'For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the
law of the LORD , and to do it , and to teach
in Israel statutes and judgments. '
Ezra 7:10. https://my.bible.com/bible/1/EZR.7.10
My mentor gave me this verse to memorize. It is amazing that, unbeknownst to him, I was studying Ezra. I love how God works in small ways to let us know we are doing his will. I kind of gave him a hard time about memorizing scripture. I asked him a question about where it says in the Bible we are to memorize scripture. I think I kind of stunned him by my question. Now don't get all your defenses up! I absolutely see value in memorizing God's word. I envy people that have verses they pull out of thin air at just the right moment. AND I know my resistance is because I don't want to put the effort to memorize scripture.
So, I googled, "Does it say we should memorize scripture in the Bible?"
Although there are multiple reasons given to memorize scripture, backed up by scripture, each reference given talks more about the application and the command to make scripture a part of our life. Here is a link to one of the resources;
More importantly, is the need for us to engrain scripture in our hearts. Does scripture impact how you live, what you say, and how you relate to other people? I am not against memorization of scripture. I just believe all MY efforts should be toward "preparing my heart to seek, and then to do it." I need to seek the Lord and all that he has for me today, or even in this specific moment! As I seek him and his law, I also need to be able to share all that I find teaching others.
So, in my opinion, (I could be wrong), we need to focus all our energy on embedding scripture into our hearts and then transfering that to our daily lives. With some people that may mean memorizing scripture. Some it will mean meditating on scripture, some will write about scripture, some will teach others. If we spend time in God's word, truly seeking his laws, understanding his statutes, and judgments, it will affect our life, even if we do not memorize those scriptures.
What are your thoughts?
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