Three Verses to Memorise

Psalm 119:9-11

I know it can be a real struggle to throw off the old sinful ways that we used to live in, but it can be done! The power that rose Jesus from death is the same power that works in you now to transform your heart, desires and habits.

Psalm 119 gives us three insights about living a pure and holy life: 1. Watch out life and compare it with God’s word. As we read scripture, we need to recognise the ways in which we stray from it, confess and seek to align ourselves with the word. It’s easier to point the finger at others when we see challenges in the Bible, but transformation comes as we recognise our own sin and seek forgiveness and cleansing.

2. Ask God for help! There will be no victory over sin and no lasting change if we just read the Bible to learn better behaviours. We will fail because our problem is ultimately not just wrong behaviour, but wicked hearts. We need to turn to God and ask him to excercise his sovereign power to prevent us from wandering away from his commands.

3. That doesn’t mean we should be passive in our pursuit of holiness. We should trust that God will use various means to change us, and we should actively pursue those means. One of them is his word, which is powerful and able to accomplish God’s puposes. As we cry out to God for help, we should make every effort to fill our mind with his word. Memorising is a great way to do that!

Spend some time memorising these verses and pray for God to purify your life through Jesus’ death and resurrection.

Psalm 1:1-4

There are two ways of living that each of us needs to choose between. One leads to judgement in which we will be blown away like chaff, but the other to fruifulness and a successful life.

What is a successful life? It is a life that accomplishes what it was created for. Trees were created to bear fruit, and people were created to bear God’s image. Often we compromise that incredible vocation that God gave us by taking on a likeness that is wicked, sinful and scoffing. The age that we live in threatens to conform us to its counsel and its way, but God’s word is able to transform and renew us so that we are conformed to the image of his Son.

Just like a tree can’t decide where it is planted, we are not really in control of what our heart delights in. We need an intervention from God in which he will put our old heart to death and give us a new one that loves his law. We also need to invest in that love - our affections can wither or grow as we invest in them. As we meditate on God’s law, we nourish that love with his word. As a tree is nourished by a stream, if we drink deeply from God’s word, we will be transformed and made fruitful. Spend some time memorising these verses and pray that God would make your life fruitful and conform you to the image of Jesus.

Psalm 19:7-9, 12-13

God can use his word to change our lives. His word revives us, makes us wise, causes us to rejoice and enlightens us. God can use his word to impart life to us and stir us up to worship him and delight in his goodness. God can use his word to give us the ability to make better decisions and to better understand and recognise his beauty and goodness.

Jesus is the word become flesh to dwell among us. He has brought light to the nations, revealing to us the perfection, holiness, truth and righteouness of God. He died so we could be revived, and he was mocked so we could be made wise. He bore sin in his body so we could be cleansed and declared innocent and blameless in God’s sight.

The way we respond to the scripture is a reflection of the way we respond to Jesus. If I say I love my parents but I ignore all their letters and texts, it demonstrates the hypocrisy and emptiness of the love I claim to have. Meditating on scripture and burying it in our heart is one of the ways we can draw close to Jesus and experience his voice and his promises transforming us.

How will you respond to Jesus today? Will he delight in him and hear his voice?

Spend some time memorising these verses and praising Jesus for his goodness.