Devotional Practices for Memorizing God's Word

Reclaim this lost discipline.

My workshop topic for the Renovaré International Conference in Denver was Scripture memorization. Since I was unknown to most of the attendees and would be speaking in Korean, which would be translated into English, I thought few would attend. But when the doors were closed, there were close to fifty people in the room.

The first ten minutes went well, but then people, perhaps as many as a dozen, began slipping from the room. I thought it was the multilingual presentation or even the perennial difficulty of the topic. The real reason, I later discovered, is that they were looking for a 101 quick-tips-and-tricks-to-memorizing presentation—ideas that could apply to memorizing anything from Scripture to phone numbers to facts and figures.

When I asked the remaining crowd if they found me difficult to understand, they said no. They even asked me to continue in English. Then in halting phrases I spent the next forty minutes presenting my plan.

My main message: to memorize the Bible, we have to pray the Bible first. Nothing easy, nothing quick about it. Those who stayed in the workshop seemed genuinely moved.

Why Memorize The Bible?

I can think of four reasons.

To know God. All we need to know about God, at least on earth, the Bible tells us. It records God's life and his works. It quotes Jesus as saying that in eternal life we will know more about God. But for now the Bible is our best source for learning about God.

The whole world should be filled with the knowledge of God.

"They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea" (Isaiah 11:9). Hosea echoes the same note. "I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt-offerings" (Hosea 6:6).

David strikes a similar chord. "Taste and see that the LORD is good; happy are those who take refuge in him" (Psalm 34:8).

It's one thing to know about God the way we know any fact, but it's quite another thing to meet God. To meet God is to love him. But how can we love him if we can't see him face to face? How can we love a person we don't know?

To imitate Christ. Everyone in the New Testament who personally received Christ was called a disciple, and with that came a responsibility. Disciples must emulate their teacher. They must imitate the teacher's way of thinking and acting. As the disciples do this, they become more like Christ himself. But it doesn't happen overnight; it's a gradual, never-ending process.

Beyond believing in the Lord, a true disciple will come to know him. Beyond knowing him, each disciple will come to love him. Paul says as much to the Ephesians. In loving him we mature "to the measure of the full stature of Christ" (Ephesians 4:13).

Disciples of Christ have to go to school. They have to become apprentices studying under the divine Master and learning Christ's key teachings as recorded in the Bible. Living in a later century we too, if we want to become disciples of the same Lord, have to go to the same school. We have to memorize the same passages. We have to learn them heart and soul before we can teach them to others.

When we commit the Word to memory and abide in it, we receive spiritual insight. Only when we see straight and deep do we bear fruit. We have this on the authority of Jesus himself: "As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty" (Matthew 13:23).

The varieties of fruit Jesus speaks of here, character and ministry, are found in the divine orchard; that is to say, in Christ's own life. Hence, to bear the fruit of imitating Christ, we must get Christ's words down to a T.

To worship God. Worshiping God is the cause of our existence, the very reason for our existence. The Lord puts it quite plainly. "My chosen people [are] / the people whom I formed for myself / so that they might declare my praise" (Isaiah 43:20-21).

Whatever we do in everyday life is related to worship. Certainly God honors those who are committed workers for his kingdom. But before we commit ourselves to such work, we must become true worshipers. Mary of Bethany is a good example; she was a true worshiper at the feet of Jesus before she used her precious jar of perfume on him. Even today the power of committed service has its source in true worship. Mary pleased the Lord with her worshipful act, and we please the Lord with similar acts of worship.

God seeks true worshipers. Jesus made this explicit when he spoke to the woman at the well.

"The hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth" (John 4:23-24). Worshiping "in Spirit" means worshiping in the Holy Spirit; worshiping "in truth" means according to the truth, that is, according to the Word of God. Aaron's Sons are an illustration of those who do just the opposite.

"Aaron's sons, Nadab and Abihu, each took his censer, put fire in it, and laid incense on it; and they offered unholy fire before the LORD, such as he had not commanded them. And fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD" (Leviticus 10:1-2).

We have been called to worship him according to the Scriptures.

To fulfill God's mission.Jesus committed the Scriptures to memory and had full mastery over them. His being was filled with the Scriptures. As a child he grew in wisdom on account of them. He walked in them, proclaimed them even from the cross, even as he was accomplishing God's work of redemption.

Jesus commissioned his first disciples to make disciples of their own, and not only in Judea but in all the nations of the world (Matthew 28:19-20). To fulfill this mission the disciples had to learn the words of Christ by heart. Once the Scriptures were impressed on their hearts, they were ready to teach everything that the Lord had commanded.

The disciples weren't able to carry the Scriptures in book form as we do today. They had to depend on their memory to fulfill their mission. If the Scriptures had not been memorized, they would never have been recorded on paper.

In the footsteps of the first disciples, we too have a mission to the world. We must diligently commit the books of the Bible to memory, which will transform our hearts as stewards prepared with the truth of his Word.

The apostle Paul speaks to this point explicitly: "Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved by him, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly explaining the word of truth" (2 Timothy 2:15).

When should we read, pray, memorize? Every day without exception. No less than fifteen minutes and no more than thirty minutes a day. One chapter a week should be manageable by most readers. If you find yourself overwhelmed, take a week's refreshment and see my book for ideas in getting unstuck. Then return to the spot where you left off. The Lord will surely bless your effort.

Adapted from Scripture by Heart by Joshua Choonmin Kang (IVP). Used with permission.

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