Making an Effort to Memorize

“Listen carefully and hear the words of the wise, and apply your mind to my knowledge; For it will be pleasant if you keep them in mind [incorporating them as guiding principles]; Let them be ready on your lips [to guide and strengthen yourself and others]. So that your trust and reliance and confidence may be in the Lord, I have taught these things to you today, even to you.” (Proverbs 22:17-19, AMP)

I went to preschool at a Christian school, so woven into the curriculum was Gospel truth and scripture. When I learned my alphabet, I learned the letter in sign language, the sound it made, and a scripture verse along with each letter.

“A, All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” “B, Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved…” and so on.

By the time I was ready for kindergarten, I knew 26 different verses. They were all hidden in my heart. Even today, most of those verses are embedded in my memory. And if you were also a kid that grew up in the church, memory verses were huge. Every week, you probably had a verse you were tasked to remember. Memorizing the Word was a huge cornerstone of teaching a child in the church. 

But as we grow as adults, that emphasis doesn’t seem to continue. But why? Surely, adults get the same benefits that children do in being able to recall God’s Word. Even Solomon touches on it in Proverbs 22:17-19. He implores his son to listen carefully and hear the words of the wise, applying his mind to the knowledge. Though Solomon is relaying the instruction, this wisdom is not his. It doesn’t come from his mind or intellectual ability. This wisdom comes from God Himself, the same God that breathed out scripture, inspiring men by the Holy Spirit to author it for us to read all these generations later.

So yes, we read our Bibles, but does it go in one ear and out the other? Do we simply read it so that we’re on track in our yearly Bible plan, or do we read it to understand and apply it? Do we make sure we’re consuming what we read, pulling out all the meaning and practical application we can as we move through it? Do we read it in the pursuit of personally connecting with it to the point that we could regurgitate it when it’s needed in our own lives and when others share their burdens with us? 

Solomon doesn’t encourage us to know and apply scripture because it’s a nice thing for Christians to do. He says hearing wisdom and living by it is pleasant to keep them in our minds– incorporating them as guiding principles. In other words, life is sweeter because we are living according to God’s scripture. Understanding it and integrating it into our day-to-day lives. He goes on to urge us to be ready with scripture on our lips to guide and strengthen others. When someone comes to us with a problem, worry, or struggle, we should be able to point them to God’s Word for the solution, and we should be able to accurately relay it so as to be a helpful messenger of God’s wisdom. We should be able to use those words as a guide for ourselves, too.

How many times do we have a problem in our lives? When we do, how do we tackle it? Do we try to use our own intellect or emotions to make a decision, or do we turn to God’s Word? Do we know what it says so that we can be sure we’re living a God-honoring life proven in our choices? When someone looks at our lives, do we exude Godly reliance, confidence, and trust? 

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths.” (Proverbs 3:5-6)

That’s more than just a cutesy directive or a lackadaisical suggestion in living a Christian life. And more often than not, people will know that verse and quote it as you say it, yet never live by it. When life turns upside down and troubles come, without God’s counsel and wisdom hidden in our hearts, we will only have our fallen nature, inconsistent intelligence, and frail emotions to lean on. And that won’t always lead us to Godly conclusions or righteous methods of dealing with hardships.

But when we, the adults, are encouraged to memorize scripture, we tend to make excuses: We don’t have very good memories. Scripture is hard to understand in the first place. I can just grab my Bible when I need it.

But those are indeed excuses. How are we to yield the Sword of the Spirit if we don’t know what’s in it? How are we supposed to defend our faith if we don’t know it enough to be able to recall it? 

If we want the pleasantness of living a life covered in the Lord’s wisdom and glory, then why are we making excuses to not only read His word, but know it the way we know the alphabet? If we want to live a life that trusts, relies, and has confidence in the Lord, then why are we content to simply casually interact with the wisdom He’s so generously given us? 

If we want to be effective and helpful to not only ourselves but those around us in being encouraged to walk by faith, then we need to live lives that are guided by the Words of our Savior. And that means hiding them in our hearts, however possible.

We should be just as bent on knowing scripture as we encourage our children to be. We should be just as diligent to know the counsel of God’s Word. Because the more we know our Bible, the better we know God. The better we know God, the more clearly we can see and worship Him– the more thoroughly we can glorify Him and share His good news. 

God’s sheep know His voice. It’s how we follow Him. And we know God’s voice by reading and knowing scripture in our hearts. You don’t have to quote whole books of the Bible, but try as best as you can. Make it a part of your devotion to Him. It will help you to walk by faith that not only glorifies the King more wholly, but it will also give a deeper joy to you as you love and serve Him.