Daily Memory Work

"Then the Lord said to Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you. And the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in My law or not." (Exodus 16:4)

 

In my own experience memorizing Scripture, one of the most crucial elements to success in this area of my spiritual life has always been consistency. Although I've spent countless hours perfecting my own methods of review, the effectiveness of any of these methods is undermined when the "cares of this world" - or sometimes just plain laziness - cause me to lose sight of just how valuable the Word of God is (Matt. 13:22). When this happens and I begin falling behind in my memory work, nearly every other aspect of my life suffers as well, leading me to the conclusion that a half-hearted commitment to Scripture memorization is not sufficient; it must be an integral part of my everyday life.

 

In much the same way as God blessed the Israelites with a daily ration of manna, Christians are called to be partakers of the "daily bread" that is His Word (Matt. 4:4; 6:11). It's especially interesting to note that this miraculous provision of manna came with a very specific stipulation: “Let no one leave any of it till morning.” (Ex. 16:19) Those who thought they could avoid this requirement and stock up on food for the next day soon realized this only worked on Friday, the day before the Sabbath; otherwise it perished by morning (v. 20). Similarly, it's virtually impossible to "get ahead" in your memory work. You may in fact be ahead of schedule in learning a new passage of Scripture, but those verses can very easily go "stale" when you decide to "take your ease" and begin slacking off (Luke 12:19). Of course I'm not suggesting it is at all sinful to take a family vacation and a corresponding hiatus from the more rigorous aspects of your memory work. In fact, my observation has been that occasionally having a few weeks dedicated solely to review and meditation is not only refreshing spiritually, but it seems to allow recently learned verses to settle in my memory more permanently. Daily Bible study with intent to remember is absolutely vital, while learning new verses may be somewhat seasonal. What about you? Do you have a daily Bible study/memorization routine? If so, what portions of that routine do you consider most crucial to your spiritual walk? Please feel free to comment below with your thoughts and any words of encouragement you may be willing to share.