Abide 05: Here’s Why You Should Memorize Scripture Transcript
This transcript has been edited for clarity.
Emily Jensen: Welcome to another episode of Risen Motherhood. I'm Emily. Laura will be joining me in just a moment. We've spent the last four shows thinking about God's Word and its place and power in our lives. If you haven't yet, we hope you'll download our free Abide Method Bible study tools and start spending regular time in God's Word, thinking and praying about how it applies in your own life. We also hope that you are helped and encouraged by the Scripture shows on anger, joy, and doubt.
For today's show, we're going to be talking about Scripture—not just studying it or listening to it, but really hiding it in our hearts by committing it to memory. If you're like me, you likely feel like your brain is already a little mushy. How can you possibly make it work so hard to memorize Scripture? We hope you'll stick with us because we want to make Scripture memory accessible and make a case for starting some Scripture memory habits in your own life. Okay, let's get to the show.
Laura Wifler: Okay, to today's show—we are talking about a really fun but also sometimes hard topic: Scripture memory.
Emily: Yes. I think it particularly feels hard in motherhood because so many of the things that we're met with every day are urgent, like "I need my shoe tied now," or "I need a snack right now," or I see the mounting pile of dishes growing out of my sink and now I'm starting to set things down along the counter and that needs to be done right now . . . Something like Scripture memory just feels like it can always go to the back of the list.
Laura: Yes. Oh, definitely; it's something that requires you to slow down. I think that that is very, very difficult in motherhood and it requires a lot of thinking.
Emily: Yes, it does!
Laura: It makes my brain hurt.
Emily: Our mental capacity has real limits, I think, when we're not getting as much sleep as normal or when we're honestly just really busy, I think, with a lot of things that are important, like caring for other people. Our brainpower can go to that, and it can feel like we have no more left.
Laura: Yes, totally. I think too—the other hard thing for me in Scripture memory is that there are sometimes more rewarding things for me to learn or things that I see more immediate results in. Things like—I don't know—even just cooking a meal or decorating or doing something like planning a good party or I don't know. I think that there's this element of Scripture memory that it can be so difficult because both it took a lot of time, and it takes a lot of brainpower, and I have to slow down.
But then also, there's a lot of review involved in it, and it's just something that I feel like, "Oh, I can one and done this meal tonight, and I never have to think about it again."
Emily: It's really similar to other areas of life where we learn a topic. I can even think back to college when I was trained to become a special education teacher. There was a point I went through when I couldn't remember all the different diagnoses and all the different ways that that may impact my teaching strategy. In a real-life situation, I would have to literally go back to my textbooks or go back to the internet and search it, and I couldn't really do my job until I went back and looked at that word for word.
It could make real-life responses cumbersome. That's the reality of Scripture memory that we don't often think of today—that it's like learning anything else. Until it is in our minds and in our hearts, we're always—almost unable to use it in this really nimble way because we're going back to look and see what the Word says. Which—we want to keep going back. I'm not saying abandon your textbook. I think you guys get what I'm saying—that it's really helpful to have it with you wherever you are in your mind.
Laura: Yes, totes. I can't believe I said that on the show.
Emily: What?
Laura: I just said totes. [Laughter] I normally don’t say that, although I have been told that I abbreviate too many words. I really try not to on the show. Anyway, I like to think of Scripture memory a little bit like exercising. That is where I remind myself, although I'm not great at exercising all the time, that it pays off dividends in so many other ways. It's not just so that I can do another push-up or not pass out during a workout program online; it's so that I can run and play with my kids, and I can feel strong enough to carry my daughter on a hike or whatever it is.
I feel like putting in the work of exercising or Scripture memory—it is not for the work itself in the moment; it's really for all other areas of my life where I feel like I will reap a lot of benefit.
Emily: Yes. There is definitely a lot of benefits, some that we are going to dive into for today's show. But before we jump in, we wanted to define Scripture just a little bit because we realized that sometimes we use a lot of different words and phrases. We're talking about the Bible.
Laura: God's Word.
Emily: Yes, God's Word, the law—
Laura: The canon.
Emily: —the Word of Christ. If you're new to this topic—
Laura: —Do you say the word of Christ very often?
Emily: Oh, yeah, like "Let the Word of Christ dwell richly in you."
Laura: Oh, look at her quoting Scripture. Boom, boom. I just don't usually phrase that, but that's fine. That's good. That's more godly than me.
Emily: Oh my. Basically, if you're new to this, I think it can feel like—are these all different things? Are these separate things? What are we talking about? Is the Bible different from Scripture? What we want to lay out today is just a definition for what we're talking about.
