The story is told of a young man who committed himself to learning a verse of the Bible every week, but was concerned about remembering it. He told his dad, “I learn a memory verse every week, but I cannot retain it in my mind very long. What good then does it do to learning verses of Scripture, when I forget them so fast?” The father thought for a moment, then pointed to a wicker basket and told his son, “Take the basket out to the kitchen, fill it full of water, and bring it to me.” The boy looked at the basket with the little spaces between the reeds, and wondered how it could possibly hold water. But he followed his dad’s instructions, went out to the kitchen, and ran water into the basket. It would fill up a little, but the water ran out of the basket about as fast as it ran in. Finally, he saw that it was a useless task, and took the basket back to his father stating, “Dad, this basket can’t hold water.”
His dad replied, “No son, the basket can’t hold water, and neither can your mind retain all of the Bible verses you read and learn. But notice something about the basket. Look at how much cleaner it is since you allowed the water to run through it. When you took it out to the kitchen, it was all dusty and full of grime. But after you ran the water through it, the basket became fresh, bright, and clean. Son, that’s what happens when your mind reads those Bible verses. Those verses may not stay there very long for you to recall, but the more you allow them to pass through your memory, the cleaner, brighter, and fresher your mind will be!” (Philippians 4:7-8).
Dear reader, because of worldly influences, our minds contain a buildup of debris that needs to be cleansed from time to time (Matthew 15:16-20). For example, there may be sacks full of bitterness, anxiety, and despair that we are carrying around. Allowing God’s word to daily flow through our minds, can begin to remove them, one sack at a time (Acts 17:11; cf. Psalm 63:1-6; Psalm 119:41-48).
What sort of reading is it that flows through our mind day after day? Some reading brings worldly garbage in, but the purity of God’s word carries that garbage out (Psalm 19:7-8). Therefore, let us determine to read a portion of God’s word every day for the purpose of cleansing and renewing our mind (Psalm 1:1-2; Ephesians 5:25-26; Romans 12:1-2; Ephesians 4:17-24; Colossians 3:1-10).
—Mike Riley, Gospel Snippets
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