So when the preacher talked about the importance of meditating on the Word of God today, I closed my eyes and squeezed my palms tight and tried to take it all in, my husband thinking that I had dozed off during a Sunday morning service.
“Meditating on the word of God” he said, “is revolutionary. It will give you fresh revelations.” “…and change the way you think – and the way you feel”, I muttered to self silently.
I know it, and I’ve failed it – making habit of this constant gazing upon the Word that gives life.
I’m so meticulous about my daily plans – yet so careless about meditating on the living Word.
And the surest way to train the mind to meditate on God’s Word?, is simply to begin with memorisation of the Word of God.
Memorization doesn’t have to be as hard as we make it they say. The problem is that most people only know how to memorize by reading the same thing over and over again. The truth is that you have to learn to memorize.
To train the mind to focus on the most important Word, will cause everything to fall together in all the right places of life.
Is that why so many of us are so distracted?. Is that why we don’t hunger for the Holy, because we have diffused into the lowly?
I am convicted – I know that if we ever hope to come out victorious on the other hand, this habit of memorising the Word of God is one that we need to persevere in, because this is the one practice that will make our soul truly alive and our home truly joyful.
I know of no other single practice in the Christian life more rewarding… than memorizing Scripture… No other single exercise pays greater spiritual dividends…~Charles Swindoll
John Piper wrote about why we need to memorise the Word of God, and urges everyone to make Scripture memorisation a habit – I wish I could urge everyone to do this
Ann Voskamp spoke from the depth of her heart how we are losing a way of life by not memorising the way of God.
In making to-do lists to run our lives, why not make time to let God’s Word revolutionize our lives? Because making time to memorize His Word is putting the first things first.
If we fail to keep His Word in mind, we may simply fail. In the age of Google, who still memorizes God? Are we losing a way of life… and losing our way?
“What a heart knows by heart is what a heart really knows,” urges Dennis Lennon. And what the heart knows by heart is all that can calm the heart. Direct the heart. Strengthen the heart. What do our hearts really know? Will we who claim to be believers of the Word commit to shaping our lives with His Letters?
Committing the Holy to heart is the way we commune with the Holy Himself.
Scripture repetition is the way we daily revive our faith, the slow pumping of the Word of Life into the lungs with the breath of His Words.
And for the disciples of Christ, this Scripture Memorization isn’t a a one-time hurtle — but a life-long habit. A way of living to live the Way of Christ.
“We want this to be a discipline we practice for the rest of our lives. Think marathon, not sprint.”writes Beth Moore. “Never — NOT ONCE — have I ever known anyone to get to the end of a Scripture memory commitment and say that it didn’t make any real difference. Not a single time.”
She wrote in her most beautiful post on memorising the Word of God as the one habit God really wants for our new year and provides helpful, downloadable links to help the rest of us with Scripture memorisation.
Resources to Aid Memorization:
#1 Business Size Cards in Pockets Commitment Booklet
Verse Card Maker : type in any references to any verses you want to commit to memory
A Moleskine Memo Pockets Pocket booklet to slip all the business sized card verses into, to carry in the purse
#2 Weekly Format of Verses of Review and Reflection Commitment Booklet
Download Ephesians in booklet format, with a weekly memorization plan
Very reasonable foldable, bendable *perfectly pocketable* Moleskines to paste in your own verses, leaving one leaf for review and reflection: Moleskine Ruled Cahier Journal Black Pocket: set of 3 Ruled Journals
#3 Ephesians in Song
Sing the entirety of the Book of Ephesians
(click on the music link in the nav bar, and then the “To the Saints” option)
(Many more resources linked in the memorization archives — just scrolled down)
I am utterly convicted. I pray that Scripture memorisation and meditation will be the one habit that our family will wear this year. Yep yep, there will be ups and downs with the everyday, but when there is a simple system in place, we can be hopeful about making the habit of memorising God’s Word inbuilt into the structure of our one crazy, messy life!
Memorizing scriptures enables me to hit the devil in the face with a force he can’t resist to protect myself and my family from his assaults. — John Piper
So, in terms of practicality, here are some ways we can go about doing this:
- we plaster our home with the Word of God! (this idea for decor inspired by this book here!). Bible verses blue tacked to our walls (any walls that invite an onlooker to pause and ruminate really; the kitchen wall where I chop and wash, the bathroom wall where children clean and comb, the toilet wall where kids’ masterpieces are hung ).
- we dedicate different corners of the home to be our war rooms! (again idea taken from the movie War Room!) So yep, our daughter is really challenging us to have the Word of God everywhere that the eyes can see and reach
- making memorisation booklet. So this one is taken from Ann’s beloved post. We had ours fully laminated and bound – and take them everywhere we are going to spend some time in (the car, the kitchen, the dining table). So husband and I spent an hour tonight trying to get every word memorised right from Colossians 1:1-6, and wonder of wonders, we felt happier, more connected, less grumpy and more rested by the end of the night
- display it where you meet, live and dine – use window chalk on your living room?, black board where kids come and learn?, on a cork board where visitors come and pass?, on your dining table where you dine and chat?, slipped into your kids’ lunch boxes and have them recite at the end of the day?
So from Ann’s lips onto our hearts again:
This is how you make the calendar for the year: you set Christ at the center.
This is the question: Will you spend your days meditating on His Word or your worries?
This is the resolution every new year needs — a revolution: A turning every day to Christ.
This is the thing: No one sends you a memo that Today is the day you’ll need a certain verse to keep you breathing through the day.
When you memorize Scripture, it’s like carrying your own oxygen tanks.
And then there’s Jesus: Christ’s weapon against Satan in the desert was memorized Scripture. And if you aren’t memorizing Scripture — what IS your weapon against Satan?
And to hear John Piper’s message on the importance why we need it more than anything else in our day? Our world might just be turned upside down, and our hearts inside in.