Laura: Yes. When we talk about memorizing Scripture, we're talking about memorizing the canon or the body of writing that God has given to rule the church. That's from John Frame’s Systematic Theology. Essentially, it's the 66 books in the Bible that you likely have bound together on a bookshelf somewhere in your home. That's what we're talking about when we talk about memorizing Scripture or God's Word or all those other words.
Emily: Right. Let's jump in and just give some reasons why we should memorize Scripture with all of the busy things we have going on. I know we've talked a little bit about textbooks and exercising, but what does God's Word tell us? There are so many Scriptures that basically tell us, "You should do this. You need to do it."
Laura: I started looking them up for the show, and it was an endless well of "memorize God's law." I will just list a couple here for you and know this is just the tip of the iceberg. The first one is from Psalm 119, and we were going to share a little snippet, and then we decided maybe we'll just read you this longer portion because it's so compelling. I'm just going to read it here very quickly, but:
"How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word. With all my heart I have sought you; do not let me stray from your commandments. I've hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you. Blessed are you, O Lord; teach me your statutes. With my lips I proclaim all the judgments of your mouth. Rejoice in the way of your testimonies as much as in all riches. I will meditate on your precepts and regard your ways. I will delight in your statutes; I will not forget your word.”
Emily: It is such a compelling picture of just the goodness of God's Word and the way that it transforms us when it's on our minds and in our hearts, and it's something we can think about all the time, which kind of transitions us to the New Testament verse that we wanted to share, which is Colossians 3:16: "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God."
This was a model given in the early church of just how this truth really transforms them from the inside out and impacts their whole community in really important ways.
Laura: Another reason we want to memorize Scripture is because we're called to image Christ in this life, and we see that Jesus knew Scripture himself and he used it. In Matthew 4, when Jesus was being tempted by Satan in the wilderness, he spoke Scripture to Satan from memory every time. That was what he responded to the temptation with.
We see in Matthew 4: "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God." Then another time: "You shall not put the Lord your God to the test." And a third time in Matthew 4: "You shall worship the Lord, your God, and him only shall you serve." We see this perfect example of Jesus fighting temptation, and all he used was God's Word.
Another interesting fact is, in the New Testament, he quoted the Old Testament 180 times, which is just like, "I could never do that if I tried."
Emily: It's awesome! When you read through, you see him using the Old Testament Scriptures to answer questions and correct wrong thinking. He uses it to explain the circumstances and things that are going on past, present, and future. He uses it to respond to criticism, and, we already said, resist temptation to help him obey God and also to teach other people about God's will and plan.
It's just this incredibly robust and important part of who Jesus was and his ministry in the words that he used. It's something we definitely want to model.
Laura: We want to just talk through some benefits in memorizing Scripture. We feel like these are compelling reasons to want to store God's Word in our heart, and sometimes we need to remember all of the wonderful benefits that the work of putting in memorizing Scripture will pay often.
The first thing is just like that it gives you words to remember the gospel. Sometimes we're getting stuck in maybe anger or self-pity or sadness or different things like that, and we don't know how to reset our hearts or pull out of a bad moment. Relying on Scripture is a great way to be able to preach the gospel to ourselves, because sometimes—maybe we forget truth or we get a little bit twisted or we're not exactly certain like what that truth is, especially when our emotions aren't in line with God's Word.
It is a great chance for us to pull out the words that we have stored in our heart from God's Word, and he promises to provide all that we need. The Holy Spirit is often working through that Scripture that we're reciting in our head.
Emily: I think another way that it helps us is, building upon that—it's helping us resist temptation and actually obey God. Which is something that I think Jackie Hill Perry brought up in her interview with us from a long time ago about identity and that God always provides a way of escape when we're in temptation.
Sometimes we're looking for our circumstance to change or like, "run the other direction," and sometimes the way of escape that he provides is remembering his Word and that it's his very Word that helps us turn and repent or escape the situation. We read in Hebrew 4:12—it says, "For the word of God is living in active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart." That's something we talk a lot about in Risen Motherhood—check your heart, discern your heart.
What helps us do that? It's God's very Word.
Laura: Another reason to memorize Scripture is just that it gives you words in ministry. I know that having a toolkit for Scripture in my arsenal has been so helpful as I've worked to evangelize. I have not done that as much as I wish I would, but in those moments, it has been really wonderful to be able to go back to something like the Romans road, or there are a few other different programs out there that help you memorize a selection of verses that will help communicate the four parts of the gospel.
As we're doing evangelism or making disciples or just training other people in God's Word, having Scripture, I think, is really helpful for me to feel confident and to have boldness as I interact with others. Because I know that the words that I'm speaking are not my own—they're God's Word. They are truthful, they are powerful, and the Holy Spirit is working through those.
