Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Dakota Lynch
Read between
February 4 - February 9, 2024
Unfortunately, Scripture memorization shares another similarity with water flowing from a rock: it's highly unusual.
For centuries, Christians viewed memorizing Scripture as a way of life. Knowing God's Word wasn't an unusual rock in the wilderness; it was a normal part of the landscape,
The age-old conviction that God's Word belongs in our hearts has been replaced by the idea that we can simply carry it in our pockets and store it on our shelves.
Clearly, the psalmist viewed the internalization of Scripture as a prerequisite to a vibrant, fruitful walk with God.
studies show that two-thirds of young people who grow up in church will leave between the ages of 18 and 22.[1]
After all, "faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ" (Rom. 10:17).
After all, the biggest obstacle you'll encounter in your ongoing memorization of Scripture is not a lack of resources but a lack of motivation.
When it comes to memorizing Scripture, you'll find that while many things are easier, few things are more worthwhile.
Myth #1: Memorizing Scripture is for people with excellent memories.
Perhaps the most common Scripture memory myth is that hiding God's Word in your heart requires an excellent memory—or at least a memory that’s better than yours.
Even if you have a terrible memory, that only heightens the importance of...
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These words helped me realize that I didn't have a bad memory; I had a neglected memory.
The answer was clear: I had a perfectly functional memory, but I had never intentionally filled it with God's Word.
1. Memorizing Scripture isn't any harder than other types of memorization.
I claimed to be bad at memorizing Scripture when, in fact, I had spent very little time trying.
2. Memorizing Scripture is indescribably worthwhile.
My prayer life, thought life, and day-to-day conversations were all impacted by the truth of Scripture.
knowing and meditating on Scripture is the key to spiritual prosperity and "good success" (Josh. 1:8).
The people who are most successful in this discipline—like my friend Aaron who memorized the entire New Testament—don't have above-average memories. Instead, they have above-average determination.
Myth #2: Memorizing Scripture is for people with lots of free time.
we always make time for what we value most.
"One of the great uses of Twitter and Facebook will be to prove at the Last Day that prayerlessness was not from lack of time."[5]
Are we guilty of giving a tithe of our time to our phone screens while giving God the crumbs that fall from the table of our ever-busy lives?
If you truly are too busy [to memorize], then maybe you are busier than God intended for you to be. Maybe you need to seriously evaluate the way you use your time. The problem is usually not a lack of time but a lack of heart. Ask God to help you deal with your heart and find some time to memorize His Word."[6]
The busier you are, the more you need God's Word.
Sometimes, setting aside good things is necessary to make time for the best things.
An unfortunate side effect of the digital age is that we often treat our smartphones as a substitute for knowing God's Word personally.
The saints of old believed that following Christ began with knowing what He said.
memorizing Scripture in large quantities used to be normal for Christians.
It would be convenient if modern technology eliminated the need for Scripture memory. But has our culture's increased smartphone usage coincided with increased love for God and His Word? Has the proliferation of Bible apps slowed the spread of heresy? Has our unprecedented access to Scripture produced unprecedented revival and spiritual growth?
We have a wealth of biblical knowledge at our fingertips, and yet most of it stays there, never making it into our minds and hearts.
Everyone memorizes differently.
The First W: What will you memorize?
"If you aim at nothing, you'll hit it."
If you're a new memorizer, consider memorizing Scripture topically at first.
Having a storehouse of memorized Scripture on each of these questions is invaluable, yet no one chapter or book of the Bible answers them all.
Memorizing topically involves some risk of misapplying Scripture, but this danger persists even when memorizing longer passages.
By beginning with topical memorization, you'll establish a broad knowledge of the Bible that equips you to interpret Scripture with Scripture and rightly divide "the word of truth" (2 Tim. 2:15).
The fact that you're memorizing Scripture is far more important than what particular passage you choose to memorize.
When Judgment Day comes, we will regret the waste of a single moment not used for the glory of Christ. We will, however, not regret one moment we spent diligently studying God's Word and hiding it in our heart. We will only wish we'd spent more time doing this.[13]
Once you decide what to memorize, write down your new goal. Having a specific chapter or set of verses to work on will take you much further than simply believing you should memorize Scripture in general.
The Second W: When will you finish?
Parkinson's law says that work expands to fill the time available for its completion.
Choose a target completion date that's both challenging and realistic.
Before deciding when you'll finish, it's helpful to determine how many verses you plan to memorize each week.
Two or three verses per week is a reasonable goal for most new memorizers.
Learning two verses per week may seem overwhelming now, but you'll find that your memory is like a muscle: the more you exercise it, the stronger it becomes.
After deciding how many verses you will memorize each week, choosing a target completion date is easy.
If your completion date is more than two or three months away, consider splitting your memory goal into more manageable chunks.
Rather than deciding when you'll finish the entire Sermon on the Mount, mark your calendar for when you'll recite Matthew 5. Once you reach that checkpoint, move on to the next chapter with a fresh deadline.
