In this blog, learn the important reasons you should memorize the Bible, how it can help in understanding the Scripture, and how it can draw you closer to God.

The Bible: a field of precious stones

I want you to imagine for a moment that you are hiking up on a mountain and suddenly, you find a field full of precious stones like gold, diamond, rubies, and sapphire. To your amazement, you took your bag and filled it with treasures. You also try to put more into your pocket until you can no longer carry more of it.

That sounds like a beautiful experience. However, did you know that we, as Christians, the followers of Yahshua the Messiah, have actually stumbled upon this field full of precious stones? And this field, brethren, is the Word of God.

Yet, how many of us have really carried the treasures of God’s word in our spiritual bags and pockets? How many of us have really taken the time to memorize Bible verses and chapters?

Sadly, most Christians today only memorize one verse, John 3:16. Most can’t tell you the Ten Commandments, the beatitudes, and even the four Gospels.

When I was growing up, I was told that critical thinking is better than memorizing and I believe you have heard that from your teachers or even your parents. They will tell you, what’s the use of memorizing if you don’t understand it. So, I grew up believing that concept.

This has affected me not just in school, but also in learning the Scripture. I tell myself, I don’t have time to memorize Scripture. I have my phone and laptop. I can always find what I need and I think brethren, that you too have a similar experience.

We live in a time when we don’t bother to memorize the Bible anymore because we can always use our smartphone or our Bible. However, I’m here to present to you 2 reasons why you and I should memorize Bible verses.

Reason no. 1: Memorization leads to critical thinking

Let’s go to our first scripture in Joshua 1:8:

⁸ This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Joshua 1:8

In the ancient world, did you know that written words are normally read out loud? It was only in the middle ages that silent reading started to take root. However, in the past, reading was primarily done out loud.

Because not everyone has a copy of the Scripture, reading should be done loudly so others can hear. From there, the audience was forced to memorize what they heard and commit it to their memory.

How memorization leads to critical thinking

In the past, we were taught that memorization is the opposite of critical thinking. However, recent studies are now challenging this notion. Today, we are seeing pieces of evidence that memorization actually leads to critical thinking. They are not actually the opposite. They are complementary.

A study was done about how great chess players or what they call grandmasters and see why they are good at playing chess. The common notion is that these chess players are good players because of their critical thinking ability. However, studies have shown that great players are great because they have memorized good chess openings. They memorized every configuration of the openings. They know exactly what the next move is if their opponent makes a specific move. They already have in their mind what move to make through memorization.

In the middle of the game, that’s where critical thinking comes in. Also because they have already committed to long-term memory in their chess openings, they have more space for critical thinking.

Memorization helps in better understanding the Scripture

In the same way, brethren, when we memorize Scripture, it helps us to think more critically and deeply. While it is true that memorizing doesn’t automatically equate to understanding, there’s no doubt that memorizing helps in understanding Scripture.

That’s why, Joshua 1:8 tells us, “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth” — after we have memorized the Scripture it says, “but you shall meditate on it day and night” — we can now better meditate upon it. And this is where critical thinking comes in — so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.

So, this shows us that memorization is a crucial part of learning God’s word and it is also an important ingredient to a prosperous and successful life.

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Reason no. 2: Memorization helps us to overcome sin

Psalms 119:11 tells us:

I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.

Storing up God’s word in our hearts involves memorization. When we do that, when we know the Scripture, we have a better way of overcoming sin.

The Bible as your spiritual sword

The Bible tells us that God’s word is a sword. It’s our spiritual weapon against the Devil. That’s why, when Satan tempted Yahshua in Matthew 4, Christ didn’t try to overcome Satan by giving out His opinion, explaining with His own words why Satan is wrong. What did Christ do? He quoted Scripture. And how was He able to do that? He memorized it!

When Satan said, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” 

Jesus Christ (properly known as Yahshua) didn’t say, “Oh wait, let me get my copy of the Scripture.” “Oh, wait, let me see.” No, in just a beat of the heart, Christ exactly knew what to say and which Scripture to quote, 

He said, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” (Matthew 4:3-4)

Improving our spiritual swordsmanship skills

Yahshua sets a powerful example of why we should memorize Bible verses and passages. If you don’t memorize Scripture, your spiritual sword would become dull and rusty. Your sword-fighting skills will become outdated. It is through Bible verse memorization that we become better swordsmen. God has given us a powerful weapon that we should use.

Satan can use the Bible

Now, here’s something you need to realize. Satan can also quote the Scripture. If Satan, our enemy, memorizes the Scripture, then how much more should we also memorize the Scripture? Brethren, I can’t over-emphasize the need for us to memorize Scripture. This is a crucial part of our battle plan. If we are going to win our spiritual warfare, then we need God’s word hidden in our hearts.

There’s no excuse not to memorize the Bible

Right now, we might be thinking of various excuses for us not to memorize God’s word. We might say, my memory is bad. Brethren, God has blessed us with a powerful brain that can memorize a lot of things. Most of the things that we memorize are the things that are important to us. 

Think about this, why is it that it’s so difficult to memorize dates about the birthday of your classmates, but it’s easy to memorize your own birthday and the birthday of those whom you love? It’s because they are important to you.

If God’s word is important to you, then you will also take the time and effort to memorize them. Yes, it might be true that some of us might have a hard time memorizing things. But I can assure you it might be difficult, but it’s not impossible.

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A challenge to memorize the Bible

That’s why, before I end this message, I want to challenge you to memorize at least one Bible passage every week. So at the end of this Gregorian calendar year, you already memorized 52 Bible passages. 

That’s my challenge to you. That’s also a challenge I gave myself. 

With that said, I hope this challenge would make us more equipped in handling God’s word and use this as a tool to move closer to God.