Emily: To build on that—it's just that friendships or relationships component, because a lot of times—maybe you're sitting with your mom friend, or you have a family member, and that person is experiencing grief or sorrow. I know there's some common things in motherhood that we often face, like miscarriage or struggles with infertility, or maybe someone's adoption is moving slowly, or they're going through a difficult diagnosis, or they're discouraged in their marriage.
Even when we can't relate specifically, sometimes we can go back to Scripture and find words of comfort and of love and support. These are not words to just put a Band-aid on their problem or just give them this, "Oh, everything's going to be okay," but to truly meet them and give them encouragement so that they would have hope.
Laura: Another one is just with our children—how do we teach our children what we don't know? We can't. A lot of times we're met with situations where we don't have the Bible handy, or even if we did, we may not even know exactly what to look up. Hiding God's Word in our hearts will help us as we are equipping and training and raising our children. We can use it in discipline and counsel. I think too that just models a great practice for our kids of seeing mom value it—shows them as they grow older what they should be valuing as well.
Emily: Another one that comes up a lot in motherhood is the need for wisdom in decision making. Again, a lot of these things feel like gray areas, and as we know the Word of God, it can help us remember, oh yes, this is something that I should hold fast to, and this is a clear command from the Lord. Then we can more easily discern the things that are gray areas, where you might need to consider what's going on in our heart, as we already discussed earlier in the show. The Scriptures can help us do.
Laura: God's Word says that it will bring us blessing. This isn't necessarily health or wealth. Joshua 1:8 talks about how "This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth," and it goes on to say, "For then you will make your way prosperous, and you will have good success." This doesn't mean monetarily, necessarily; this means the blessing is greater love and care and delight in God which is really the greatest gift of all.
Emily: Another thing is it strengthens all of our spiritual disciplines. The more that we have God's Word stored in our heart, it helps us pray because then we know what to pray. We always want to be focusing our prayers on what God has already revealed in his Word and asking him things based on that. In Bible study, it helps us make connections and draw conclusions, because you're reading that Old Testament passage and you're like, "Oh this sounds familiar."
Then you can—even if you need to use handy old Google—you can find that Scripture helps you with personal meditation on God and his attributes. Overall, it just helps you love God more when you can be just sitting on your couch—maybe you have a sick kid on your lap—and you're able to draw to mind some truth from his Word and really chew on that for a little while and think on it. It really does help increase your love for God.
Laura: We want to jump in very quickly to a couple of practical pieces. We don't have a lot of time for this, but we are going to put a lot in our show notes for you guys. There have been tons of people that have talked about it, tons of books to read, like little easy-read books that you can check out for tips on memorizing. We're just going to talk a little bit about the way that we do it.
I think the first thing is: study and understand the passage. If you're going to go to the work to memorize something, make sure that you understand the context of it, that you have studied it. Get it in a way that you feel like you have a handle on it, so that when it comes down to actually memorizing it, the meaning will help you remember.
Emily: I think that's my tip right there. I've pretty much only memorized Scripture by just reading it over and over and over again or listening to it and a lot of times that happens as I'm studying a book of the Bible. Because I have to read it so much to get to that point of interpretation and application, that I look back in hindsight, and it's like, oh, I knew it because I spent so much time in it.
Laura: Emily's always like whipping out little phrases of Scripture, like not—
Emily: I can't tell you where it's at.
Laura: She couldn’t tell me where it's at, but she's like Google. Here we go. That's helpful, to have those phrases captured. I think another quick tip is to involve your kids. As moms, we're around our kids all day and often they are a lot better at memorizing Scripture than we are. At least mine are better than I am. I think it's helpful because they get really excited. I think I've shared this before, but when I am in the rhythm of Scripture memory, my kids will get vitamins after they memorize their Scripture we practice for the day.
Emily: Gummy vitamins.
Laura: Gummy vitamins, yes.
Emily: Fun vitamins. [Laughter]
Laura: They're like super motivated. They're like, "Mom, mom, we're going to memorize Scripture." That has been really helpful for me because when my kids want to then I'm held accountable, and so that's just like super practical tip for you.
Emily: Definitely head over to show notes for many, many more ideas. We wanted to give this word at the end because I know, after hearing a show like this, and even after recording a show after this, my first instinct is to feel really guilty and really burdened and really just like, "Oh man this is another thing that I'm not doing well, that I'm failing at, and I'm disappointing God," and all these different things go through our minds. We wanted to stop and say, "Moms, we're justified by grace through faith."
This means that God declares who he is, and he takes initiative on our behalf while we were still dead in our sins. After we're free, then he gives us the expectations and command and commission. Whenever we hear things like, "Go memorize Scripture," it can sound like, if you store up God's Word in your heart, then he's going to like you or accept you or help you, but it's really the other way around. He loves you and accepts you and helps you in Christ first. With that mindset, we can excitedly go and memorize Scripture.
Laura: Amen.
