From just about the very beginning, the human race seems to have an allergy to doing what is for its good. This is never truer than in the second week of January when the first batch of people decide to give up on their new year’s resolutions. We shouldn’t be surprised by this because we’re also bad at goal-setting. We want to accomplish everything right now. We want to skip the hard part, the boring part, the tedious part.
On Sunday, one of our preachers showed us that God’s faithfulness is most clearly demonstrated in that which looks ordinary, boring, and unexceptional (see Genesis 25:1-18). A genealogy, a list of names, is hardly something to keep you on the edge of your seat. Yet, over the course of years, it reveals that God was keeping his promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Hagar.
One of the ways that we can learn this is through the memorisation of Scripture. It is hard, it is tedious, it can be boring. Yet God has commanded his people to hide his word in their hearts. When we engage in the practice of memorising Scripture, we are working the very words of God himself into our hearts and minds.
The incomprehensible God has gifted us with comprehensible words so that we can grow in our love for and knowledge of him. And this truly is for our good.
That being said, one of my big projects for this year is memorising Paul’s letter to the Philippians. It’s a short book, a good one to start with. I am finding it incredibly helpful but also incredibly challenging.
As I go through the practice of reciting what I have memorised so far, I am revisiting the material and seeing how it interconnects. I will have read Philippians hundreds of times by the time I have actually memorised the complete epistle. Even in just the first fifteen verses there are so many points that will get picked up on later in the letter.
The saints in Philippi are in Christ just as Paul and Timothy are. And so he expects that they should be united together in that truth. The faithfulness and the godliness that he expects to find in them are things which can only be given to them by God. Gospel workers don’t all have the same motives. What would seem to be a gospel discouragement is actually serving the cause of the gospel.
I would not be seeing all of this in this little letter were it not for my efforts at trying to memorise it.
There are also real challenges. It is hard work, tiring work. Sometimes I get to the end of the day and realise I did not work on memorising that day’s verse.
It is also something which takes warming up to. I can’t go in cold and expect to immediately be able to recite the verse. It is a spiritual exercise and spiritual exercise requires prayer.
If you would like to incorporate this practice into your own life, here are some resources you may find helpful:
- How to memorize scripture for life by Andrew Davis
- Bible memory tips
- I’ve mentioned this one previously, but you can also make a little booklet to take everywhere with you so that you always have access to the book you’re reading – Philippians Memory Moleskine