Have You Memorized Any Scripture Lately?

As part of being the Commander of our AWANA club, I’ve encouraged all the leaders to also participate in memorizing Bible verses. Of course, we’re doing things a tad more challenging than what the kids do. Our first challenge was to memorize Psalm 1. Since I’m a firm believer in leading by example, I spent a lot of the time on the drive to Indianapolis for the ACFW conference working on getting the passage into my brain – and I still find myself going back to the words during the day. And this reminds me why we’re supposed to memorize Scripture in the first place. When you learn Bible verses, really learn them (not just put them into your head for the purpose of spitting them out and earning a prize), they stick with you. And they come to mind when you need them.

One of the parts of Psalm 1 that keeps resurfacing in my thoughts is verse 2 – “The law of the Lord is his delight and on His law he meditates day and night.” I think some of this is because we’re studying Deuteronomy in CBS this year, and the focus is really boiled down to obedience to God’s commands is how we show Him our love. Which just ties in so nicely with the idea that we are to meditate on His law day and night. And I don’t do that like I should.

It’s easy to say, “Oh, well Jesus’ blood has covered my sin, I don’t need to do that anymore.” And it’s true to some degree, Jesus completed the law. He fulfilled it. We don’t have a checklist that we have to keep track of anymore. But we still have God’s primary law and that hasn’t gone away. We’re to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength and love our neighbor as ourselves. We still have the ten commandments – as relevant to us today as they were when first inscribed in stone tablets. We still have the whole of the Scripture – God’s word to us – and that in itself is worth meditation daily.

I’m finding that the way to daily meditation is really coming from having those verses fresh in my mind. Stored there. Ready for access at any moment. I’m so grateful I’m getting back in the habit of memorizing Scripture. And I’d encourage you to make it a new habit as well if it’s not something you already do. Psalm 1 is a great place to start.