Memorizing Scripture: The Basics, Blessings, and Benefits of Meditating on God's Word. Glenna Marshall. 2023. 160 pages. [Source: Bought]
First sentence: When I was a child growing up in the '80s, my church participated in a Scripture memorization program designed to teach children to quickly memorize verses and the books of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation.
Who is this book for? It is for Christians first and foremost. It is for hungry, seeking Christians. It is for Christians who are experiencing burn-outs and frustrations. It is for anyone and everyone who is curious and honestly wanting to know more about how to memorize Scripture. One of the biggest points is that memorization is NOT for the sake of memorization. It is not for the sake of bragging/boasting rights. It isn't to check something off a list, something that you "must" do to be a "good" Christian. Memorization has one point and one point only. Memorization for the sole sake of meditation. The sole purpose of meditation is to KNOW the Lord better and better and better. To grow close to Jesus Christ, to love the Lord more and more. How can one come to know the Lord better? to grow in one's love, one's faith? By meditating on the Word of God. And one of the primary ways to "chew the cud" if you will, to meditate, is by memorizing Scripture.
I did not find the book condescending. In other words, the point of the book is not to make you the reader feel embarrassed, ashamed, less than.
The book focuses some on the HOW but just as much if not more on the WHY. And it is the why that might just make all the difference in the world. Perhaps.
The author seemed completely upfront and honest that this will be work and require effort. The results may be very slow in coming. One does not simply memorize verses--dozens, hundreds, thousands--overnight. One can't just sleep with a Bible under your pillow and you wake up ready to go. She encourages readers that just because it may take time--longer than you want--doesn't mean it's not worth doing. There is no one-size-fit-all time schedule for memorization.
She does encourage memorizing whole chapters of the Bible instead of an isolated verse here and there. But she doesn't discourage memorizing single verses. I think start where you're able. Each chapter ends with suggested memory verses, most of these are individual verses.
Understanding the meaning of the verse is more important than being able to recite whole verses--even chapters--without any meaning, comprehension, understanding.
Quotes:
Psalm 119:11 says, “I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.” The missing element in my fight against daily sin crystallized in that moment: hiding God’s Word in my heart will help me not to sin.
Scripture memorization became a daily spiritual discipline that has changed my thought life, encouraged me in despair, helped me stand firm against temptation, flowed into many gospel conversations, and given me what I need to say when seeking to comfort and exhort my church family.
While Scripture reading and study are daily disciplines I will hold on to for life, memorization has been a bridge between reading and living. It has moved me from study of God to affection for God. My only regret? That I didn’t take the leap into the long-lost spiritual discipline of memorization sooner.
With the help of the Holy Spirit, Scripture memorization can shape the way you think and act and live. It can deepen your love for the Lord and provide the words you need in conversations with others. Hiding God’s Word in your heart can help you walk a little more closely with the Lord who gave you His Word to equip you for everything you might need in this life.
Scripture memory is not a race. It’s a journey. It’s not about recitation—it’s about saturation. It can be done in tiny bits over long periods of time, yet yielding an immeasurable harvest of fruitfulness in your life.
Memorization moves us from study to application, from knowledge to affection. Rather than viewing Scripture memorization as one more thing on your spiritual discipline to-do list, you can view it as the continuation of what you’re already doing.
Whatever you pour into your mind will affect your thought life and influence your response to temptation.
What sanctifies us—makes us more and more like Jesus—is God’s Word. Scripture. All the words in the Bible.
It is never a loss to think about God’s Word.
Christians know the Word because they know the One who spoke it. They know the Word Himself, and His voice comforts them in the valley of the shadow of death. And because they know His voice, they know that everything He has promised about eternity with Him will be true.
The Bible is God’s voice, written down for us. Through His chosen means of revelation, we learn who He is, who we are, how we needed rescue from slavery to sin and the domain of darkness. We’re given the story of Jesus’ birth, life, death, and resurrection—how He offers light and life to all who believe in Him for the forgiveness of sins. We understand what it means to follow Him, to persevere in the faith, to take the gospel into the world, and to live as the body of Christ as we wait for His return. We have the full story of redemption, and though we are still living it, we know that God has written a very good ending. He has given us what we need in Scripture to keep listening to His voice until we see Him face-to-face. One day, we’ll hear it with all the glorious pitch, tenor, and tone that He intended—but until then, we hold fast to the written word that was once a mystery “but now revealed to his saints” (Col. 1:26). We’ll read it, study it, meditate on it, treasure it. We’ll memorize it because it is no empty word for us but our very life (see Deut. 32:47).
