Lesson 3 Memorization & Meditation

Review:

We have been talking about Spiritual Disciplines

Spiritual Disciplines are important to the Christian life

Our Goal as believers is godliness

1 Timothy 4:7 “Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness;”

• There is energy, time & effort in the Spiritual Disciplines so that it will produce godliness in our lives

What is godliness? Walking with God and pleasing him

Last week we talked about Bible Intake

Hearing the Word

Reading the Word

Studying the Word

Today we are going to look at Memorization & Meditation…

“There is discipline involved in Christian growth. The rapidity with which a man grows spiritually and the extent to which he grows, depends upon the discipline. It is the discipline of the means.” – Richard Halverson

Questions:

• Why do believers struggle with Scripture Memorization?

• What does our struggle to memorize Scripture reveal about our priorities, motivation, and view of godliness?

• How do busyness, distractions, and lack of discipline contribute to the difficulty of memorizing God’s Word?

• Why is Scripture memorization essential to walking with God, and how does it support meditation and spiritual growth?

Question: Have you ever gone through bible reading or even something else in your scripture reading and walked away not remembering what you read?

• The issue may be with the method in how we are doing it

• Scripture memory & meditation help us when it comes to the Word of God

• These disciplines help us to focus on a specific verse or even paragraph

I. Scripture Memorization

Think about this: What would you do, if the government ever came and took our Bibles? If it was something were we didn’t have this? How would you live off of the Word? Do you have anything in your heart to recall?

If I was to ask you to quote a verse for me, what would it be?

We must see the importance of Scripture Memorization

Donald Whitney said, “While hearing and reading plant the seed of Scripture into the soil of our souls, other Disciplines are the water and sun God uses to bring the growth and fruit of Christlikeness in our lives.”

Psalm 119: 9-11, “How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word. 10 With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments! 11 I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.”

Memorizing scripture helps us in our lives and even with sin.

Many believers cannot stand the thought of memorizing the Word of God...There are many reasons for this. It can be difficult, time consuming, and tedious.

The Importance of Scripture Memorization (Donald Whitney)

1) Memorization Supplies Spiritual Power

“When the Scripture is stored in your mind, it is available for the Holy Spirit to bring to your attention when you need it most.” – Whitney

• Life can be crazy…When all the lies of the world hit us, what do we respond with?

• When things happen in our lives we should respond with the word of God

• When Jesus was tempted, he quoted Scripture

Matthew 4:1-11, “ Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” 4 But he answered, “It is written, “ ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ” 5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple 6 and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, “ ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and “ ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’ ” 7 Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ” 8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9 And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” 10 Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “ ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’ ” 11 Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.”

Jesus quoted scripture back to Satan when he was under attack from the enemy

You can’t quote what is not there.

• We must store God’s Word in our hearts and minds

2) Memorization Strengthens Your Faith

Proverbs 22:17-19, “17 Incline your ear, and hear the words of the wise, and apply your heart to my knowledge, 18 for it will be pleasant if you keep them within you, if all of them are ready on your lips. 19 That your trust may be in the Lord, I have made them known to you today, even to you.”

“Memorizing Scripture strengthens your faith because it repeatedly reinforces the truth, often when you need to hear it again.” – Donald Whitney

• There are some promises in the Word of God that apply to us

• We should memorize those things so that we can help grow our faith

3) Memorization Helps us for Witnessing & Counseling

Read: Acts 2:14-40

• Peter quotes a lot from the OT

• We can’t quote it if its not there

• But a verse may help you give an encouraging word to someone or to something.

ILL: The Romans Road – They taught us that as kids

4) Memorization Provides a Means of God’s Guidance

Psalm 119:24, “Your testimonies are my delight; they are my counselors.”

• The Word of God can help guide us in our life

5) Memorization Stimulates Meditation

• This is important…When we memorize a verse, we can meditate on it.

Psalm 119:97, “Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day.

• We should just chew over some scripture every once and a while

• Think about what we are putting in our heart

What we must all understand…. We can all memorize scripture

Some things to think about when dealing with Scripture Memory:

1. Have a plan

• Get some verses that you want to memorize

2. Get an App

3. Write it down

4. Get Accountability

5. Review

Jerry Bridges, “I am very much aware that Scripture memorization has largely fallen by the wayside in our day…But let me say as graciously but firmly as I can: We cannot effectively pursue holiness with the Word of God stored up in our minds where it can be used by the Holy Spirit to transform us ... I know it requires work and is sometimes discouraging when we can’t recall accurately a verse we have worked hard to memorize. The truth is, however all forms of discipline require work and often discouraging. But the person who perseveres in any discipline, despite the hard work and discouraging times, reaps the reward the discipline is intended to produce.”

II. Meditation

We see meditation in Scripture

• The world looks at meditation different than believers

What is meditation?

“Meditation is a deep thinking in the truths and spiritual realities revealed in Scripture, or upon life from a scriptural perspective, for the purpose of understanding, application, and prayer.” – Donald Whitney

Phill 4:8, “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”

Joshua 1:8, “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.”

Thomas Watson, “The reason we come away so cold from reading the word is because we do not warm ourselves at the fire of Meditation.”

ILL: Having a fire and staying by the fire will help you!

Psalm 119:97-99, “Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day. 98 Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies, for it is ever with me. 99 I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation.”

James 1:25, “25 But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.”

Understand: For us, we must take what we have learned and meditated on and apply it to our live.

Bottom Line: We must cultivate the Spiritual Discipline of Scripture Memory and Meditation