Why is memorizing Bible verses so important?

When I started memorizing scripture again in January 2020, I thought it would be fun to do again. I had such great memories of how it felt when I did this with my sons when we homeschooled. I don’t remember really thinking past that.  I just remember being drawn back to this for the better part of 2019. So in January 2020, I broke out our old system with the index box and cards to see how we did it. It felt like home. I bought a beautiful new index box and started over with a few tweaks here and there.

I had no idea that my husband would die the next month. Or that the month after that we’d be starting a year long quarantine. Or the month after that my brother would die.  I had no idea. But He did. God knew I’d be facing the worst year of my life.

I had no idea how much this simple daily act would mean to my life after doing it for a year. I thought I was just memorizing Bible verses. It was so much more than that. Big things in my life began to change, and it wasn’t me that was doing it. And these were things I had struggled with for many years. What was happening in my life left me puzzled. Remember, I though I was just memorizing verses. Something had shifted. I was no longer doing things in my own power. I’m trying to figure out what is happening. The only thing I was doing differently was memorizing scripture. This led me to see what God’s word says about scriptures. This is when things started to make sense.  There is life-changing power in God’s word. His word is alive and active and does not come back void.

We NEED His word in our life every single day.  We need to hide it in our hearts. We need to let it abide in us. His words are life to us and healing to our flesh. They give us faith. And so much more…

Why Is It So Important to Memorize Scripture?

• Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee. Psalm 119:111
• Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Romans 10:17
• If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. John 15:7)
• My son, be attentive to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. Let them not escape from your sight; keep them within your heart. For they are life to those who find them, and healing to all their flesh. Proverbs 4:20-22
• For the word of God is living and 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. Hebrews 4:12
• For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and do not return there, but water the earth, and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it. Isaiah 55:10-11
• But he answered, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.'” Matthew 4:4 (This is Jesus talking to the devil who came to tempt Him. He’s using scripture to defeat him.)
• And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. Deuteronomy 8:3 (This is the scripture Jesus was referring to in Matthew.) 
• This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success. Joshua 1:8

• ¹⁸ Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes. 

  ¹⁹ And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.

  ²⁰ And thou shalt write them upon the door posts of thine house, and upon thy gates:

  ²¹ That your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers to give them, as the days of heaven upon the earth. Deuteronomy 11:18-21

• ⁶ And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:

  ⁷ And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.

  ⁸ And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.

  ⁹ And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates. Deuteronomy 6:6-9

• But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.  And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. Psalm 1:2-3