Furnish Your Mind with Scripture
To be well prepared for moments of weakness
Can the Holy Bible help us beat procrastination?
In his second letter to Timothy, Paul writes pastoral counsel to his young protégé as he serves the church in Ephesus. He reminds him that Scripture is:
…profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 KJV
This is true for reproving, correcting, and instructing others, which was part of Timothy’s job. But Scripture is also profoundly useful for mending your own ways, as I myself have found.
This morning, as I sat down to work on this essay about the above passage, I ran into writer’s block. It had been many days since I last wrote a devotional and I was rusty. I felt myself recoil from the difficulty of the task and was tempted to put it off or skip it altogether.
But another Bible passage by Paul sprang to mind that helped me overcome that urge to flee:
I can do all this through him who gives me strength.
Philippians 4:13 NIV
The verse convicted me and corrected my lapse in faith in my own ability, through Christ, to buckle down and write. So strengthened, I pushed past procrastination and produced the piece you’re reading now.
When we commit Scripture to memory, we furnish our minds with divine words of wisdom. And a “well-furnished mind,” as classical educators have long taught, is a well-prepared mind: ready to recall exactly what is called for—a quote, a fact, an idea—in any given situation. The more we furnish our minds with Scripture, the better equipped we will be to get through our inevitable moments of weakness and times of need. It is just as Paul told Timothy:
All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.
P.S. Here are more Bible verses that I have found helpful for overcoming procrastination:
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters.
Colossians 3:23 NIV
If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.
James 4:17 NIV
I hasten and do not delay to keep your commandments.
Psalm 119:60 ESV