God's word is living and active

When I was a young Christian two men that I looked up to were Billy Graham & Chuck Swindoll. Both said one of their highest priorities was to memorize God’s word. When Jesus was tempted by Satan his defense was to quote God’s word.

When I realized that Billy Graham, Chuck Swindoll and even Jesus were committed to memorizing God's word, who was I to think that I had a legitimate excuse not to. The most often excuse given is "I'm just not good at memorizing." No matter what excuse is given a common reason is plain laziness. It takes concentrated and continual effort to hide God's word in your heart. Since it is something God wants you to do, I believe He will help you to do it.

I had a roommate in college named Dick Bull. He had a learning disability called dyslexia which caused some trouble in his studies. But he had a great love for God's word. God blessed him with an amazing ability to memorize Bible verses. I would give him friendly quizzes and was profoundly impressed with how many verses he knew. He went on to successfully pastoring a church for many years. 

About that time I read a book on memory by Harry Lorayne and Jerry Lucas called "The Memory Book" which greatly improved my ability to memorize things. Then I also came across a Bible memory system called "Memlok" which uses pictures to help you remember verses. 

I used methods from these two resources to start memorizing Bible verses. I made a modest goal of 1 verse per week with daily review. In the first year that added up to 52 verses. Obviously, too many to review daily. I limited daily review to 12 verses, which took only 5 to 10 minutes, but it took a number of weeks to review them all.

I was about 20 years old when I started so it was just a few years before I had reached about 400 verses which took 2 months to review. As the review time grew longer I was gradually forgetting some. I felt like I had reached my limit, so I changed my goal to maintain what I had memorized. I only added verses after that which strongly impacted me in some way. 

I thank God for blessing me with tools to make this possible. If these tools would help you, I strongly recommend them. Whether you use them or not I know that if you commit yourself to memorizing God's word, He is more than willing to help you. 

I've found a number of benefits to memorizing God's word. 

1. As Psalm 119:11 says, it will help you to reduce the sin in your life. You can quote scripture to resist the devil like Jesus did.

2. It helps you to have beneficial words to encourage, counsel or comfort others. That includes yourself!

3. It gives you "ammo" to share the gospel with others, even when your Bible isn't available.

4. It gives you a wealth of thoughts to enrich your prayer times.

5. I firmly believe that even if you forget verses you've memorized, the Holy Spirit is able to remind you of them when needed. If they're in your brain He can bring them to the surface!

Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path. 

Psalm 119:105

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3:16–17

Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the LORD, and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither— whatever they do prospers. Psalm 1:1–3

When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart’s delight, for I bear your name, LORD God Almighty. Jeremiah 15:16

 

 For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Hebrews 4:12

Time spent memorizing God's word will yield a wonderful harvest!