Memorizing The Word | Christian Disciplines

Introduction: We’re continuing in our series on the Christian disciplines this morning.

The idea of Christian Disciplines is that we exercise unto godliness, like 1 Tim. 4 says. In other words, God is the one who sanctifies us, but it requires exercise or discipline on our part.

The last few lessons have been on the Word of God. Reading it and studying it. That’s so important to our Christian growth. And today’s lesson is also about God’s Word, but today our focus is on Bible memorization.

The older I get the worse my memory gets. You have that to look forward to!

I remember memorizing 4-5 half page memory pages at a Wednesday night King’s Kids program at my church as a kid. I would spend a few minutes on each page, then quote it, then move on to the next one.

Now I can’t seem to remember simple things. Appointments, people’s names, which locker I used to store my stuff at the gym. Things that shouldn’t be hard to remember.

The thing is, memorizing is hard, and for that reason many people don’t like to do it.

Look at Psalm 119:9-16.

What we have here is a section of Scripture emphasizing the importance of memorizing God’s Word. 

Scripture memorization is not the most exciting topic. Most of us think, “I did enough memorizing in school. I want to be done with that phase of my life.”

So when we talk about Bible Memory, we get kind of uncomfortable because most of us don’t do it regularly.

Why is that?

One of the main reasons might be that you could never do it and no one would ever know. 

Some Christians can be counted on to engage in public disciplines like church attendance or service. But many aren’t nearly as consistent when it comes to the secret disciplines. That is not a personality problem, but a failure in Christian character.

If we can only be trusted to perform the outward disciplines, the problem is we are only engaging in spiritual activity to be seen. 

Your motives are only really about the pursuit of godliness when you are just as committed to spiritual disciplines in your private life as you are when others are looking.

If we are going to take a serious look at our spiritual health, we need to take the private disciplines just as seriously as the public ones. Today we are going to talk about Scripture memorization, spending most of our time thinking about why we should do it, and then ending with a few pointers to help us do it well.

Why You Should Memorize Scripture

The second stanza of Psalm 119 that we read moments ago is the only stanza to begin with a question. The question, which concerns how a young person can be devoted to God for the rest of life, is answered: by devoting himself to Scripture - taking heed, and not departing. 

What does this look like for the Psalmist? Verses 12-16 relate the path: the young person will study God’s Word, teach it to others, meditate in it, delight in it. But all of those other actions are grounded in verse 11, in what the Psalmist has already done. (Read Psalm 119:11 again).

Why you should memorize Scripture: Devotion to God for the rest of one’s life begins with deeply absorbing God’s Word. Yes, we should hear, read and study Scripture. But we also must know the Scripture itself.

Here are some reasons why:

I. Memorizing the Word Supplies Spiritual Power

A. Christians need spiritual power every day.

B. For one thing, living on the path of faith is more like a battleground than a playground.

We are in conflict with our residual sinful nature.

While our justification is a done deal (God saved us) our sanctification is ongoing (God is saving us).

If we want to be more like Jesus, we need spiritual power to overcome sin.

C. Knowing Scripture provides that power.

Bible verses stored in our minds are part of a spiritual arsenal from which the Holy Spirit can bring a weapon to our attention when we need it the most.

The Psalmist was not confident he would defeat sin because of power in himself, but power derived from hiding God’s Word in his heart. 

It’s one thing to be looking at or thinking about something we know displeases God: it is another to have the Spirit bring to our minds a verse we memorized like Colossians 3:2, “Set your affection on things above…” If you are a hot-tempered husband, but have Ephesians 5:25 memorized, every time you start to get annoyed with your wife the Spirit can remind you of the cross and Jesus’ death in our place: “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the church.”

II. Memorizing the Word Strengthens Faith

A. Read Proverbs 22:17-19.

B. What does knowing God’s words lead to? Trusting the God behind the words. When we memorize we are repeatedly putting God’s promises in front of our disbelieving eyes.

If we are tempted to doubt God’s care, then we can memorize verses that promise he will care for us. When we doubt if we really are right with God, we can read about the innocence Christ has transferred to us. When we feel like God has not given us what we need, we can memorize verses about our sufficiency in him.

God’s Word is not an end in itself. It is meant to reveal God to us.

