THE WORD

I want to share how God has used His Word in my life.

Scripture has been special to me for most of it. In preschool my parents enrolled me in a weekly Bible-memory program at church. But as the story goes, I latched onto it quickly. Early on God gave me a desire to know Him and a love for memorizing. Learning Scripture was the perfect task.

My earliest recollection of enjoying it was about first grade. At that point I would learn a couple verses weekly for four months a year.

But there also was this rule that, on the first week of the program, participants could say as many verses in their books as they wanted. After that you had to follow the weekly schedule, mostly to ensure people spent time meditating on the verses.

I remember always taking that first-week “challenge” very seriously, each year trying to beat my record of verses memorized from the last year. I participated in the program most years through high school.

Despite the fact that I understood the verses I memorized, I didn’t fully comprehend the value of knowing them until college. It was, as they say, that “Coming of Age” period when I had to decide for myself how I would handle stresses and temptations as an "adult" (technically, at least). God constantly brought verses to memory that fit whatever situation I was in. Through His Word I felt Him loudly encouraging me to make sound choices. And when I heard Him, I felt I couldn’t let Him down.

I think too often Christians downplay the role of Scripture in God speaking to us. The Bible says it is written and inspired by God, so every time we read it, He talks directly to us. We don’t always have to wait for God to give us a “feeling,” or what someone else tells us God said (That’s not to say God can’t speak those ways, too, but I think we overrate them).

Further, memorizing Scripture enables us to fight our doubts and temptations as they happen. Sometimes our thoughts can try to defeat us before we even have time to open our Bibles. When His Word is already in our memory, it becomes that powerful, active sword that that helps us fight temptations as they’re thrown at us.

I also love Scripture because it helps us, well—“do the right thing.” There’s so much discussion about how difficult living for Christ can be. Of course it's a constant, daily battle, but having direction from His Word certainly helps! In Psalm 119: 9-11 the psalmist asks that very question: "9 How can a young man keep his way pure?"

The answer includes Scripture memory: “10 I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands. 11 I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.”

I still memorize Scripture (although not as much as I’d like). However, now I focus much more on learning passages that challenge and encourage me where I am. One I've worked on--on and off--is Psalm 91. It’s about the benefits of "dwelling"--trusting--in God.

Romans 15:4 sums up what Scripture has been to me—a spring of encouragement (especially lately): “For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.”

As it’s been said: The Revelation (for life) is The Word.