Many of us have memorized Scripture. Whether it be for Awana, or family, or personal growth, we have all memorized various verses of God's Word. I must admit though, that I often did very little of this. Granted, I did memorize dozens of verses for Awana yet for my own personal growth I rarely, if ever, memorized Scripture. There were several reasons which at one time convinced me that I should not.
First, the time factor. I often thought that it would take me forever to memorize Scripture, especially if I am going to memorize it in a way that will be ingrained in my thinking for life. I just did not want to sit down and discipline myself with this hurdle in the way.
Second, the memorization factor. The Lord has blessed me with an adequate memorization ability. Through college I learned to memorize well, and I frequently memorized much at one sitting. I can think of classes, such as Systematic Theology III and Principles of Counseling, that required memorizing and regurgitating 20-30 verses on a certain theme in Scripture. Yet, to this day I cannot begin to tell you even half of these verses. I often thought, what is the point of struggling through memorizing, only to forget it within months?
Third, the Greek factor. One of my God-given passions has always been and remains to be language. I am currently on a fourth language that I have studied formally. God blessed me to have learned English and Spanish at a very early age on the mission field. I took three and a half years of French in high school and learned even more on a trip to Bordeaux, France. Through Bible college, I took 20 credits of Greek and await more training at seminary in Greek and then Hebrew. I often excused myself from memorizing Scripture because I thought that this would hinder my free-flowing translation from the original languages. If I already new the English translation in my head, then it would not be translation at all.
I have come to the conclusion that these reasons for not memorizing Scripture were invalid and should rightly be labeled excuses. About one month ago, I began memorizing the book of Romans. Never before had I thought that I would take on such an endeavor, but in my ambitiousness and determined mentality, I challenged myself with this feat. Each day on my way to and from work, I memorize one verse of this monumental epistle. As I do so, I then say the entire passage that I have memorized so far out loud in my car while then adding the one new verse. This repetition is the perfect key to quick and easy memorization.
I have only a short ride to work: 7 minutes. Now I can say that I am finishing up Romans chapter one and am aiming at chapter two. The Word of God is so rich as it repeats and cements itself into my thinking. With just over 400 verses in the book of Romans, I will have the entire epistle memorized, Lord willing, by the end of my internship. How amazing it will be to ingrain God's own thinking into my own futile and twisted mind. Why waste my time setting my car and my mind on cruise, when I can simply hear the refreshing voice of God speak to me on a daily basis?