When someone gives me important instructions, I tend to write them down because my memory isn’t so great. But a written note isn’t so handy for some things. For example, after an unfortunate encounter with poison ivy, my mom instructed me on how to identify the evil plant so I could avoid it in the future. I could have written her instructions down, but I would have had to carry the note with me everywhere and check it every time I encountered a green leafy plant.
Fortunately, the information she gave me was an adage designed to be easily remembered by reciting it a few times: “leaves of three, let it be.” Obviously I still remember it decades later. Of course, my desire to remember is reinforced by the memory of my horrible experience with the plant.
When Joshua was about to lead the Israelites into their long-awaited promised land, God reminded him of the instructions He had given him through Moses.
They were important instructions. Dire consequences would result in ignoring them. Success could only be achieved by following them.
So God told Joshua to meditate on them, recite them over and over. Commit them to memory so that they would always be available.
God wanted Joshua to be able to recognize sin in his midst the same way my mom wanted me to recognize poison ivy and avoid it.
Today I have these instructions inside the Bible. And I have the entire Bible handily in my phone (what an age I live in!) I almost always have my phone, and yet I don’t always consult my Bible. By memorizing scripture, it will always be available to me. I can more adeptly avoid the pitfalls of sin and succeed in living the life God intends for me .
Dear God,
Thank you for your word which is so readily available to me. Forgive me for taking it for granted, failing to read it more, and for being too lazy to commit it to memory. Write your word on the tablet of my heart so it is always with me to show me the right and wrong paths I should take today.
CamDevo 