As Peter said several time, “So I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have. I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body….” 2 Peter 1:12,13

He said this because we all suffer from what I call “spiritual amnesia.” In our culture if we’ve heard something once, we think we know it and move on to other things. But God knows how we often  know things only superficially, and forget important spiritual truths. Rarely do biblical principles come to our minds when we are confronted with a situation. For instance, I was driving the other day and got behind a guy doing 25 miles an hour! Then he slowed down to 20! My natural response is to be impatient, to complain and to do so out loud, involving my passengers with my natural negativeness.

But (and that’s a big but), Jesus immediately held out his hand and reminded  me with 1 Then. 5:18 , “Give thanks in all circumstances….” prompting me to respond with a biblical perspective, because I have memorized scripture like this. Repetition may be counter-cultural, but it is powerful. He brought another verse to mind, “My times are in your hands, Lord.” “Ok, Lord, you have control here, so I can relax and drive 25—or even 20!"

Left to myself, I often forget that the thrust of my life should be to glorify God, primarily by thanking Him in and for all things. I need to remember that He is using whatever circumstances surround me both for my good, and to bring about His will in the universe. Praising and thanking the Lord Jesus is such a freeing and empowering activity: “let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise–the fruit of lips that confess his name” (Heb. 13:15) “so that the power of Christ may rest on me (2 Cor. 12:9). Praise is one very practical way of taking “up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one” (Eph. 6:16).

Now those are truths we need to repeat to ourselves often so we can think the thoughts of God. How about memorizing I Thessalonians 5:18 to help remind yourself of this high and holy truth.