Memorising Scripture as a tool for enjoyment

The Bank of England has deep underground vaults. They store gold bars that have an estimated worth of £200 billion. Squirrels store nuts. Humans store gold.

These are much the same. We stockpile what we consider to be of greatest value and discard what we consider to be worthless.

But what if we end up storing the wrong things? Jesus repeatedly warned us about making that mistake.

Psalm 19 says that God’s Word is “more precious than gold, than much pure gold” (v10). It would be the greatest tragedy to give our lives to storing up things that cannot last while we pay little attention to what will never be taken away.

Do you memorise Scripture?

I am sure that most of us agree that memorising God’s Word is a great idea. But I also imagine that many of us have found it hard to make significant progress in this endeavour.

This is because memorising the Bible takes significant, sustained and serious effort. It is hard work and does not happen by accident. Partly this is due to the cultural moment in which we live. Memorising anything is increasingly unnecessary. Phone numbers, information, dates—all of it is readily available at the click of a smartphone.

But memorising Scripture is also difficult because our hearts are naturally resistant. We are forgetful people who find it much more comfortable to be distracted and entertained. There is a spiritual battle that rages, and the combination of discouragement and busy-ness can quickly extinguish any enthusiasm for God’s Word.

So, let this be another call to action. Another call to the ancient paths. Another call to once again give ourselves to this work.

Why should you memorise Scripture?

Here are three reasons (there are many more) why I am convinced that a lifelong commitment to memorising God’s Word will be a blessing to us:

1. It enables us to pray more effectively. Sometimes I don’t know what or how to pray. At those times, I find Scripture that is already lodged in my heart gives me words, themes, priorities and direction for my praying. A psalm, an epistle, the Ten Commandments, the fruit of the Spirit, the beatitudes (I could go on and on!) will get you praying and keep you praying longer than trusting your own imagination.
2. It guards our hearts against sin. If we fill our hearts with Scripture, we prepare ourselves to do battle with sin (Psalm 119v111-112). Donald Whitney memorably explains this:
   The Word of the Lord is the “sword of the Spirit,” but if there is no Bible physically accessible to you, then the weapon of the Word must be present in the armoury of your mind in order for the Spirit to wield it. Imagine yourself in the midst of a decision and needing guidance, or struggling with a difficult temptation and needing victory. The Holy Spirit enters your mental arsenal and looks around for available weapons, but all He finds is a John 3:16, and Genesis 1:1, and a Great Commission. Those are great swords, but they’re not made for every battle. ^[1]
3. It stirs our affections with delight. It is great to read the Bible, but there is also something powerful about being able to speak it out from your heart and declare it. God’s Word will stir up your heart to worship.

'How do I get started?'

Here are some practical suggestions to get started:

• Use your travelling time. Often we fill our empty space with a podcast or music. There is nothing wrong with that but perhaps we are missing an obvious space to develop our store of Bible truth. Choose something to memorise, write it out on a card and carry it around with you. Speak it out. A few minutes every day, and you will slowly make progress.
• Aim for more. We will all vary in our natural abilities of memory and recall—but I guarantee we can all do more than we are currently doing. So, aim to memorise whole sections of Scripture (not just isolated verses). It might seem impossible to imagine, but a consistent and daily pattern will enable you to commit whole books of the Bible to memory. It is like so many valuable things in life: it takes practice. We give up too soon and decide that this isn’t for me.
• Find a friend. Learning things alongside others can be a great joy. So find someone else who wants to walk this road. Do it with your children, with your housemates, with your small group…

Bible memorisation has been the most enriching experience for my devotional life. If you have tried in the past, I encourage you to try again. It doesn’t earn us brownie points with God but it definitely will fire up our delight.

Ed's note: There are several Scripture memory apps available including the useful and straightforward "BibleMe" app here. It appears only to be available for Android, and the identically-named app on Apple is in fact a different, Coptic, one. Other apps are available.

1. Donald S. Whitney, Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life, Tyndale House