The Unfathomable Value of the Word of God

Last Sunday I preached a sermon in chapel with the above title emphasizing the importance that we as believers should place upon memorizing Scripture. From my own personal experience, I have found that laboring to memorize God’s word has been one of the greatest blessings in my walk with Him.

Jesus said in John 10:27, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.”

What is ”His voice” that Jesus is referring to? I have never heard Jesus speak to me audibly, but He has definitely spoken to me through His written word. Paul states that “faith come by hearing and hearing by the word of God.” Jesus’ sheep become His sheep through hearing the gospel and receiving by faith His free gift of salvation. But it doesn’t end there…we have an obligation…a duty… to seek to know more about Him. And really, it should be a craving, burning desire within us to know more about our Lord and Saviour.

In John 8:31 Jesus said, “If you abide (continue) in My word, then you are my true disciples.” The faith that comes by hearing doesn’t just end at the point of salvation. The gift of faith is punctiliar, but it is also progressive. Our faith gets strengthened, and renewed and built upon as we continue to feed upon His word and experience this faith walk He has placed us in. Otherwise, we become like the unfaithful servant who was given a talent by his master and while he was away, instead of making good use of it, he buried it in the dirt until the master returned.

In my sermon, I gave a few practical suggestions on memorizing Scripture:

1. We must purpose to do it. We must make a commitment in our heart to work at it.
2. We must set goals and strive to reach them. My current goal is to memorize the Psalms and I am currently on Psalm 4.
3. We should start with little portions and work on them each day.
4. We can write verses on index cards and carry them with us.
5. We should rehearse what we have memorized regularly to ourselves and to others. (a great blessing)

These are just a few ideas, but if anyone who reads this wants to share their experience with memorizing Scripture, I would love to hear from you. Finally, memorizing Scripture has much practical value. What I really love about having God’s word in my head is that once I do have something memorized, I own it! It goes with me wherever I go. If I am having trouble sleeping at night, I can rehearse my Scripture verses and meditate upon them…and the next thing I know, it’s morning!

The other thing, is that the word of God is the sword of the Spirit (Eph. 6:17), the rhema. Being able to wield the sword of the Spirit requires that we have it stored in our minds for those occasions when the Holy Spirit gives us opportunities to take up the sword in the work He has for us. Sadly, many believers do not understand this and are walking around swordless. I prefer going into battle fully armed!