Fightin' Words

Kids earn trophies for all sorts of accomplishments: horseback riding, Little League, academics, even baton-twirling. I have earned exactly one trophy in my life, and that one was for memorizing Bible verses. As a child I participated in an AWANA program and earned the Timothy award, based on 2 Timothy 2:15:

Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

Approved Workmen Are Not Ashamed – AWANA, get it?

I never was quite sure how to pronounce the word shew.

We talked, in last week's women's Sunday School class, about the value of the practice of memorization. As a former Bible verse memory nerd, I started thinking about the ways this practice shaped my early understanding of Scripture. One of the things I thought about was this: I wonder how much of my understanding of certain Scripture passages was formed when I memorized them as a child. Don’t get me wrong, I am grateful to have been taught God’s word from a young age. I’m thankful that I still remember verses I learned as a child, or at least snippets of verses. Most of them, I still remember in the King James.

Consider this verse, about the value of memorizing Scripture:

Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee. Psalm 119:11, KJV

For as long as I can remember, I’ve accepted as fact the idea that memorizing Bible verses would keep me from sinning.

I’m wondering how my childhood brain might have imagined that would work.

Maybe I assumed that if I memorized Scripture it would act like an immunization, inoculating me against sin.

Or perhaps I thought Bible memorization would create in my head a database of right and wrong.  If, for example, I found myself tempted to knock over a liquor store, I could simply consult my memory to see whether or not armed robbery was on the naughty list. If I found it was, then obviously I would decide against doing any such a thing.

Or maybe I thought the power of Scripture memory would act something like Captain America’s shield. When temptations came my way, the verses I had stored in my heart would deflect them away.

I’ve been thinking lately about the particular sins that have a tendency to trip me up, wondering how hiding God’s word might actually keep me from falling face-first into them. Knocking over liquor stores doesn’t really hold as much appeal for me as one might suspect. My pet sins tend more along the lines of worry, fear, unbelief, and doubt that God really does love me.

I’m tempted to believe that God is not good, or that my situation exceeds His ability, or that He won’t do what He promised. Most often, the temptation toward those kinds of thoughts comes to me in the dark of night when I don’t have a Scofield Reference Bible at the ready. Or a Geneva Study Bible. Or any other version that might help me beat back the lies and temptations which assault me in the middle of the night.

The only way I know how to do battle against that kind of temptation is the same way Jesus did, by using every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Assuming I have those words handy when I need them. Assuming I’ve allowed the word of Christ to dwell in me richly.

It’s been many years since I’ve given serious thought to the practice of memorization. And, I suspect I’ll find it much more difficult than I did when I was a child. But I’m thinking it may be time for me to pick it back up again.

Even if there are no trophies at stake.

Considering the practice of memorization? Here are several useful tools:

Ann Voskamp’s Scripture memory cards for the book of Colossians

Ann Voskamp’s Scripture memory cards for The Sermon on the Mount

Laura Boggess’s Scripture memory cards for the book of James

Linking with Michelle @ Graceful:

And with Jen and the sisterhood @ Finding Heaven:

Desperate and Deceitful

Most people who commit to memorizing Scripture begin, I imagine, with passages which are familiar to many both inside and out of the church. John 3:16 is a likely starting point. The reference shows up on signs in the end zones of professional football games and on the eye black of Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow. For God so loved the world, John 3:16 reads, He gave His only begotten son . . . The verse is a succinct explanation of the gospel message, one well worth committing to memory.

                                        

John 11:35 is another easy entry point into the discipline of Scripture memorization. Two simple words: Jesus wept. Hiding a verse in one’s heart doesn’t get much easier than that.

Those two verses were probably among the first I memorized as a child. Another I remember vividly, and in the King James, was this:

The heart is deceitful of above all things, and desperately wicked. Who can know it? Jeremiah17:9:

I don't remember who assigned me the task of memorizing that verse from Jeremiah. It may have been the elderly neighbor who hosted an after school Bible club, or it may have been assigned as part of an AWANA club program. I do remember, as a young child, thinking it was a strange verse.

I'm honored to be spending my Valentine's Day sharing this heart story over at Healthy Spirituality, the blogging home of my friend Jean Wise. Won't you click the link above to join me over at her place?