Why Mess with Bible Memorization?

At the beginning of the year my church begin a church-wide effort to make memorizing scripture a priority by utilizing the Fighter Verse strategy. But why mess with Bible memorization at all? Here's at least five reasons:

1) You can meditate on Scripture at any time, whether you’re behind the steering wheel, waiting on the bus, turning the treadmill, or cooking dinner. You always have something profitable to think over, rather than just leaving your mind open to entertain less worthy thoughts.

2) You’re always ready to share godly wisdom, whether you’re chatting online, talking on the phone, writing a letter, or conversing over coffee. Sure, you can flip open your Bible and scan for a verse, but how much more would God’s word be on our tongues if it was already on our hearts and minds!

3) You can pray for yourself and others with the Word of God. You don’t have to fumble around your head trying to think of something to say, but you can recall God’s promises and apply them directly to the situation at hand. In my experience, praying Scripture adds much power, confidence and comfort to prayer.

4) You are better prepared for evangelism. I think most of us are scared to share our faith because we’re never sure about what to say. We don’t want to misrepresent the gospel, nor do we want to come across as pushers of our own opinions. But if we have Scripture in our mouths we can appeal to its message and its authority, rather than our own. We can let God’s word do the talking and the persuading, while we simply remain His messengers.

5) Your Bible study is richly enhanced. Scripture has expressions and themes that connect all over the place, and you will notice these better in your reading if you remember what has been said elsewhere. For example: last night in small group we noticed while discussing Proverbs 3:11-12 that the word “despise” occurred just two weeks ago in our 1 Timothy 4:12 fighterverse.

Is there a relationship between “do not despise the Lord’s discipline” and “let no one despise you for your youth”? Questions like this, which help us gain a better understanding of Scripture, are the fruit of memorization.

HT: Fighter Verses