MEMORIZING SCRIPTURES: GOD’S POWER SUPPLY FOR POWERFUL LIVING
By Frank Eiklor and Cecilia Contreras
LESSON 46 Part 6
INTRODUCTION
This is the final lesson in our series on how to memorize and meditate on the Scriptures. In our School of Leadership, I do not believe any subject is more important than this one. That’s because there is nothing to compare to spending time alone with your Lord in His Word and prayer.
Keep these six lessons where you can review them as often as necessary. The best way to remember them is to teach them to another.
In our last lesson, we learned how to memorize single verses. In Part 6, we will concentrate in hiding sections of the Word of God—and even chapters—in our hearts. In reality, you are memorizing God’s thoughts, feelings, warnings and instructions to you for daily living. Is there anything more important?!
MEMORIZING SECTIONS OF SCRIPTURE
How can you move from single verses to sections? Simple and natural. First of all, forget memorizing sections until you get a number of key verses. By sections, I mean consecutive verses of scripture memorized in a package. Mine came so naturally. For example, I was a Marine in Asia with a great hunger for the Lord. I was a transformed man, newly born again, and I couldn’t get enough of the Book. I literally gorged myself day by day like a starving man led to food, or a man dying of thirst finding a tank full of water.
SINGLE VERSES FIRST
I found Romans 8:28 and fell in love with it. It met a need in my life—that of knowing God was sovereign—the boss of everything about me. “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” Perhaps later, I found Romans 8:31 ministered to me because I was facing some fears, such as a fear to witness for Christ. Romans 8:31 said, “What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?” That was dynamite. I had another verse memorized.
Later, I may have been going through some doubts about my salvation—something that many new Christians face, and I was reading Romans 8:38, 39, “For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” What blessings those scriptures were! What peace! What a strengthening of my faith!
PUTTING IT TOGETHER
That’s when I noticed that I had memorized Romans 8:28, 8:31 and 8:38, 39. I thought to myself, “I have those four verses—why don’t I get the other ones in between, so I have the section in context?” So that’s what I did, beginning with Romans 8:28 and going right through 8:39. What a wonderful feeling it was when I finally had that whole section memorized and reviewed until it became a part of me.
Just like with single verses, I had to go through the same three stages with my first section of scriptures. The first stage was awkward, when I felt like “all thumbs” and “no brains.” The second stage was mechanical and proved the most dangerous stage. This is where I had the verses memorized but was working so hard on just retaining them that I was not getting any meaning from them. That’s the moment Satan can come and say, “You’re only on an ego trip trying to memorize Scripture. You’re not even getting anything out of this as you do it.” And if we’re not careful, you and I will agree with him.
Realize that you’ve got to go through that mechanical stage in order to arrive at the natural stage. Picture a young child learning to walk—very awkward at first and then like a mechanical toy soldier barely staying on its feet but walking alone. Finally, the third stage comes when a child can run, walk, jump, roll over and turn somersaults—and never seem to get tired. It’s the same thing in memorizing.
A CARD SYSTEM WORKS
Memorize your sections of Scripture the same way you would do your verses; write them down on a piece of paper, if you choose. Or you might simply use your Bible each time and refer to it. In memorizing single scriptures, I always recommend the card system because you can review them any place you go.
MEMORIZING CHAPTERS AND BOOKS
Once again, keep it simple. The first book I memorized was Philippians. I think I remember how it happened. I had memorized many single verses such as Philippians 1:6, “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ”; Philippians 2:13, “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure”; Philippians 3:13, 14 “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus”; Philippians 4:4, “Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice”; Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me”; nd Philippians 4:19, “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”
MEMORIZING YOUR FIRST CHAPTER
You’re seeing it already. I had memorized many single verses and had put some of those scriptures together into packages called sections—such as Philippians 4:4 through 4:9 where we are told to rejoice, not worry about anything, let the peace of God which passes all understanding keep our hearts, think on positive things, and follow Paul’s example of obedience. I now found myself with the delightful realization of having so many verses in my memory bank, plus even a few sections, that I said, “Look Frank, there are only four chapters in the book of Philippians—memorize them all and you have God’s instructions given to the Philippians Christians through Paul.
So that’s what I did by reviewing chapters like I used to review verses—all my chapters every day when I first started. After all, I only had four chapters and I didn’t want to lose them. Soon I was doing them every other day, every third day, and finally once each week as they became more familiar. Meanwhile, I was learning new verses, sections, and chapters and having to do those daily. Today, I can review in six weeks all chapters and books that I’ve worked on by taking a certain number of chapters each day.
REVIEW, REVIEW, REVIEW
I love to review my scriptures daily because I have memorized many chapters and don’t want to lose them. Now I review a portion of scriptures every day of the week—and they are forever fresh and new. Remember, when you first start with scripture verses and sections, you will never retain them by reviewing monthly. You’ll forget it by the time you review it. It takes daily review for a length of time, then every other day, every three days, until, little by little you feel that the verse can be retained and used by reviewing it at any space of time you feel is comfortable and necessary to keeping it a part of you.
That’s how I memorize Scripture. Simple, isn’t it? The big question is whether or not you love the Lord enough to sacrifice the time and effort to hide His Word in your heart and make it a part of your life so that you know God’s thoughts and can think and act on them? Memorizing and reviewing Scripture is hard work. That’s why most Christians will never do it. They’re too lazy and want their blessings “the easy way.”
You’ll never get the preciousness of the Word of the Lord by absorbing it through your skin; you’ll have to hide it in your heart, and that’s going to take time and determination.
It’s one thing to memorize and review the Scripture—and still another to live it and put it into action. But I’ve found that it’s very difficult to live the Word until you know the Word. Once you know it and review it, the Holy Spirit has the ammunition with which to convict, encourage, or motivate you. Sooner or later, if you keep reviewing a scripture verse, you’ll be forced to live that verse, or the Lord will continue convicting you until you do. Your weaknesses can become strengths, fears can be replaced by boldness, and selfishness can be overwhelmed by a supreme love for God and others.
Start with verses. Graduate to sections or even some of the smaller Psalms such as Psalm 1, 15, 23, etc. Someday, you’ll be memorizing chapters of the mind of God—then books. And the more you know His thoughts, the more you’ll think like Him. The more you think like Him, the more you’ll act like Him. And the more you and I act like Him, the more we will impact our world by fleshing out Jesus Christ to a world that is tired of human words but much impressed by actions. They will see more of Jesus and less of us.
Begin now. And when you are tempted to quit, remember that Winston Churchill’s secret for his great success was attributed to his simple motto: “Never give up. Never give up. Never give up. Never, never, never, never, never!"
