No one wants to give boring presents for Christmas, especially not to children. But there is a gift that is often overlooked in its ability to captivate our minds and hearts. It is a one-of-a-kind gift that is beyond exciting because it is…
…sweeter than honey; more valuable than gold; a lamp and a guide; a hiding place and shield; a sword and strong defense; always right, true, and trustworthy; powerful; life-giving; hope-producing; more satisfying than food; unchanging; eternal; and more.
No other gift can compare to God’s Word! As we quickly approach Christmas and the coming new year, we have a wonderful opportunity to inspire families and the wider church body to pursue an intentional plan for reading and memorizing God’s Word together.I found these eight reasons to memorize Scripture by John Piper to be especially compelling:
- Memorizing Scripture makes meditation possible at times when you can’t be reading the Bible, and meditation is the pathway to deeper understanding. If you’re going to meditate on the law of the Lord day and night, you need to have some of it in your head.
- Memorizing Scripture strengthens my faith because faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of God, and that happens when I am hearing the word in my head.
- Memorizing Scripture shapes the way I view the world by conforming my mind to God’s viewpoint on everything.
- Memorizing Scripture makes God’s word more readily accessible in overcoming temptation to sin because God’s warnings and promises are the way we conquer the lies—the deceitful lies of the devil.
- Memorizing Scripture guards my mind, making it easier for me to detect error. The world is filled with error because the god of this world is a liar.
- Memorizing Scripture enables me to hit the devil in the face with a force he cannot resist to protect myself and my family from his assault. What are you hitting him with? He is millions of times stronger than you, and he hates you, and your family, and your marriage, and this church, and God. How anybody walks through this devil-ruled world without a sword in their hand is beyond me.
- Memorizing Scripture provides the strongest and sweetest words for ministering to others in need. Have you ever been caught off-guard with somebody in need? You don’t need to be caught off-guard.
- Memorizing Scripture provides the matrix for fellowship with Jesus because he talks to me here and nowhere else. Sweetly, powerfully, authentically, really speaks to me here, and then I speak back to him in prayer. If have the Bible in me, we can talk anywhere, and it’s sweet. It is very sweet. (from “Your Deadliest Weapon Against the Devil—Eight Reasons to Memorize Scripture” DesiringGod.org)
At Truth78, we want to do everything possible to encourage Bible memory in churches and homes. Our Fighter Verses™ Bible memory program offers a variety of resources to help foster Bible memory in young and old alike. These resources provide inspiration, motivation, practical tools, and hundreds of carefully selected verses for memorization and meditation.
