Rain has interrupted our evening walks for more than half of the past two weeks. A drizzle would be fine. The cooling mist mingled with the humidity of the south is refreshing, but downpours that leave shoe deep mud in our yet ungraded land, though a wonderland for our toddlers and Great Dane, Jake, requires a nightmare clean up effort for the adults. So we sit inside and watch the rain fall, enjoying instead the birds that come to our feeders in the aftermath. We pour over photos of the grandkids from the previous week, and I read. We all think we need more quiet moments but what if we recognized and acknowledged that God is with us everywhere all the time. What if we learned to hear Him, to speak His language here on earth instead of simply waiting and longing for eternity?
My friend gifted me a book to encourage my Bible memory quest. While trying to memorize Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount, I realized I also needed a refresh on other lengthy passages I’ve memorized over the years. Since college, I’ve employed the memory tools that worked well for me- long hand copying and verbal repetition- but as I age, these reliable tools have become less and less effective. My friend’s gift is so timely. Memorize What Matters- 12 Proven Strategies to Memorize the Bible by Josh Summers was just published in 2024. She heard him speaking on a podcast after reading my blog post Preach (April 11, 2025) where I admitted to being stymied and immediately sent me his book. I am halfway through it and I’m already appropriating several of the tools.
One concept that he uses repeatedly is the importance of owning scripture. It’s the same concept that David referred to as hiding God’s Word in his heart and meditating on it often, the same principle that God gave Joshua following the death of Moses with whom the Lord spoke face to face as a man speaks with a friend. (Exodus 33:11)
“You must remain very strong and courageous!
Be faithful to obey all the teaching that my servant Moses commanded you to follow.
Do not deviate from him to the right or to the left, so that you will have overwhelming success in everything you undertake.
Recite this scroll of the law constantly.
Contemplate it day and night and be careful to follow every word it contains; then you will enjoy incredible prosperity and success.
I repeat, be strong and brave!
Do not yield to fear nor be discouraged, for I am Yahweh your God, and I will be with you wherever you go!””
Joshua 1:7-9 TPT
https://bible.com/bible/1849/jos.1.8.TPT
God repeats His imperative for Joshua to remain strong and very courageous multiple times and then God explains exactly how that will happen. By faithfully obeying God’s commands, constantly repeating them and contemplating them day and night, Joshua would not yield to fear nor forget the presence of God with him which would bring overwhelming success and incredible prosperity from God’s perspective.
“So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering.
Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him.
Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking.
Instead, fix your attention on God.
You’ll be changed from the inside out.
Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it.
Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.”
Romans 12:1-2 MSG
https://bible.com/bible/97/rom.12.1-2.MSG
“Let your character or moral disposition be free from love of money [including greed, avarice, lust, and craving for earthly possessions] and be satisfied with your present [circumstances and with what you have]; for He [God] Himself has said, I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support.
[I will] not, [I will] not, [I will] not in any degree leave you helpless nor forsake nor let [you] down (relax My hold on you)! [Assuredly not!] [Josh. 1:5.]
So we take comfort and are encouraged and confidently and boldly say, The Lord is my Helper; I will not be seized with alarm [I will not fear or dread or be terrified]. What can man do to me? [Ps. 27:1;118:6.]”
Hebrews 13:5-6 AMPC
https://bible.com/bible/8/heb.13.5-6.AMPC
God is present with each believer by His Spirit as Jesus promised but our knowledge of God and our daily experience with Him depends on our understanding of and obedience to His Word. I’ve mentioned before how my mother would read the Bible aloud to my great grandfather in large chunks in a sitting. She was always baffled by how he could gain anything when the passages felt so overwhelming to her at the time. His response to her wondering has informed my relationship with my Bible all my life. God won’t give you more until you’ve done something with what He’s already given you. Papa’s simple definition of stewardship is profound, reminiscent of Paul’s encouragement to Timothy, his son in the faith.
“So until I come, be diligent in devouring the Word of God, be faithful in prayer, and in teaching the believers.
Don’t minimize the powerful gift that operates in your life, for it was imparted to you by the laying on of hands of the elders and was activated through the prophecy they spoke over you.
Make all of this your constant meditation and make it real with your life so everyone can see that you are moving forward.
Give careful attention to your spiritual life and every cherished truth you teach, for living what you preach will release salvation inside you and to all those who listen to you.”
1 Timothy 4:13-16 TPT
https://bible.com/bible/1849/1ti.4.13-16.TPT
Jesus called Himself the Bread of Life after miraculously feeding the masses and before His physical body was broken on a Roman cross. He identified Himself as Living Water to a woman of ill repute who formerly relied on Jacob’s well and a distant God to quench her thirst. Jesus called Himself the Way, the Truth, and the Life after including His followers in His plan to prepare a place for them in His Father’s house. On the night of His arrest, He answered with God’s most Holy name, “I am!” (John 19:5-6)
Jesus taught us to pray in His name because through His life, death and resurrection, God opened the Way for reconciliation with Himself so that in His perfect Holiness, our petitions can be heard. Our prayers must also be according to His will. How can we know His will in order to pray according to it if we don’t know His Way or His heart, if we choose not to know Him through His Word?
“For this reason the Lord is still waiting to show his favor to you so he can show you his marvelous love.
He waits to be gracious to you.
He sits on his throne ready to show mercy to you.
For Yahweh is the Lord of justice, faithful to keep his promises.
Overwhelmed with bliss are all who will entwine their hearts in him, waiting for him to help them.
Even though the Lord may allow you to go through a season of hardship and difficulty, he himself will be there with you.
He will not hide himself from you, for your eyes will constantly see him as your Teacher.
When you turn to the right or turn to the left, you will hear his voice behind you to guide you, saying, “This is the right path; follow it.””
Isaiah 30:18, 20-21 TPT
https://bible.com/bible/1849/isa.30.18-21.TPT
It rained today but Lord willing, we will still walk this evening. As the wind rustles through the branches overhead, I will be peppered with raindrops. I will no doubt glance over my shoulder subconsciously, as though God Himself were present as I recall Isaiah’s words.
“You will hear your Teacher’s voice behind you.
You will hear it whether you turn to the right or the left.
It will say, “Here is the path I want you to take.
So walk on it.””
Isaiah 30:21 NIRV
https://bible.com/bible/110/isa.30.21.NIRV
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