“The primary freedom we have is always the choice of where we will place our minds. . . To that end memorization is vital. It is astonishing how little of the Bible is known “by heart” by people who profess to honor it. If we do not know it how can it help us? It cannot. Memorization, by contrast, enables us to keep it constantly before our minds.” Dallas Willard (www.dwillard.org/articles)

A number of years ago I was in a meeting where a Christian psychiatrist was asked to share about how to assist those who live with various mental issues. Although the content was very interesting, what he shared about himself personally was the most impacting on my life. He mentioned that he consistently memorized entire chapters of scripture for his own mental health – he had my attention. He talked about research on the brain and how what we decide to allow in over time creates what he referred to as roads. The more we allow certain content in, the wider this road becomes, at times becoming a multi-lane highway, allowing this information to flow freely.  It was his intent to create highways of scripture in his mind, and the only way for this to happen was for him to memorize scripture, entire chapters.

From my reading of history, it is my understanding that by the age of 8 years old, Jewish children had memorized the first 5 books of the bible. Some then went on to memorize the rest of what we refer to as the OT by the age of 13. As such, Jesus and his disciples would have had our entire OT memorized! And apparently, this still goes on today in some Jewish Synagogues.

For those that know me well, you just knew that the aspect of scripture memory was going to be written about. However, if there is one thing that I get the most push-back from in the discipleship process, it is the aspect of memorizing scripture: “I can’t memorize,” “it’s too difficult,” “I’ll just read it over many times and I’ll get the point.” No, no, and no.

Let’s reiterate once again, discipleship is not easy. Discipleship is not a side-hobby. To be a disciple is to make it your life. This is not something we play with when convenient, it is who we are.

And I can think of no better way for our standard learning textbook, the bible, to make a lasting impact on our lives than to memorize it, and then to recite it over and over, allowing the words and the phrases to seep into every aspect of who we are, to guide our prayers, to influence our relationships and to help us make life decisions.

As one who leads others on the road of discipleship, it is my role to set the pace. And may I encourage you that the discipline of memorization, once engaged in for a period of time, will become so meaningful, so life-changing, that you may not even use the word “discipline” to describe it anymore, it will become a craving.

Of all the guys that I have spent time with in a discipling relationship over the years, the one aspect that keeps coming up as the most beneficial is the aspect of scripture memorization. They start the journey simply doing it because I ask them to, and along the journey they thank me for sticking with it.

You will need to develop your own convictions on this. You will also need to develop your own ways of encouraging those that you lead to engage in it.

But be very confident, memorization should not be seen as an optional “nice to have” aspect of the disciple, it is foundational. You will develop highways of learning in your mind that will influence your actions, the question is, which ones?