What protects the man in Psalm 1 from worldliness and sinful behavior? Meditating on God’s Word day and night. What produces fruit in every season of life? Being rooted in God’s Word, drawing nourishment from it at all times. This is more than daily Bible reading, though it is not less than that. It is an extension of Bible reading, really. Meditation plunges you deeper into the verses and passages you’re reading, saturating your heart with their meaning, one repeated word or phrase at a time.
The more we dwell on His words, the more apparent the disease, and the more decisive its removal. What’s left is a healthier Christian who can continue to grow and flourish in godliness as the Word of God dwells in him or her richly. When the words of the Lord live in your heart, they change your heart. How do we let them dwell in our hearts richly? By feasting on them regularly, thinking on them, reciting them—mumbling them over and over to ourselves.
I want to know how to endure suffering, remain steadfast, and avoid sin. I want to know God better than I do so that I can love Him more and better grasp His love for me. I want to find deep satisfaction in the Lord and to have untarnished joy in Him when life is hard. I want to be vindicated from those who do not love what I believe, and I want the courage to share the gospel with them anyway. I want to know how to obey and be led by the Spirit to do so. Psalm 119 promises those benefits when we fix our minds on Scripture day and night.
If you are a believer in Jesus, you already recognize His voice because you know Him. But now you can dwell on the sound and strength of His voice day and night through memorization.
To love God with all your heart, you must also love Him with your mind. Knowledge of God can grow your love for Him, and Scripture memorization is a beneficial tool for bridging the gap between knowledge and affection.
We never study God simply to acquire knowledge, and we don’t memorize Scripture simply to be able to recite it. No, the bedrock of both study and meditation is relationship. We study and meditate on God’s Word in order to know and love God better. Everything in our Christian life flows from what we believe and love about God. Meditation on God’s chosen means of revelation helps us get there.
Jesus’ command to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength isn’t an arbitrary demand from a love-hungry God whose strength ebbs and flows with our waxing and waning affections. God doesn’t need our love because He is self-sufficient in and of Himself. He’s no Tinker Bell whose existence depends on our belief. Yet, we are commanded to love Him anyway. Why? Because loving Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength is unequivocally for our good. Orienting our hearts toward what glorifies God will, in turn, keep our hearts happy in Him. The more we think about Him and grow in affection for Him, the fuller our joy.
Joy isn’t found in loving ourselves. Joy lives in deepened affection for our God. Jesus explained that His purpose in speaking these things about obedience and love was so that His joy may be in us and that our joy may be full (see John 15:11). Fixing the gaze of your heart, soul, mind, and strength on your Maker will cultivate more affection for Him, even when you don’t feel anything.
We interpret pain through the lens of God’s character and his ultimate mercy. By “calling to mind” important truths, we are able to stop listening to the circumstances around us and even the noise inside our heads. Lament dares us to hope again, and again, and again.
What I’ve learned in the years I’ve been memorizing Scripture is that every sentence can preach a sermon to your heart.
If all you can do is breathe out one verse over and over again, by all means do it.
And that is our goal here, isn’t it? For God’s Word to flourish in our hearts and shape our thoughts. We will be comforted more readily in suffering when our hearts have been planted with God’s words to us in suffering. Hope will grow from the truths hidden in your heart.
The manner in which we deliver God’s Word to a troubled heart matters. Season your speech with God’s Word but do so with care. Your discouraged friend doesn’t need you to shout Romans 8:28 in her face when she is in the valley of the shadow of death. She needs you to pray it with confidence when you’re in her living room, holding her hand, sitting with her in her suffering.
One of the things I love about memorizing Scripture is how slow the process is. It is not a quick path. Memorization takes a lot of time and regular work. But that is kind of the point. The plodding work of wrapping our minds around phrases, sentences, and lists forces us to slowly think through verses we might otherwise have skipped over.
© Becky Laney of
Operation Actually Read Bible
