I Can Do All Things

 

 

I have believed for many years that I was hopeless at memorising verses from the Bible.  No matter how many times I would repeat a verse I just couldn’t seem to remember all the words or the reference.  In fact, I still remember how disheartened I was in Girls Brigade to watch the other girls getting their rewards for remembering the weekly memory verse while I froze and stumbled over the few words I could recall.

Isn’t it curious how we often label ourselves from the beliefs we form during childhood. 

Sometimes I spend so much time focusing on what I can’t do that I don’t stop to think about how far I have come.  The reality is I am no longer a child, I have a wonderful job that requires me to remember details about federal and state legislation that changes regularly, I can remember hundreds of songs, I (most of the time) remember all of my friends children’s names and I can remember the road rules. Just because I struggled when I was young over certain things doesn’t mean that is who I am now. 

This realisation came to me at Church last Sunday as I was listening to our Senior Pastor read God’s word.  He began “In the beginning……” whoop there it is! The words came flowing back to me “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God” John 1:1.  It didn’t matter that I needed the first three words for the verse to come flooding back - It was a precious verse stored in the filing cabinets called “my memory” which was recalled at the right time.  I can no longer say that I can’t memorise verses because I just proved myself wrong!

In fact, given the right environment, there are many things I am capable of doing now that I have stated I am hopeless at doing in the past. The Bible has a great verse to meditate on in this regard:-

“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” Phillipians 4:13

Lysa Terkeurst the author of “The Best Yes” has a helpful way of memorising this verse, it is the ten finger method – one word for every finger. What a great verse to remember every time we look at our hands!

You see, while it may take me longer than others to memorise God’s word, while I may have to use a concordance (or “google”) to help me find the book and verse reference, the wonderful fact is that any verse that I recall and can quote is God’s truth.  Looking back on all the years I had believed that I couldn’t learn verses off by heart, I can now see that all along God had been writing them on my heart and bringing them to mind when the time was right.

I pray that when you face a challenge or have to make a decision this week that you look at your hands and use your “ten fingers” to remember that you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you.

                                                                                                                                                                                               

References: Image: https://laurencaroll.wordpress.com