Pastor's Pondering
Read Lead Pastor Duane Mabee's weekly Pastor's Ponderings here!
How and Why do You Memorize?
by Tim Weadon (guest author) on March 24, 2022Many of us are convinced that memorization is a chore and difficult. This really depends on what you are memorizing and how you are doing it. I’m guessing that most of us know a lot more Scripture than we realize. There is one method that we seldom think about but, if you have gone to church for very long, is very useful for memorizing verses and recalling them for years. Actually, it is by far my favorite. It is called SINGING. Below are verses which many of us know but often do not think about as Scripture that we have memorized. (Note that the digital version of this text has hyperlinks which take you to YouTube examples.)
These may or may not be the tunes you have heard before, but the point is music is a wonderful way to hide God’s word in our hearts, hence the Psalms! I have memorized hundreds of verses throughout the years but, by far, the ones that I recall the easiest and the longest are typically ones that I learned singing.
Colossians 3:16 states: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord,” NKJV.
What is your purpose for memorizing? It may be to share the gospel (John 3:16), to remember a passage that means so much to you (John 14:1-6), to encourage you in your walk (1 Peter 1), to instruct you in your daily life (James 2:14-20), or to keep you from falling (2 Peter 1:5-9).
To enjoy memorizing you have to have a purpose. If you memorize to impress, then you are wasting your time. If you memorize to “Draw near to God” then “He will draw near to you.”