Transformation -- Part 2

May the Word of God remain in my mind, on my lips, and in my heart now and forever.

 

If we are to allow the Word of God to transform us into the children of God, it is not enough to just read it or listen to it on Sunday and then to walk away, forgetting what we have read and heard.  What is in our minds must be "settled" there or engrained there by the words of our mouths.  Long ago, I heard this:  We do not always say what we believe, but we always believe what we say.  Back in the 70's, Coke and Pepsi toured the country doing "taste tests" in order to get people to say whether they preferred this taste or that.  The object was to get people to "state" their preference so that they would always believe what they had said. 

 

"From the fullness of the heart, the mouth speaks."  When we have stored up the Scriptures inside us, we begin to speak them, thereby making them permanent in our minds and hearts.  When we speak the Scriptures, our heart embraces the words of our mouth, and only then do we believe, or love God, with "all our hearts," as the commandment teaches us.  Psalm 1:

 

Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked

or stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the seat of mockers.

But his delight is in the law of the Lord,

and on his law he meditates day and night.

 

He is like a tree planted by streams of water,

which yields its fruit in due season

and whose leaf does not wither.

Whatever he does prospers.

 

The word we translate into English as "meditates" actually means "mutters" in Hebrew, but unfortunately, "muttering" in English connotes a slight form of insanity.  We always laugh at ourselves or others when they talk to themselves, or mutter.  But all of us have seen the orthodox Jews standing by the western wall of the Temple in Jerusalem, rocking back and forth and "muttering" their prayers.  There is a reason for this practice, and it is the same reason we have children sing the Alphabet Song or their multiplication tables.  What we "mutter," "say aloud," "rehearse," or "sing" goes straight to our minds and hearts.  One of the principles of "changing the brain," or "brain-based learning" is to have children sing, rhyme, or speak whatever it is we want them to learn.  The teacher should not do all of the speaking in the classroom.

 

The person who listens to Scripture or who reads it without "turning it over in her heart," as was said of Mary, without "muttering" it, soon forgets it.  The Word of God must transform our hearts from selfish, self-centered, ambitious, lustful, etc. to loving, generous, kind, truthful, and so on.  It does have the power to do so if we "eat it," and digest it, so to speak.  And the way we do that is to say it to ourselves, to "mutter" it.    For example, I have already written about the incident on March 2, 2010, as I drove to the doctor's office in Slidell, 45 minutes away from my home in Mississippi.  On the way, I listened to Charles Stanley teaching about "How to Handle a Crisis."  His Scripture reference was Psalm 57:2:  I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings until the disaster has passed.  At the time I was listening to Stanley, I thought I was going to the doctor to be treated for allergies; I had no idea I had lung cancer.  When I got to the office, however, I found the results of a CAT scan which clearly showed a massive tumor covering my entire right lung.  Strangely, I had no fear at all, but only peace as I "muttered" to myself the words I had just been listening to for 30 minutes:  I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings until the disaster has passed.

 

Many, many times have I "muttered," repeated, or even sung the words of Psalm 34:  "I sought the Lord, and he answered me; from all my fears he delivered me."  Or any of the words of Psalm 18:

 

• You, O Lord, keep my lamp burning; my God turns my darkness into light (v. 28). 
• He is a shield to all who take refuge in Him (v.30). 
• He makes my feet like the feet of a deer; He enables me to stand upon the heights (v.33). 
• You broaden the path beneath me, so that my ankles do not turn (v. 36). 

One of the psalms says, "He put a new song in our mouths, a hymn of praise to our God."  The joy of the Christian life comes when we, like Mary, can actually sing a song of praise and thanksgiving for all that God has done for us.  And this song builds in us as we read, listen to, process, the Word of God and begin to digest it by speaking it to ourselves.  We know that "faith comes by hearing....," and as we hear ourselves speaking the Word, we begin to believe in our hearts what we are saying with our lips. 

 

I used to wonder how to "get" faith, since it seemed so important.  I know it is a gift from God, but how do we open ourselves to receive the gift?  One of the Scriptures says, "Open wide thy mouth, and I will fill it."  If we look up the word "mouth" in a concordance, we find hundreds of references to God placing His words in our mouths.  It is a great study, and one that is sure to increase our faith if we follow it. 

 

We have all learned foolish and stupid utterances from the time we were children.  Unfortunately, as we continue to repeat these things, they carve deep paths in our minds and hearts so that we believe them forever.  If we allow the wisdom of God to penetrate our minds, hearts, and lips, we begin to embrace God's vision of us and for us instead of the distortions handed down to us from what the Bible calls "wicked men."  Jeremiah 8:10 puts it this way: Since they have rejected the word of the Lord, what kind of wisdom do they have?

 

Those who say they cannot "read" Scripture might find much comfort not in reading it but in reciting it.