When I was in college, I remember a man coming and giving a dramatic recitation of the book of Genesis. He had memorized over half of the entire Bible, and he recited from memory the entire book of Genesis with dramatic emphasis added to various stories and sections of the book. I was quite impressed that he had been able to memorize such a large portion of the Bible.
A lot of times when we hear someone speak of memorizing Bible verses, we automatically think of little children and their weekly Sunday School memory verses, and we think it a trivial matter to even consider memorizing the Bible now that we are adults. However, memorizing God’s Word should be part of our daily life of reading the Bible, studying the Bible, and spending time with God in prayer.
The Psalmist wrote in Psalm 119:11, “Your word I have treasured in my heart, That I may not sin against You.” He knew the importance of knowing God’s Word and keeping it before Him so that when temptation and Satan attacked he knew how to defend himself.
When the devil tempted Jesus in the Bible, Jesus Himself recited Scripture to guard against those temptations. “Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry. And the tempter came and said to Him, ‘If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.’ But He answered and said, ‘It is written, ‘MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.”” (Matthew 4:1-4)
Notice as soon as the devil tempted Him, Jesus quoted the Bible “It is written…” He was quoting a portion of Scripture from Deuteronomy chapter 8.
In Ephesians 6:17, when Paul is describing the Armor that we should put on as a Christian, notice in verse 17 he says, “And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” He describes the Word of God as a SWORD. What is a sword used for? To defend one’s self.
If we don’t memorize and know God’s Word, we are not prepared to defend ourselves against the temptations of Satan and this world. When temptation comes, we may say, “Well, I think there is a verse in the Bible about this. Hmmm….what was that?…. Oh well, I can’t remember it, never mind.” And that is NOT going to work against the temptations that come upon us each day. We must be able to defend ourselves and fight off the attacks that come against us.
Now, I understand many of us won’t be able to memorize the entire Bible, or even half of the Bible…..BUT, we can memorize certain portions. If we have sins and temptations that come regularly in our lives, we can find Bible verses that apply to those situations. Then, when the temptations come, we are prepared to fight them off.
Again the Psalmist wrote in Psalm 119:97, “O how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day.” And that is one way to memorize it, just pick a verse or passage and think about that passage all day. Every time we get a free moment, quote it, read it, think about what it means.
God’s Word is there to guide and protect our lives from the temptations of this world and the devil. We should do all that we can to memorize it, study it, and apply it daily to all that we do and say.