In light of the New Year, my new surroundings, a new place in my role as a parent, I cannot deny any longer how important it is to memorize scripture. I feel as though I cannot go any longer teaching my son about God and discussing it with my husband without the proper knowledge of what the Bible really has to say. I cannot “live on bread alone”. After stumbling upon a quote one day recently, I was compelled to start on this journey of memorizing the Word:
“Repetition expands our capability of recall. Recovering spiritual truth demands repetition and use. The more you hear, think through, and apply spiritual truth, the more it begins to dominate your thinking. Eventually you will react involuntarily in the proper spiritual manner to any situation because a particular spiritual principle has become so much a part of you.” – John Macarthur
I don’t know about you, but that quote got me completely
pumped; pumped to start focusing on each individual word, really understanding
it, memorizing it, and praying that those words would completely transform my
way of thinking, making it easier for me to live the life that God has called
me to live. In other words, I want to live
and breathe the very words of my
Father.
I want to
memorize scripture so that I may use it in teaching, correction, and for
training in righteousness
2 Timothy 3:16 says that all scripture is breathed out by God and is profitable
for teaching, correction, and for training in righteousness. I’m gunna be
honest here: this is one of my main reasons for my journey into memorizing
scripture. I want to be a mom who can use the Bible to correct any unwanted
behavior or to reward any good behavior. The day will come when Bear asks me
why he should or should not do something, and I will be able to say “because
this is what the Lord says about that”. But I can’t just talk the talk, I have
to walk the walk. I want to back up what I teach to my son. I want to use it in
my teaching, in my correcting, and to train him with righteousness. I want the
words said by God through me to light the path of my son, that he would then be
able to go out into the world and teach those same words that were breathed out by God to bring others to
Christ. How powerful that is! My prayer is that by memorizing scripture, I will
bring others to the Kingdom of God through any teaching and training.
I want to
memorize scripture to keep pure and keep my child pure
I look at my son and constantly think how innocent he is. He
has not yet been tainted by the bad and awful things of this world. I want to
keep him protected from those things. I want to keep him innocent and pure. In Psalm 119:9 it says the only
way a young man can keep his way pure is by guarding according to God’s word.
How important that is to do, not just for your children but for yourself as
well. By living according to His word and to his precepts, the Holy Spirit
gives us the grace to be able to live a pure life for Him, for the word of God
is a light for us!
I want to memorize scripture so that I can present myself to be blameless in God's eyes and to please Him
“Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in thelaw of the Lord! Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with their whole heart, who also do no wrong, but walk in his ways! You have
commanded your precepts to be kept diligently. Oh that my ways may be steadfast
in keeping your statutes!” I don’t know about you, but I want
to be blameless in the eyes of the Lord. The word blameless means innocent of
any wrongdoing. I want to come to the Lord knowing I tried with everything to
read his word, memorize, it, hide it away in my heart, and subsequently try to
live according to it. I would love to do my best to present myself to God, as one
approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of
truth. How I long to
do what’s right by the Lord, to know that I can come to Him as a sinner, but
knowing I did my best to be like Him- holy and blameless.
I want to memorize scripture with joy and delight!
Jeremiah 15:16 says “Your words were found, and I ate them,
and your words became a joy and delight of my heart, for I am called by your
name, O Lord, God of hosts”. My hope and prayer for this journey of memorizing
scripture is not to do it only because I feel like that is what a good
Christian should do, but because I want to know what it’s like to live a life
according to the will of God, because he has called me to do it, and to do it
in the way HE intended: with delight and joy! In Philippians, Paul, who was
in prison wrote to the church with joy- the man had joy in prison because
he was living a life according to God’s word. He said to the people “make myjoy complete by being like-minded…being one in spirit and purpose.” (Philippians
2:1) I envy those around me who live with such joy. It is always my prayer, and
in this journey of really knowing God’s scripture, I can only hope to attain
that true joy that wise men and women around me have from being in God’s word. I delight to do your will, O my God; your
law is within my heart (Psalm 40:8)
My Strategy for Scripture Memorization
- An accountability partner: aka, le husband! Accountability
partners are so important in any goal we wish to achieve. We do them with
diets, with exercise, why not do it with scripture memorization? Houston will
not only be reminding me to memorize my verses, but he will also be memorizing
along with me. I think this will be so great for both us; for our marriage, for
our parenting, and of course, in building a better relationship with the Lord.
- I’ll be writing each verse on a flashcard. They’ll be
labeled week 1, week 2, week 3, etc. By having it written and on a flashcard, I
can physically hold it and bring it with my anywhere as a reminder. After each
week, I will still go back and start from the beginning and recite each verse
so that I won’t forget them.
- I use the app Scripture Typer for the iPhone. I’m
going to strongly encourage this app.
It’s so great because of all of the tools that it gives you while you’re trying
to memorize scripture. You first pick which scripture you want to memorize. You
can type in whatever scripture you want, or pick from 55 different categories they
have and pick individual scripture from there. You can record and playback the
verse any time, draw illustrations, or review with flashcards. The app will also
remind you when you need to review your verses. It’s seriously so great. I love
all of the options that it gives you and that it teaches you in so many
different ways.
- I don’t have any certain order or list that I’m going to
use to memorize. For example, my first verse came from my daily devotional. It
really jumped out of the page at me, and I just felt that it was an important
scripture to memorize. There are tons of tools online in helping you with this
part of scripture memorization if that’s where you’re getting hung up. I’ve had
past attempts at scripture memorization and used this list of the 50
Best Bible Verses to Memorize on To Love Honour and Vacuum’s blog! A lot of the
verses I use will probably be on this list because it’s a fantastic list.
- SEEK OUT RESOURCES! There are tons of blog articles and
resources to help you accomplish your goals in memorizing scripture. I love reading
what others have to say about it, and it’s exciting to know that we are all on
this journey at accomplishing this goal to bring glory to the Kingdom.
So, there is my plan to memorize scripture! I strongly encourage you to join this
journey of scripture memorization with me. Document your progress, let me know
how it’s going for you!
Do you have any different reasons for starting to memorize
scriptures? Any strategies that have really worked for you? I’d love to hear
about them!
If I can still sing all
of the lyrics to every N’SYNC song on their debut album, then I’m sure I can do
this J
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