If you’re reading this post, you have access to a Bible.
- Search “Bible website” online and you’ll get 788,000,000 results in 0.8 seconds.
- Most of us have a Bible App (or 2…or 3) on our phones which can read Scripture to us (in multiple languages) anywhere, anytime.
- We likely have multiple paper Bibles on various bookshelves or end tables in our homes.
With all this easy access to Scripture, why commit any of it to memory?
Why go through the effort of trying to memorize Scripture, let alone anything (seriously, how many phone numbers do you currently have memorized?) when we can easily look it up?
Because… Jesus. (Grace Point Church, were you surprised at all by that answer?)
The primary reason that we memorize Scripture is to behold Jesus.
It’s easy enough to gloss over words on a page or passively listen to someone else read, but when we glue our eyes to the Scriptures, take out a (mental) shovel, dig deep into the nuances & beauty of the text and try to memorize the Word, we push past passivity and beyond the black & white (& red?) on the page.
If we believe Jesus about the Scriptures—that they all point to Him (see John 5:39-40 and Luke 24:44)—then when we behold the Scriptures, we behold Christ.
And we become like what we behold (see Psalm 115:4-8).
Here’s what I mean by that:
“And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” — 2 Corinthians 3:18, ESV
Memorizing Scripture takes a lot more than a cursory reading, it requires effort. It requires beholding. But it brings great reward to commit the true, honorable and lovely to memory (see Philippians 4:8).
Pastor and author David Mathis says, “Scripture memory, at its best, is about feeding your soul today and mapping your life and mind onto the very life and mind of God” (i.e. “conformity to Jesus”) (Habits of Grace, p.86).
As we start our series through the letter to the Philippians, I want to encourage you to commit verses from Philippians to memory.
But how? That’s the next post here.