Do You Practice “Spiritual Cramming”?
“And He said to them, Be careful what you are hearing. The measure [of thought and study] you give [to the truth you hear] will be the measure [of virtue and knowledge] that comes back to you–and more [besides] will be given to you who hear.” Mark 4:24 (AMP)
“spiritual cramming” /’spir-i-choo-uh l kram-ing/ VERB 1. The act of attempting to pray and/or to study hastily or learn biblical information in a short period of time and at the last minute due to an impending test, trial, struggle, problem, or hard time. Cramming is often discouraged because the hurried coverage of material tends to result in poor long-term retention of material.
It seems like most Christians know that we should read our Bible. Most also probably realize that it should be done on a regular, daily basis. The problem is, most don’t do it. Maybe it’s because we think it’s hard to understand. Sometimes it’s because we think it’s boring or that we don’t have time. Maybe we think getting “Bible” on Sundays or in church is enough. Any additional study we pursue is frequently just “spiritual cramming”.
I had the same problem. Being raised in church my entire life, I heard the children’s church teachers, youth ministers, and pastors consistently say “read your Bible”. I just never did—except for when I was in church on Sundays or Wednesdays. Regular, daily Bible reading was not a habit of mine until about 15ish years ago (with the exception of a short stint in college).
Until then I was just a spiritual baby even though I was a grown adult with children of my own and even though I had a decent amount of knowledge from the Bible. I was spiritually immature and had an underdeveloped understanding of spiritual life. I expected everyone else to “feed” me, and any independent study often consisted of spiritual cramming.
“Dear brothers and sisters, when I was with you I couldn’t talk to you as I would to spiritual people. I had to talk as though you belonged to this world or as though you were infants in the Christian life. I had to feed you with milk, not with solid food, because you weren’t ready for anything stronger. And you still aren’t ready” 1 Corinthians 3:1-2 (NLT)