My son, do not forget my teaching, but keep my commands in your heart, for they will prolong your life many years and bring you prosperity (Proverbs 3:1-2).

The wisdom of the Bible is something truly remarkable -- so remarkable, in fact, that it's not enough to simply read the Bible... or to appreciate the Bible... or even to rejoice in the Bible!  The wisdom of the Bible is so remarkable that we only get it if we go so far as to internalize the truths of the Bible and apply them to our lives.

I like to think of the Bible's wisdom as a kind of dance music for our lives.  We hear the music pounding, the rhythm thumping, and something about the power of God’s Word fills us with an irresistible urge to dance and sing along, word-for-word.  Do you understand what I'm getting at?!?  The Bible has so much to offer in the way of renewing our minds, refreshing our spirits, and energizing our lives for day-to-day discipleship.  But we have to learn it first.  We have to internalize it, meditate on it, memorize it, and then live it.

"Keep my commands in your heart..."  What exactly does this mean?  Personally, I think this tends to indicate some level of Bible memorization.  Is it fair to jump right to this conclusion?  Is this what “keeping the Bible's commands in our hearts” really means?  Or is this creating some kind of legalism?  I mean, maybe it really would be enough to just kind of get the gist of things... to simply have the main themes and concepts of the Bible hidden in our hearts.  I’ve certainly wondered this at times.  Because seriously, we live in a day and age where most of us have these incredible communications devices in our pockets, where we can look just about anything up on the internet, as long as we’ve got a couple of key search terms embedded in our brains.  So isn’t that enough?

Personally, I think there really is something to memorizing the words of the Bible, literally, word-for-word.  I think it’s more than just a cultural thing or a practical thing.  It’s a spiritual discipline that really does give us an opportunity to more deeply understand and appreciate and apply the truths of the Bible.  It gives us a different script to life.  It gives us the opportunity to renew our minds.  When we start rolling down an old familiar track that feels like we have no other choice but to go along with it -- to smoke that cigarette or feed that sexual appetite or stuff your face with food until the pain goes away -- a memorized passage of Scripture gives us another option.  Another script that we can follow.  And when we're in the midst of one of those situations where we need to suddenly "flip the script," it’s really not enough to have the general idea, so I can look it up on the internet or whatever.  In those moments, where the patterns of this world are bearing down on us, we need automatic, internalized truths that we can use to replace the lies.

I really feel like my life has been benefitted by the memorization and internalization of God's Word.  It's probably too early for me to say if my life has been considerably prolonged, as Proverbs 3:1-2 suggests -- but I CAN say that there's been more life added to my years, even if I can't yet speak about more years being added to my life.  When I'm struggling with fear and anxiety, it's so good to be able to instantaneously "read" Joshua 1 and Psalm 23 to myself, on the spot.  When I'm struggling with pride and judgmental attitudes, it's invaluable to have the means to immediately flip the script and remind myself of Proverbs 22:4 and Matthew 7:1-5.  Renewing my mind in these situations brings its own kind of "prosperity" (independent of economic circumstances).  And we could all use a little more prosperity in our lives, couldn't we?