I love to be asked this question, but I often hesitate before answering. Curious Christians ask me why I have memorized 14 New Testament books. What a great chance to encourage others to memorize! But my reason for beginning and continuing to memorize comes from a profound sense of – failure!
The Start of My Journey
Just two years after my salvation, I headed to seminary…frightened… for good reasons! I did not know the Bible, could not sing church songs, and the thought of teaching others about the Bible unsettled me. I knew only that I did not know a lot. Further, I was a bit concerned that genuine believers and even seminary professors could read the same Bible and come up with different theological views. If they were arguing among themselves, what hope was there for a biblically illiterate, former Biology student to find the right views?
But God used excellent advice from older pastors to convince me that God makes spiritual growth really simple. If we truly seek to know Him and His word, He gives us wisdom. Psalm 19 and 119 then became precious to me as I began to memorize: “The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies, for it is ever with me; I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation” (Psalm 19:7, 1 Psalm 19:98-99, emphasis added).
The Blessings of Desperation!
The beginning and continuation of memorization must come from desperation. It is a way of pleading with God for wisdom while trying to pursue it. Commenting on the Proverbs 2:3 encouragement to “call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding,” Linda Allcock asks, “When did you last ‘call out’ for insight as you opened the Bible? Calling out is what we do when there is a need—a fire or an emergency of some kind. Have you ever felt the emergency of needing to know God but not having the resources yourself to understand his word?”1
God motivates us in different ways to seek him through the spiritual disciplines of Bible reading, meditation, prayer, and memorization. My motive was desperation, but some believers memorize out of a deep love for God, to become better prepared for evangelism, or to delve deeper into the doctrines of the Bible. Further, seeking God through the spiritual disciplines is a duty. God commands us to seek him in those ways!
The "Key" to Memorization?
But I am increasingly convinced that it is only when we are “poor in spirit” (Matthew 5:3) and spiritually broken that we treasure God through his Word enough to commit it to memory. Moses told the Israelites why God had let them get physically hungry during their wilderness years: “He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord. (Deuteronomy 8:3, emphasis added).
After forty days of fasting, Jesus quoted, from memory,
that very verse against Satan!
Two Recent Books on Memorization!
That desperation is essential for memorization was confirmed recently as I read two excellent books on memorizing Scripture. You should read both books: Glenna Marshall, Memorizing Scripture, and Jason Lancaster, Hidden Within.” What struck me was that both authors had come to points of desperation and, from that brokenness, begun to memorize: one needed victory over sin, and the other needed hope.
Glenna Marshall: In my late thirties, I returned to Scripture memory for the first time since childhood—not for competition’s sake but in desperation. The Lord had brought an area of besetting sin to my attention, and I was floundering in both disobedience and despair. Why couldn’t I experience true victory? I was a faithful Bible reader and made time each day to pray. I was fully involved in church life as a pastor’s wife and Bible study leader. Yet, the sin of anger was perpetually simmering beneath the surface of my thoughts, words, and actions. I felt stuck in a pattern of sin, guilt, confession, and repentance. There must be some key to repentance that I’m missing, I thought. In frustration and fear that I would never have victory over my anger, I pleaded with God to help me see what I was missing. He brought to mind one of the verses I had memorized as a six-year-old in the Bible drill room of my little Baptist church. 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. This realization, a simple one really, sent me down a path of Scripture memorization that has transformed my mind and life. I began with a few verses, then a paragraph. I tackled some selected psalms, then the whole book of James, followed by Colossians, then 1 Peter.2
Jason Lancaster: The breaking point came when I started thinking of different ways to take my own life. Before this time, I had never had suicidal thoughts, but my mind was suddenly overrun. My thoughts were out of control, and I couldn’t rein them in through prayer, Bible study, or even preaching. I just wanted to leave this earth altogether… A man in my church recommended I go see an older gentleman who spent his time counseling people out of his house. God used this man, Elwood Hale, to literally save my life... Elwood told me I needed to replace my skewed thinking with God’s Word through Scripture memorization. He believed the more God’s Word was dominating my thoughts, the less consumed I would be with resentfulness, bitterness, and despair… My experience memorizing Scripture had been minimal, but I was desperate. The deep immersion of Scripture memory would be a new weapon to penetrate the darkness, dislodge unwanted thoughts, and replace them with the Word of God.3
What About Us?
Are we desperate enough for God’s wisdom and power to commit or recommit to the spiritual disciplines? They are God’s means of grace poured out into our lives. We need only ask in prayer for what we need, like more courage, more faith, or more peace. Then, we engage in the spiritual work of placing ourselves in the paths of grace through God’s authorized ways of asking for help. Just like desperate Zacchaeus climbed that sycamore tree to see Jesus, so we too place ourselves in God’s path through our use of the means of grace (Luke 19:3-5). If you do not feel desperate enough yet, would you be bold enough to pray and ask God for a deep, unquenchable hunger for Him? Then, let desperation drive you deeper with God through his word!
Here is a helpful, related article:
"Passion for God's Word Changes the World" by George H. Guthrie
The links are Amazon affiliate links for which the SPT Ministry is
slightly compensated, but they do not change your price.
1Linda Allcock, Deeper Still: Finding Clear Minds and Full Hearts through Biblical Meditation (Charlotte, NC: Good Book Company, 2020), 53. Emphasis added.
2Glenna Marshall. Memorizing Scripture: The Basics, Blessings, and Benefits of Meditating on God's Word (Chicago, IL: Moody, 2023), 10. Emphasis added.
3Jason Lancaster, Hidden Within: The 40-Day Scripture Memory Project (Rapid City; SD: CrossLink Publishing, 20190), 4-6. Emphasis added.
Comments