In the midst of troubling times, the application of scripture can be a very useful tool for those who are hurting around you. Because we are told that, “all scripture is inspired by God and profitable for reproof, correction, and training in righteousness,” you can help others by applying it at the right moment. Learn how to use the word to bring healing to others in this week’s podcast.
Note: Below is a transcription of this Walking Our Talk podcast. Please excuse any grammatical or punctuation flaws, as the transcription is a written version of our fluid conversation.
Alan [00:00:01] Hello, this is Alan Heller. We’re Walking Our Talk today. We’re talking about helping others through the application of scripture in the midst of situations where either personally we have issues that we face and we’re trying to get wisdom and get some help. What I would like to talk about today is just the ability to help others just through giving them scripture and applying it to their life. Many times people are reading the scriptures daily. Their pastor has said go through the Bible in a year and, you know, get a Bible app and help yourself to, you know, to those apps and read the Bible in a year. The question is, what is going on while you’re doing that? In other words, are you applying the truth to your life? So you’re seeing life change.
Alan [00:01:08] And so here’s a couple of helps that I think you enjoy. So first of all, the easiest thing to do with Scripture is to hear it and see it and actually memorize it. So in my life, I’m not really that great at memorizing scripture. And so either I memorize it through song or memorize it by going over it over and over again, using either a three by five card or sometimes I’ll put it on my iPhone or sometimes I’ll just listen to it. In other words, now we have Bible apps where you can just listen to scripture over and over and just play that. You know, one or two verses or maybe it’s just one verse over and over. Or you can use your memo, your memo, little app there on your phone. If you have an iPhone or Android somewhere in there, you can make a memo and read that scripture with the verse and then read it back to yourself or play the phone and let it come back to you. And pretty soon you’ll have that memorized.
Alan [00:02:28] What’s the purpose, though, of the memorizing scripture? I remember as a young believer, I had what I was told was, when you have a problem, look to the scriptures, go to your concordance in the back of your Bible. Yeah, maybe some of you don’t even know there is a concordance. It’s like a dictionary. And you let’s say you’re wanting to find scripture on worry. And so you go to the back of the Bible, look under w worry and it says, cast all your care on me because I care for you first, Peter. Or maybe it’s Philippians. Don’t be anxious about anything. But in everything by prayer and supplication, make your requests made known to God and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding. We’ll get we’ll keep your heart in mind in Christ Jesus. Isn’t that a great thing to keep your heart and mind in Christ Jesus? Especially when the world is in such chaos right now. So memorizing the word is probably the most basic thing. Psalm One says that the man of God meditates on the word day and night, and he will be like a tree firmly rooted in streams of water whose leaf will not wither. And whatever he does, he prospers. All of us want to prosper. But in order to do that, we need to take the time to meditate and have the scripture in our mind. And the best way to do that is memorizing it.
Alan [00:04:16] The only reason why I know these verses is because, at some point in my Christian life, I had a question I couldn’t answer. I had a problem that I was going through, and I just needed that verse to help me get through, to have peace, to not have anxiety, and to be able to have confidence and trust in the Lord. So another word we hear a lot is meditate. I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways. Psalms, 1:9-15, I will meditate. I will over and overthink about your word, which is true. And there’s a verse in Hebrews that says his word is alive and sharper than any two-edged sword able to divide between joint and marrow. Soul and spirit. And so we want to meditate on the truth. So Romans 12:1-2 talks about renewing our mind, that the way we change our behavior, the way we become transformed, is by renewing our mind. And we need to renew it on scripture with scripture. And the way to do that is memorize and then meditate on his precepts. It says, fix my eyes on your ways.
Alan [00:05:49] How many of us go through our day and, you know, we watch TV. We hear messages. We listen to the radio. We hear messages. We look at the newspaper. We read messages. We listen to the news. And we hear messages mostly based on the world system. And the world is telling us what to do in order to have peace or in order to have happiness. And, of course, all the commercials and advertisements, the key for them is to show us how much we don’t have to show us how much we want something keying on, envying and being jealous of our neighbor, who has far more. And we have so much less. And we need to get that. And so we have all these messages bombarding us every day and we need to sort of kickback against that.
Alan [00:06:48] The way we do that is by memorizing the word of God, which is truth, meditating on it day and night, all during the day, and until you learn the scripture. It’s not going to be in your head. And again, sometimes just doing it through song is a lot easier because you’re singing it. And I know there are times where when I’ve been to a church service, I hear a song. And then all week I am hearing that song in my head and singing those words. And if they’re scripture, they’re helping me to renew my mind. And I think all of us need that.
Alan [00:07:32] Then there’s accountability. We have to memorize, meditate, and well, before that, we’re gonna talk about journaling, writing out our thoughts, our actions, observations, prayer, writing out the scripture. One of the best ways to memorize is to actually write it out. The other method I’ve heard is to emphasize the first word and then go on with the rest of the verse. Say it out loud and then emphasize the second word. So meditate day and night, meditate day and night, meditate day and night. And to just do that over and over. At first, it seems mindless. But once you get it in your head, then you have that as ammunition when a problem comes up or when that temptation is there.
Alan [00:08:26] So journaling, writing out our thoughts is we’ve talked about this before on Walking Our Talk that to journal to reflect, you have to write something out. It takes time. And we think through things as we write or type. So journaling my thoughts of the day, journaling. What is one thing, one observation that you see or many observations? But there’s a key one that God is emphasizing to you. For me, the past two years he’s been emphasizing listen. And I think I’m going to have to do it for another year because it’s just so hard for me to listen instead of react and talk. So what action can I take as a result of reading this scripture? What is a prayer that I need to pray, asking God to put this thing that I read in my life?
