Memorizing the Word

Introduction

Have you ever wondered why do I keep going back to these wrong patterns of living in my life? Why is it that I know the truth of the word of God, but it doesn’t seem to affect how I live? Sitting here every Sunday won’t inherently change your life? Maybe you struggle with anxiety and you ask “why can’t I overcome these feelings?”

The answer lies in renewing our minds. God has designed that the mind controls our emotions and our actions. It is the gateway into our lives. So if we are ever going to see victory over these persistent struggles in our lives, God’s word has to make it into our hearts somehow; it has to transform our minds to think God’s thoughts. There are two spiritual disciplines that primarily work hand in hand to accomplish this in our lives: meditation and memorization.

I think as children, we memorized a lot of verses if you grew up in church like I did. Thank God for parents who exposed us to the bible and youth workers who led us to memorize scripture. But when was the last time you as an adult tried to memorize scripture? Is this something God expects of us? Tonight I want to take a look at the command to memorize, the benefits of memorization and give some practical tips to help with bible memorization.

The Command to Memorize

1. Deuteronomy 11:18 “Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes.”

God was very concerned that his people remember His word. If you want to be really convinced of the importance of bible memorization just go back and look at every passage that tells us to remember. He gave them some pretty strange rules like binding them to their hands and on their for heads. At least by the time of Jesus many Jews took this literally and created boxes with scripture in them and leather straps with scripture written on them to place on their hands and foreheads. I don’t think that was the intent of God’s command because he wanted the words in their hearts and their soul.

To lay up means to set in a certain place or to mount, establish. Its like nailing a picture to a wall. You move it into place and then you take a nail and fix it in place. Memorization fixes the word of God in our hearts.

Notice it isn’t just bible truth they are to fix in their hearts. It is actually my words. God’s words are important as we have seen in each spiritual discipline so far. It is helpful to know the general truths, but specific words are used for a reason. Words impart specific meaning. Consider walk (illustrate), stroll, run. Each of these words is related but they all have slightly different meanings. No two words mean exactly the same thing or they wouldn’t exist.

2. Proverbs 7:2–3 “Keep my commandments, and live; And my law as the apple of thine eye. Bind them upon thy fingers, Write them upon the table of thine heart.” When you write something it adds permanence to the words. I preach a sermon and you might forget everything I say tonight, but if I write an article or a book, you can keep going back to it. Especially in the days without audio recording this is true. Somehow, we have to engrave God’s words on our hearts. I believe the Spirit does this work of grace as we meditate and memorize scripture.

The Benefits of Memorization

1. It deters us from sin Psalm 119:11 “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, That I might not sin against thee.” When I am contemplating sin, scriptures that have lodged in my heart come to mind as the Holy Spirit convicts me. Those verses won’t be there if I haven’t spent any time memorizing and understand I am not saying the Holy Spirit can’t convict without scripture, but His job is easier when I have something embedded in my heart.

There is a second way that scripture deters me from sin. Renewing my mind in the Word of God changes me because it changes how I think. You might struggle with a pattern of sin in your life and think when will I ever change, but the very fact that you are renewing your mind is changing you. It may take some time for that changed mind to catch up to your actions, but the key to overcoming persistent sin is in the renewing of your mind.

2. It guides our steps Psalm 37:31 “The law of his God is in his heart; None of his steps shall slide.” You want to know what the will of God is for your life, open the book. But the bible doesn’t just give us black and white statements telling us what to do. The bible gives us wisdom to make right decisions. The more our mind is conformed to the mind of Christ, the wiser our decisions will be and the more sure our steps will be.

3. It leads to answered prayer John 15:7 “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” I am not saying that memorizing the bible magically gets your prayers answered, but as we think God’s thoughts, we pray for the things God is seeking to accomplish in the world. As our prayers align with God’s desires, we will see more answers to prayer.

There is another side to this as well. The child who spends time walking with God is more likely to have their prayers answered. We know that unconfessed sin hinders prayer. Psalm 66:18 “If I regard iniquity in my heart, The Lord will not hear me:” 1 Peter 3:7 “Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.”

4. It changes our affections. Colossians 3:2 “Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.” Christianity is not an emotionless religion. We are commanded constantly to rejoice, delight in God. When we meditate and memorize scripture we are placing our affections on things above. Notice here Set is an action your perform.

5. It gives us the mind of Christ Philippians 2:5 “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:” As believers, we should be striving to think like Christ thinks. Allowing scripture into our hearts and minds transforms the way we think. The more time we spend in the word, the more our values, goals, priorities, desires, decisions, and philosophy is going to align with Christs.

The mind of Christ in turn changes us. According to Paul in Philippians, it gives us unity as a church and it gives u humility.

Philippians 1:27 “Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel;” unity Philippians 2:3–4 “Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.” humility

The Practice of Memorization

Pick a verse that is related to what God is showing you in your devotions today Matthew 6:11 “Give us this day our daily bread.” Bible memorization is not merely about the future. When we memorize, we are feeding our souls today, we are shaping our minds in the moment around the mind of Christ. Once you have memorized a text, it isn’t a tragedy if you forget the verse because it did what it was supposed to do today. Rather it is an opportunity to meditate again and mold you mind even more later. The focus of bible memorization needs to be on feeding your soul today.

So what does that look like for me? When I am struggling with a certain sin in my life, like worry, I set out to memorize Phil 4:6-8. If there is a new truth I am learning about God and His word, I set out to memorize some key verses about that truth. As I read and meditate in my devotions, if God has shown me a truth from that passage, I memorize a key verse or two. If I am hurting or grieving, I memorize verses from the Laments. But I set out to memorize verses that apply to my life right now.

Read the verse over out loud 10 times the first day and five times every day after that.

Quiz yourself by just looking at the reference without the words.

Meditate on the passage- bible memorization is best when it is combined with meditation. Meditation slows us down and allows the passage to get into our hearts. The goal is not to get it into our heads but our hearts. Meditating on the verse you are memorizing allows your mind to be renewed Ephesians 4:23 “And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;” and transformed Romans 12:2 “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

Learning the text by heart is secondary, taking the text to heart is primary- David Mathis

Pray through the verse (Model for them) Psalm 30:5 “For his anger endureth but a moment; in his favour is life: Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.” The Psalms are prayers and songs that were meant to be read allowed and prayed allowed often by the congregation in worship.

Conclusion

I want to challenge you with the practice of bible memorization. Can I make a statement that might help you? Not every spiritual discipline has to be a daily thing. The one practice that ought to be daily is meditation. But add bible memorization to your rhythm of life. This is how I practice bible memorization.

During my prayer time, I have a prayer box. This box is divided into sections based on the different types of prayers. But I also have a daily prayer section for things to pray about every day, then I have Monday through Sunday for things that I want to pray about once a week and then I have a section with 1-31 for things I want to pray about once a month. So I have integrated my bible memorization into my prayer time because of this structure.

With new verses, I stick them in my daily file and repeat them 5 times. I meditate on the truth and pray about that verse. Once I feel I have a descent handle on those verses, they get moved to the once a week slots. Finally, when I can say them without any trouble they get moved to the once a month slots. I haven’t had any that I really felt I had down so well; I didn’t need to review, but it I did, I also have a slot for adjourned prayer requests and the verse would go into that slot unless I decide to add it back in later. My system is my system, but I think, you should seek some way of including bible memorization into your life especially since it is commanded.