Even If You Don't Know a Lot About the Bible

Give us today our daily bread. — Matthew 6:11

My short-term memory and my long-term memory could not be more different. I can remember minute details of stuff that happened in the 1980’s. I’m one of those weirdos who has really distinct memories of things I shouldn’t be able to remember. I can describe houses I lived in before I was three years old. I can remember playing with my dog as a toddler, the one who died when I was two. I remember every hurtful thing a boy ever said to me in middle school. I remember what I ate the first time I got the stomach bug.

But my short-term memory? Not so hot. If I’m at a coffee date with a friend I really love, even if I’ve known her for a while, I’ll totally blank on her name. I have to use the map on my phone to get to places I’ve been multiple times. I’ve even started taking notes detailing what I wear to church just to make sure I don’t wear the exact same thing each Sunday and freak everyone out.

I’m not sure if my long-term memory crowded out my short-term memory or what, but retaining knowledge is just a little challenging and different for me. This is made increasingly interesting as someone who loves the Word of God, teaches the Word of God, and writes about Jesus. Memorizing Scripture is out of the question. I’ve used all the techniques and tricks. I don’t know the order of books in the Old Testament or the New Testament, and even though I’ve been reading the Bible for decades now, I have to look in the table of contents to figure out where a certain book is.

I know about God, I know His heart, and I know about His character. And I love the Bible — I love reading it, studying it, and teaching it to people. But I will never be the kind of gal who approaches the Word of God with the intention of stuffing myself full of knowledge so I can be wise or be seen as someone who knows enough. I just can’t — my brain doesn’t work like that.

But where my memory deficiency has held me back, the Spirit of God has comforted and encouraged me.

You don’t have to know the whole Bible to take a bite of it today.

In Matthew 6, Jesus told us to treat partaking in the presence of God like eating our daily bread. You don’t have to know the whole Bible to take a bite of it today. And you don’t have to understand the overwhelming scope of the people of Israel to go to the Word right now and grab a fistful of nourishment for your heart. No one (least of all God) is expecting you to stuff yourself with knowledge, and you’re enough, just as He made you, to seek Him right where you are. Maybe you can remember the Bible better than I can. But whatever you do, don’t let the Enemy convince you that God’s Word isn’t for you.

~ Jess

Excerpted with permission from Always Enough, Never Too Much by Jess Connolly and Hayley Morgan, copyright Jessica Ashleigh Connolly and Hayley E. Morgan.

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Your Turn

Just open the Book and read it today. You don’t have to be a Bible scholar to have a wide-open invitation from Jesus to get to know Him better and more intimately through the Word of God. Take a bite of your Daily Bread today! ~ Devotionals Daily