Leah Grace I recently read a book that blew me away— Evidence Not Seen by Darlene Deibler Rose. This is the true story of a young missionary woman in World War 2, and while I could probably spend thousands of words talking about her incredible experiences, moments with God, and testimonies, there’s one thing in particular I want to talk about today:
Memory of the scriptures.
Darlene— the author of this book— was in a prison camp without her Bible and without her husband for years. One of the things she relied on the most heavily throughout the abusive treatment of the Japanese, illnesses, and more, were the scriptures she had memorized.
When she would encounter something that came against her physical body or her peace, she would search the scriptures in her heart.
If she was afraid, she would quote a psalm. When she was angry or sad, God would bring to her remembrance a verse she had memorized as a little girl. In her barracks full of people who spoke different languages and had different backgrounds, she could lead Bible studies because she didn’t need a Bible to share God’s words!
After finishing this book, I was moved. The Bible has so much to say about the power + importance of God’s word (see Hebrews 4:12, Matthew 4:4, Psalm 119:105, and Colossians 3:16 for just a few references), so it struck me that I should be committing them to memory.Â
God’s word is so much more important than we may think.
There have been many instances in my life where I’ve wished I had a scripture to rely on, quote, or bring to remembrance. But I didn’t have anything.
Because of this… I’m memorizing Psalm 27! As of right now, I’ve learned the first six verses. I’m not only committing to memory this amazing chapter, but over verses as well. (Next week, I’ll be posting which passages I want to have memorized by the end of this year!)
God wants us to truly know His will so we can find comfort, rely on His promises, bring His works to rememberance (Isaiah 43:26), resist the enemy, and more.
But we can only know what God’s will is if we read His word.Â
I wish I could convey to you all that I’m feeling right now—we don’t know what the future looks like, so we need the scriptures inside of us, always ready to be accessed.
Today, I want to encourage you to pick one verse—or chapter, if you’ll join me in memorizing Psalm 27!—and commit to memorizing it.
Then, let me know! I would love to hear the verses y’all are memorizing so that I can be encouraged as well.
A few tips for memorizing… I’ve found that reading a specific verse/chapter at least twice a day, once in my head and once outloud, helps a lot when it comes to memorizing it. Also, putting the words to music really helps as well—that’s how I learned the first couple verses of Psalm 27. Once I had a very basic + repetitive tune to work with, I was able to better remember the words!
I’m curious, what’s your favorite Bible verse? Where do you draw strength and/or comfort from? I’d love to chat with you in the comments!
I have recently felt very convicted of the absolute NEED for scripture memorization.. especially in spiritual warfare! Joining you friend! Trying to memorize Galatians 2:20 right now.
Then this was a good time for this post—God has been working in both of us without us even talking about it! Yay! That’s a wonderful verse! <3
Thank you for this post, Leah! My mom used to have us memorize a verse every day as part of our school curriculum… but I never really felt any strong conviction about it; it was just one of those good Christian practices. I should probably get back into that. That book sounds very interesting!
Such a wonderful post Leah!! I love this! You are right, I probably should work on memorizing more Scripture so thank you for this encouragement! <3
This was such a good post, Leah! Yes, Scripture memory is so important. I’ve been doing Awana at my church since I was in 2nd grade, and after so many years, I have a lot of Bible verses memorized. I used to not understand why Awana had me memorizing so many verses, but lately having the Bible in my head has helped me so much! It’s brought me encouragement and guidance. When I write my blog articles, I don’t have to search for verses because the verses are already in my head. I’m so thankful for that and I love having the opportunity to serve the younger kids in Awana at my church so that they can be blessed by memorizing Scripture as well. <3
Thank you! I did Awana when I was younger as well. It’s great! (:
Oooo, I want to join you in memorizing Psalm 27, Leah!
I think another benefit of memorizing scripture (at least for me) is that it helps you keep the Word and God’s truth in your mind during the day, not just in the morning, evening, or whenever you read your Bible. And I need more of that.
Yay! Thank you so much!
Mmm, yes. Definitely. That’s a great point, because then you don’t need to always have your Bible on you to recite God’s Word and draw encouragement from it.
Joining you all in memorizing Psalm 27 🙂
Yay! This is so exciting!!
I will join too… Laura mentioned this to me and now I just read the post. So true!!! There have been so many times that Scripture I had memorized helped a situation for me, and brought to attention how much more I should be acting upon Scripture instead of trying to solve problems in my head myself. Thank you for the post!!!
Yes! This is so encouraging to know that I have people around me who will do this with me. You’re welcome! Thank you (: