Memorizing God's Word

If I asked you to recite the Pledge of Allegiance you’d zip through it with ease. If I asked you for the words of your favorite Christmas carol you’d rattle them off in no time. If I asked you for your phone number, your mailing address, your Social Security number or your birth date you’d be able to give them off the top of your head.

But if I asked you to quote a couple of verses in the Bible, could you do it? Word-for-word?

My desire for you is that you would want to know God’s Word so well that you take the steps and make the effort to memorize it. Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you can’t. You have already memorized slogans from advertisements, lines from your favorite movie and the phone number for pizza delivery. You can memorize God’s Word.

What’s the value of memorizing Scripture? It helps you to know God more as He reveals His truth to you. I have experienced this personally as I’ve memorized His Word. It is amazing how the Holy Spirit reveals understanding and depth of knowledge about the Lord and His ways through committing portions of the Bible to memory.

It helps you to provide a timely word for witnessing or in counseling someone. How often God has used a verse I’ve learned from His Word to give me just the right truth to say at the opportune time! You can be prepared for the many unexpected spiritual encounters and conversations you’ll have by keeping Bible verses in your arsenal.

It helps strengthen your faith. Dr. Don Whitney, a professor I had in seminary wrote this in a wonderful book called Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life: “Memorizing Scripture strengthens your faith because it repeatedly reinforces the truth, often just when you need to hear it.” That’s why I would also add that you should memorize verses word for word, so that you’ll have greater confidence in using God’s Word knowing that it’s His message and not just your vague paraphrase of it.

It helps you to fight against temptations and traps the enemy sets for you. The sword of the Spirit is the Word of God, with which you can battle against the forces of darkness and evil. When Jesus faced the devil in the wilderness, He overcame powerfully by quoting and correctly applying God’s Word in the face of temptation.

It helps guide you in choosing the path you ought to take. At the right time the Holy Spirit will bring to your mind a verse or passage you’ve memorized to help you make the right decision.

The goal of memorizing Scripture is not to take pride in how many verses we can memorize. It’s not an end in and of itself, but it’s to let the word of Christ dwell ever so much more richly within us that the Spirit uses His Word to transform our hearts and minds and lives toward Godliness, that we might become vessels of honor, set apart and ready to do the work God has prepared for us.

Why not start by memorizing Luke 2:8-14 this week? It’s the familiar story of the angels announcing the birth of Christ to the shepherds – you probably already know it pretty well. Learn it word for word.

There are seven verses in that passage, so if you’d like just take one verse per day and in a week you’ll have it memorized. Personally, what I like to do is to read the entire passage out loud over and over again. Read it several times a day if possible. Read it for several days, or several weeks – every day. Before long you’ll be able to recall much of it before you even start working to intentionally memorize it.

If it helps, write it down. Writing out the verse or passage engages additional senses that will help you. Or, draw pictures that help you remember the words. Record yourself speaking it onto a CD or other device that you can take with you and listen to in the car, as you take a walk or do your housework. Whatever works best for you, get the Word of God into you and let the Spirit apply it.

So start working on Luke 2:8-14 [printed below]. You can memorize this passage! And see if that doesn’t bring out a greater joy and adoration in your heart for the Savior this Christmas.


And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."


[Luke 2:8-14, NIV]

Feel free to use the Bible translation of your choice!