We’ve all been there before.

“I just have a really bad memory.” You say. “It’s really hard for me to remember those things. I just can’t do it.”

LIES. EXCUSES. Straight up UNTRUTH.

Well, maybe not.

The truth is, nobody has a perfect memory. There are things that we let slip. Stuff we can’t seem to remember.

I’m especially guilty of this. Sometimes, no matter how many reminders I seem to put on my phone or how many sticky notes I stick up around the house, there are just some things I forget.

Have you ever been there?

Memorizing Scripture

I’ve always found it challenging to memorize scripture. It just doesn’t stay in my long-term memory when I try. If there’s a particular verse from the bible I want to keep in my head, I have to spend months repeating it to myself, writing it, and doing memory drills to even hope to keep it in my head. I’ve even prayed and asked God to help me memorize scripture quicker. I’ve tried to improve in this area, really, I have. But nothing has worked.

I know it’s in my heart. There are moments where the words come to mind, like when I’m praying, but I can’t just pull up those verses with the snap of my finger, and I really couldn’t tell you where in the Bible those verses actually are. Not like the people around me can.

For a long time, I used that as an excuse to not memorize scripture.

“I just can’t do it,” I’d say with a resigned sigh as I stared out the window, the rain cascading against the paned glass. “Woe is me, the terrible Christian who can’t even memorize scripture.”

Saturday Therapy and Coffee

I have this friend that I meet every single Saturday morning for coffee. While it started as just a fun way to spend my Saturday morning, it has quickly become my favorite part of the week. We laugh together, we cry together, and we convict each other. It’s a grand time.

One Saturday, we were talking about scripture, and woefully, I confessed how I wished I could memorize scripture.

“Alli,” she said. “Don’t think about it like you can’t do it. Sure, God didn’t make your brain memorize a bunch of scripture rapidly. But maybe he doesn’t want you to memorize it like that. Maybe he wants you to meditate on the scripture. Maybe he wants you to spend months on one verse before moving onto the next one.”

That was a life-changing reframe.

Suddenly, the guilt I felt vanished. Suddenly, the tasks of memorizing scripture didn’t seem all that daunting.

Suddenly, I realized that the enemy had convinced me: “I just can’t do it, so why even try?”

Sneaky little freak.

Excuses Excuses

There are lots of things we can’t do in life. Sometimes, they’re valid. I can’t breathe underwater (on my own, at least—super open to God doing something crazy there). But sometimes, there are things that are hard for us to do, that we are called to do, but that we don’t because we believe the excuse the enemy has provided.

“I just can’t memorize scripture.” “I just can’t find a church that I can really connect with.” “I’m just bad at asking for help.”

Feel convicted yet? I know I do.

Don’t let him do that to you anymore, and especially stop coming into agreement with those excuses.

If God has called you to do it, you can do it. It might be hard, and it might not look exactly how you think it should, but you can do it. Maybe you need help. Maybe you need to spend a lot longer on it than you think is reasonable to do it.

But maybe, just maybe, God cares more about the journey than the result.

Currently, I’m memorizing Isiah 53:4-5. I’ve been memorizing it for about three weeks now, and I’ve got roughly the first part of it. I expect to be meditating on this scripture for a while, until I know that I know that I know that it’s true and that it’s in my heart.

What scripture are you memorizing right now? Comment below!

Don’t fight the enemy alone. Join my fight club!

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