Passage
[James 3:17-18]
“But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy. And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.”
[Proverbs 9:10]
“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.”
Is there anybody who has given up on your studies saying you lack concentration? Then, think about it once again. Anybody can show amazing power to concentrate when they do something they like and it is enjoyable for them.
So, I want you to believe in your potential and rely on God to taste the joy in studying. How wonderfully satisfying is it to realize something new and experience your knowledge increasing every day? How happy a thing it is to get closer to your dreams! I pray in the name of the Lord that your life will have more happiness with joy in studying!
In the last two sessions, we talked about how to get rid of idle thoughts.
First, you have to keep away from the things that can input untruths in your memory device.
Second, you have to delete the untruths that are in your memory banks.
In order to get rid of idle thoughts and concentrate on your studies you have to make concentration a habit.
Those who have already developed the habit of studying can focus and concentrate on their studies for many hours when they want to. But for some other students, they feel it difficult to just sit at the desk for a short while.
Some students begin their studies enthusiastically, but give up mid-way because they haven’t developed a habit of studying. I believe many of you have begun to study with new determination in this new academic year, and I suggest that you study regularly everyday for two weeks. Though varied from person to person, it usually takes 14 days for a person to form a habit.
Therefore, you should never give up mid-way thinking you can’t do it before two weeks have passed. Whether your studying goes well or not, it is important to practice it everyday. If you practice sitting at the desk and studying even for a short while, for two whole weeks, you will begin to develop the habit of studying. As time passes, you will have more concentration power and your studying will take off like it had wings.
If you make it a habit to sit in one place and concentrate on your studies, it will be much easier to study. I always emphasize that you have to make it a habit to pray all the time for a similar reason. If you regularly and continuously pray, you will develop the habit of praying. When the prayer time comes, your body and heart will naturally go to the sanctuary longing for prayers. You will feel something is missing if you do not pray during that time.
But habitually praying does not mean you just habitually come to the sanctuary and utter in meaningless repetition. In this case, it is not really right to say that you are habitually praying. Therefore, I hope you students and grown adults will all develop many good habits, and make them proper.
Now, for you to actually develop the habit of studying, let’s go into your studying room together with me. When you go into your studying room, you should clean your room and straighten up your desk first. If things are lying around here and there, they will disturb you and distract you from concentrating. It is also good to remove the things that you touch or see often.
And the cell phone is the number one object to remove from your sight. There is a research conducted by Dr. Glenn Wilson of University of London, on the effects that the signal of arrival of electric information has on processing the information. It says while doing a certain work, if you hear the sound of the arrival of text message, check it, and reply, the functioning intelligent quotient drops by about 10 points.
In case of elementary school students, if they check or reply to the text messages in the middle of studying, it takes average 5 minutes for them to focus on their studies again. If you continue to exchange text messages with your friends, it will take more time than that. Of course, there is difference between each individual, but I believe most of you have already experienced that your study is interrupted and your concentration is distracted because of cell phones.
So, it would be advisable that you remove the cell phone from your sight when you have to focus on your studies or work. After getting rid of the things that disturb your studies, sit at the desk and say out loud, “I can do with the power of the Lord given to me!” It will be done as you confess with faith.
Now, you can make your weekly study plan. Here, you should not be too ambitious. You have to set the volume of studying material and timeline within your own limits. Also, it is better to have specific plans to study. If you have this kind of plan, you won’t feel you don’t know what to do when you sit at the desk to study.
Before you begin to study, pray for a little while on your knees. You can pray with all your heart and earnestly for 10 to 30 minutes, as long as you can. Then, your thoughts and mind will be calm and steady.
Now, you can just sit at the desk and begin to follow your study plan. At first, you might be able to concentrate only for a short period of time. But the important thing is that you must never give up. With each successive day, no matter what you have been doing, you have to stop whatever it is and go to study at the fixed time. As you keep the promise with yourself for one day and two days, then you can also control your mind.
You can cultivate a firm and unchanging heart. This heart is a must, not just for studying, but also for going into spirit.
But sometimes, even though you sit at the desk to keep your promises, you might not be able to concentrate because of idle thoughts. Then, I suggest you do the following. You write down the things that come into your mind. If you try not to have idle thoughts, they come into your mind more.
This is called, “rebound effect.” It is a concept that a psychologist called Wagner developed. Rather than trying to suppress your idle thoughts, if you rather express them by writing them down, they will go away to some extent. If you cannot take something off your mind, just write down that thought on a piece of paper and put a large ‘X’ on it.
Also, you can mark the thoughts of untruth that you have to cast off, and you can pray about them later. This is the surest way to get rid of your idle thoughts. What you have to remember here is that you really need to try all your best to drive away idle thoughts and study with concentration. If you try hard in spirit and body, the idle thoughts will finally go away.
Your effort is the support of faith. When God pours His grace and strength upon this support and when the Holy Spirit helps you, you can have amazing power of concentration. I hope you will practice what you heard today and experience it yourself.