III. Memorizing the Word Prepares Us to Speak to Others

A. One of the most significant turning points in the early church was Peter’s sermon at Pentecost in Acts 2.

Jesus had just recently ascended into heaven. He had promised the Holy Spirit would come and empower the apostles and their message. He had said that men would be drawn to him after he was lifted up. 

Peter, who so often fumbled the ball with his words, made an absolute touchdown of a sermon. One of the most interesting things about the message at Pentecost is that it is full of references to the Old Testament. It is undeniable that the Holy Spirit was using Peter and his words in a unique way.

B. One of the primary ways the Spirit chose to do that was to use Scripture Peter had memorized.

C. We will best be prepared to speak truth to others when our own minds are full of God’s Word.

D. Everyone you speak to is either an unbelievers in need of evangelism or a believer in need of discipling. Both need God’s words. The more we memorize the more the Spirit can bring to our minds so we can share it with our mouths.

Jesus himself quoted Old Testament Scripture about 10% of the time he spoke with people. Does our conversation reflect the Bible like this? 

IV. Memorizing the Word Guides Us

A. The Psalmist says “Thy testimonies also are my delight and my counselors.” (Psalm 119:24).

The Holy Spirit not only retrieves verses from our memory bank to counsel others, but to counsel ourselves. When we take the time to memorize Scripture, we are altering future decisions we will make. The more Scripture we deeply absorb, the more different we will become. 

Read Proverbs 3:1-6. So often, verses 5-6 are quoted without the first four, even though all six make up a section. Why is that?

B. If you drop verses 1-4, it becomes easy: “Trust God, not yourself, and he will direct you!” It almost sounds as if when we come to difficult decisions, God is reduced to a voice in our head telling us what to do.

But Solomon is not telling his readers to listen to the voices in their head. If that’s how it worked, there would be no point in reading Proverbs (much less the whole Bible!)

Verses 1-4 instruct us to know and obey God’s Word.

C. God doesn’t make our decisions for us: but when we know and obey God’s Word, we will become the kind of people who make wise, godly decisions. 

V. Memorizing the Word Helps Us Know God

The greatest privilege of memorizing Scripture is that it is a gateway to grow in the knowledge of God. David Mathis writes: 

“When we learn the Scriptures by heart, we’re not just memorizing ancient, enduringly relevant texts, but we’re listening to and learning the voice of our Creator and Redeemer himself. When we memorize lines from the Bible, we are shaping our minds in the moment to mimic the structure and mind-set of the mind of God.”

A. Every verse you learn and review changes how you think about God.

B. Every inch of progress you make in memorization is a step toward knowing God more than you did before. Is there any greater motivation than this?

VI. How You Can Memorize Scripture

So you know you should memorize Scripture, but perhaps you don’t feel it’s really possible. Let’s talk about how it is before we close. 

A. Know that You Can

There are all kinds of excuses for not memorizing Scripture. Some will say they don’t have enough time. In reality, you have enough time to do what you feel is most important. If this is something you struggle with, perhaps the first verses you memorize should be about the importance of God’s Word.

Others suggest that it is too hard for adults to memorize Scripture. This is an empty excuse. If I told you to memorize one verse a day, and promised at the end of twenty days I would give you $1000 for each verse you memorized (up to $20,000 total) how many verses would you have memorized? You will memorize what you care about. 

B. Start Small

Start with a handful of verses you are already familiar with to achieve small, repeated victories. Then move to a section of Scripture that is important to you. Don’t bite off more than you can chew, or you will get discouraged.

C. Review, Review, Review

You can only retain what you review. So reviewing needs to be a part of the process. If you don’t want to lose it, keep going over it regularly.

D. Memorize Perfectly

Don’t settle for paraphrasing the verse or getting close. If you do this, reviewing will be a nearly impossible challenge. This approach may seem to take longer at first, but it will build retention in the long run.

E. Write out the Verses

This will help immensely in reviewing. Writing them on cards makes them much more convenient to memorization compared to using a whole Bible, much less a Bible app (unless it is a memorization app).

D. Don’t Memorize Alone

Find someone to review Scriptures with. This will help you be accountable, and will encourage someone else to memorize Scripture. There are far worse things you can spend your time doing with others than reciting God’s Word.

Conclusion

If your spiritual health was diagnosed by your Scripture memorization, where would you be?

If your excuses for not memorizing don’t hold, will you start?

What is holding you back from memorizing God’s Word? Are you sure it is worth it?