What Are You Hitting Him With?

Men, if you are anything like me you are weak.  You hate how weak you are.  You hate how your mind wanders to places it shouldn’t; how your eyes linger too long where they ought not; how easily angered you are, and so on.   I am so weak, but he is strong.  You know that old childrens song 🙂

Anyway, I have been memorizing scripture lately.  Why?  Because I am so weak.  Temptation surrounds me, and I am weak, I know this. I am memorizing scripture so that when that pretty girl walks by, in just a tad too short of a sundress, and my eyes want to linger just a tad too long… I can hear the Word of God speak to me, and I can pray back in response of thankfulness. When I get frustrated at work, with deadlines or the excess workload, and I can feel the anger begin to swell…I can hear the calming word of God speak to me, and I can rest in his peace.  Why memorize scripture? Because I do not always have a Bible on me, and the Bible is how God speaks to me. So that when I am weak I can defeat the devil at work, in the car, at the store… that’s why! So that I can share my faith to an unbeliever on the spur of the moment, when I don’t have a Bible with me.

Do you memorize scripture?  You should.  I take a bout 20-30 minutes per day – usually at my lunch break – to read the Bible and try to commit at least one verse or a portion of scripture to memory.  What about you?

Men.  Your families need you to win the spiritual battles for them, you are accountable before God for their spiritual well being.  Do you really think you can win these battles all alone?  I can’t, i am far too weak.  I need the strength of Christ.  I need the power of the Word of God.  And I don’t carry a Bible on me all day long, so I need to start committing it to heart…what about you?

Please watch this video by John Piper on the reasons to memorize scripture…2:06 – 2:36  are 30 seconds of truth that BAM…stopped me in my tracks … “What are you hitting him with?”

I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. ² He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit,while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes^[a] so that it will be even more fruitful. ³ You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. ⁴ Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

⁵ “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. ⁶ If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. ⁷ If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. ⁸ This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

⁹ “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. ¹⁰ If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. ¹¹ I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. ¹² My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. ¹³ Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. ¹⁴ You are my friends if you do what I command. ¹⁵ I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. ¹⁶ You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit —fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. ¹⁷ This is my command: Love each other.