the brain that guards the gate of our metal focus. It lets us focus on things we believe are important and blocks out things that are not important, which is essential or we would not be able to concentrate on anything because of all the stimulation our brain receives.
When our RAS identifies something as important, it lets into our brains other input related to that subject that it would otherwise block out.
A common example is that after I bought a black car (because it was an excellent value), I started seeing black cars everywhere. Up until that time, I had not given black cars a second thought. Afterward, I was amazed at how many other people had black cars.
So, when we memorize and mediate on something in Scripture, such as “the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God” (James 1:20), the RAS will now allow to “register” in our brain a world of new information related to that subject. We might, now, notice a newspaper article or blog post on anger management that we would not have noticed before.
We might see a book on Amazon on emotional health that strikes us as interesting, whereas before, we would not even have seen it.
We might take notice of a person’s gracious response to her spouse’s boorish behavior, and take instruction from the example on how to be more loving to our spouse in situations we might be have been prone to respond in anger.
Then, as we memorize and meditate on other passages… on being more loving to others, more patient when wronged, more generous with our resources… the RAS opens our minds to those things as well, and our awareness of truth skyrockets exponentially.
We experience a surge of spiritual growth not available to us otherwise.
Conclusion
These are but a tip of the iceberg of benefits that come to Christians when they memorize and meditate on Scripture. The brain is physically changed to conform to the new truth, resulting in transformed behavior.
The key is not to go a mile wide and an inch deep, but to go an inch wide and a mile deep with one passage. Then, we can move to the next passage and go an inch wide and a mile deep on another passage without leaving the first one behind.
Then, we do it again with another passage, and another, and eventually, we become a mile wide and a mile deep.
Of course, this all conforms to what Paul said in Romans 12:2,
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”
And, it matches what Paul wrote in Philippians 4:8,
“Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.”
Why? Because our lives always move in the direction of what our minds dwell on.
As our minds are renewed, our lives are transformed. Modern neuroscience is simply describing for us why the Bible says to meditate on God’s word day and night (Psalm 1:1-3, Joshua 1:8). It is the key to supercharging our spiritual lives and accelerating our progress toward becoming more and more like Christ.
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