Alan [00:09:26] So and then accountability is two-way communication. How are we doing? Asking God, is there anything that I need you to speak to me about? So I just want to tell you that if you enjoy the Walking Our Talk podcasts that we’re doing, one of the things you can do for us is like the podcast and also share it with other people. Today, we’re talking about helping others through the application of scripture. We’re talking right now about memorizing, meditating and journaling and then having accountability both with God and maybe another person. In other words, if you’ve given an assignment to somebody to do because you see they need something in their life that scripture is talking to them about. Then just say, hey, for next week, let’s meet together and see if you can memorize Psalm 1:1-3 and then get together and ask, how you doing with that? 
And ask them to actually say it out loud to you. And even if they don’t have it all, that’s OK. Just do it together and then obey. What the word of God says is happy are those who obey my commandments. James says, don’t just be a hearer of the word. We have so much knowledge. We get so much input. Podcasts, sermons, videos, TV, all kinds of things. But what scripture tells us in James is don’t be a hearer, but be a doer. It’s sort of like Nike commercial in the old days. Just do it. Some people tell me, you know, well, I was trying to do it. Well, if you’re trying, you’re not doing it. And so take action, take the action that the word of God is telling you. The other thing is to hear the word of God. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. So if we’re hearing podcasts and messages from live messages or on Zoom, then the Lord is trying to speak to us and will give us faith as we listen and obey and do what he says.
Alan [00:11:48] So there are, of course, you know, there are CDs, MP3s, there are videos. Find somebody that speaks your language. Like, for instance, Pauly, my wife is really enjoying it for the past three years. Or maybe it’s more this podcast where the Bible is read every day. There’s a reading plan and it gets you through the Bible in a year. And it’s called the Daily Audio Bible and it’s read every day. And the Old Testament. New Testament, usually a psalm and a proverb. And it gets you to the Bible. You hear it? I would suggest like she does follow it in the Bible as it’s being read to you.
Alan [00:12:38] And you probably comprehend more than the other thing I would say is, see when you’re helping others through the application of scripture, help them to find models of what it is that they’re looking for. In other words, somebody who is a mature believer who has walked the walk a little bit longer than you and is a little further ahead. They may be five years older, 10 years older. They may only be one year older, but they’re a lot more mature and know the scriptures a lot better. Find a model of what it is that you are looking for in terms of the life lived out on a daily basis where this person actually in their family and in their personal walk with God has joy, is Christ-centered, and is doing what the word God says. And you see it. You see it. As you look at their life, spend time with them, ask them for time, then doing something, even if it’s a little thing, help this person eat the elephant. In other words, when you look at the word of God, when you look at the whole Bible, 66 books of the Bible for the new believer, that’s pretty overwhelming. But you eat an elephant. How? One bite at a time. So read it for life change, not just for information, but for transformation. Inspiration without application leads to frustration. Inspiration without application leads to frustration. You may be inspired by what the word of God is saying, but if you don’t apply it to your life, you’re gonna be very frustrated.
Alan [00:14:24] So you’re listening for life change and you’re helping this person take action, as Jesus was saying these things, a woman in the crowd called out. Blessed is the mother who gave you birth and nursed you. And he replied, Blessed, rather, are those who hear the word of God and obey it. Luke 11:27-28. Blessed, rather, are those who hear the word of God and obey it. There’s just something that feels good about obeying the word of God. 
When we obey it, that’s what we were created to do. And so not only is God pleased when we obey his word when we read his word when we do his word but we actually emotionally can feel better because we’re doing what we were designed to do. We’re being who we were designed to be. So happy for you who keep my commandments Psalms 119:1-3. Talks about so all over the scripture, it’s saying, read my law, read my precepts. Psalms 119 is wonderful in terms of repeating over and over again how important it is to meditate, to be able to read and know his precepts, his law. The word of God, which can change our very life.
Alan [00:16:03] So one more time, as we help others through scripture, really one of the things that happens is we help ourselves as well, because, as you know, the person that teaches the word of God actually is blessed more than the person that is getting the teaching, because you’re the one that has to go through it and understand it and actually convince you. And of course, one of the great ways to get the Bible systematically into your life is to be a part of a Bible study that takes a book at a time or goes through a specific part of scripture. And you get to interact with other people with gifts and talents and abilities that you don’t have. I have a men’s group that meets every Monday and we’ve just we’re going through Colossians right now. But when we’ve gone through systematic reading of the whole book, one, you see it in the context of the whole picture rather than just partially to you have accountability, because every week you’re meeting with this group. Three, I get insights because one of the guys in the group is very intellectual and a brilliant guy far more than me. He has one particular slant on the scripture. Somebody else is more practical. And, you know, he’s a working-class person and he sees it from a different perspective. So all the gifts get used when you meet together in a group.
Alan [00:17:38] So let’s go through this again. We memorize scripture by reading it over and over again, by writing it out. Then we meditate on it. Day and night is what the Psalm One says. We journal or write it out. And that helps us even more to clarify thoughts. There’s accountability. You help somebody by asking them, how did it go this week? You’re hearing the word. You’re seeing the word. You’re doing the word. You’re listening for life change. And then you take action because happy are those who not just hear the word of God, not just understand it, but they actually do it.
Alan [00:18:19] So if you want more helps getting into the word or we have all kinds of podcasts on our Web site: walkandtalk.org. And we’d love to hear from you. So if you would send me an email like the podcast. If you’re liking it and share it with other people, we want to help you walk your talk.