by Erica Balady
What thoughts and feelings arise when you think about memorizing scripture? Do you cringe when you hear the phrase? Does it feel like an area where you know you’re just going to fail? Maybe you’re on the other end of an imaginary spectrum because you’re good at memorizing and love getting those gold stars. Feelings about memorization vary broadly but the rewards—the blessings of having God’s Word growing in our hearts, buried deep in our memories—are guaranteed and far outweigh the challenges of memorizing Scripture.
We live in a time when we can pull out a phone and look up a verse, which is a different kind of miracle, but what do we miss out on when we aren’t intentionally meditating on Scripture so much that it penetrates our hearts, renews our minds, and can be recalled at a moment’s notice without the aid of Google?
Over the next year, we want to be equipped together in this spiritual discipline by looking at several reasons why we memorize Scripture as well as some methods of how to do it.
Francis Cosgrove, of Navigators, quoted Bob Foster on Scripture memory: “There is a vast difference between ‘I have a verse’ and ‘It has me.’ The one can be the parrot-like repetition of the words… the latter is transforming by the renewing of your mind.” One reason we memorize Scripture is to deepen our understanding of who God is. One way to memorize happens when a verse takes hold of your heart.
The very first verse I memorized was Jeremiah 29:11. Hear me out! I know it’s everywhere, may feel overused, and can cause an eye to twitch for some, but I’ve carried it with me through a lot of life. The longer I walk with the Lord, the more I see how this verse drew me in and taught me Scripture is for me, but it’s about Him.
Jeremiah 29:11 found me in the spring of 1998. My 16-year-old sister had died in a car accident a few months before in November 1997. I was 19 at the time, had been a believer just over two years, and really didn’t have a lot of Bible knowledge. I barely had any theology besides knowing I was a sinner, and Jesus was my personal Savior. Without ever naming it, a very sweet friend had come alongside me for the past year to disciple me. She modeled Christlikeness and showed me how to study the Bible. The following spring, as I was grieving my sister, I grabbed my Bible and journal and sought to learn about who my God was.
I went to the index to search death, heaven, what happens after death, faith, and then hope. I read a lot of scattered chapters and verses. Then I read through Jeremiah 29 about a people in exile who were told to make their life in that foreign land, to seek peace, and pray for the prosperity of that city. And verse 11 jumped off the page: “ ‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’ ” More specifically, the word “plans.” Each time I read it, I felt the thrum of a gong vibrating in my soul. God has plans.
While in exile, living in Babylon, far from the life they thought they would be living in Jerusalem, God says, “I know the plans I have for you.” Through Jeremiah, God sends words of encouragement. Their story is not over. They have not been forgotten. So, in my own version of despair and exile, as I was grieving the loss of my sister—someone who died too young, too early—I knew my God, the same LORD of these exiled Israelites, had a plan. My sister’s death wasn’t a mistake. Her death wasn’t an oversight. He wasn’t surprised. I could trust and rest in Him because He has a plan.
I didn’t know the word sovereignty at the time, but God began teaching me that’s who He is. When tragedy hits, I don’t have to try to make sense of it. He’s got it. When my life feels like there’s chaos all around, He’s got it. When it seems like evil is on the verge of winning, He’s got it.
The word hope also resonated in my heart. I knew Jesus was my hope, but I also knew He was my sister’s hope too. We will see each other again, when there will be no more grief, no more tears.
For me, Jeremiah 29:11 gave me the comfort and confidence to walk through my grief in this world and to set my eyes on eternity with Him. So, I memorized the verse. I really didn’t have to work too hard to learn it as I looked at it—stared at it—multiple times a day because I needed that truth to grow deep in my heart. In my grief, I needed an absolute truth about who God is. And this is one reason why we memorize Scripture—because it teaches us who God is and it changes us.
Like the ancients who built altars of remembrance, Jeremiah 29:11 is an anchor in my faith journey, where God met me and used His Word to comfort and teach me. When my world felt shattered, God Alone could help me hold the pieces.
He did. And He continues to do so. And I know, because He said it in His Word, He always will.
