Imagine with me: You are an unhappy young person, low-key depressed. You think you are happy, maybe, at least while scrolling on your phone. But all you get on social media is ads and sales pitches from influencers and pointless videos of car crashes, street fighting, two kids dancing, concert clips, comedy clips, storytellers going on about true crime or the latest scandal. You almost never find anything real, anything worth holding onto. Nothing makes you stop scrolling and think deeply. In fact, the whole point of social media seems to be to keep you from thinking.
But one day you happen upon someone you know and trust. You listen and realize what you have just heard is unusual, a gold nugget of truth.
So what do you do?
Most of us shrug and think that’s nice. Then we forget about it. We do this at church, don’t we? We hear something amazing, some incredible, life-changing truth from God’s word, and we think that’s nice. I like that. And then we forget about it.
Do you do that? Do you hear a powerful word of truth and react to it like it was a good movie? Oh. Well, isn’t that entertaining? What a nice, inspirational message. Now I feel warm inside and things make sense again.
Do you hear incredible, Biblical truth, then react as though it were just another greeting card? Do you shrug and think, Well, that’s a nice sentiment?
DON’T DO THAT!
When you find a gold nugget, grab it, put it in your pocket, and take it with you! If you find buried treasure, you hang onto it. If you find a winning lottery ticket, you grab it, you hold on to it, you cherish it. And if you find words that spell out a truth that will change everything, you grab those words. You memorize them! You get them into your own head.
Here are three examples.
- Ben struggles with laziness. But one day he hears Proverbs 6:6-8 “Go to the ant, oh sluggard. Observe her ways and be wise, who having no guide, overseer, or ruler, prepares her food in the summer and is not idle in the winter.” Maybe Ben has heard the verse many times and shrugged, oh well, that’s nice. But today is different. Today he is thinking about what a lazy, unmotivated person he has always been and he finally wants to change. Suddenly he hears this verse and realizes it is exactly what he needs. That verse is for me! He thinks. And he writes it down and begins memorizing it. His life will never be the same.
- Then there’s Chase, a young man with the stereotypical “raging hormones.” He struggles with lust and is disgusted with himself. He assumes God will not bless him with a great wife until he gets his act together. But he thinks there is no hope. He never seems to be able to say no to temptation. But then he hears 1 Corinthians 10:13 “For there is no temptation which has overtaken you, but such as is common to man, and God is faithful, WHO WILL NOT ALLOW YOU TO BE TEMPTED BEYOND WHAT YOU ARE ABLE TO BEAR, but with the temptation, will provide a way of escape so that you may be able to endure it.” Suddenly Chase realizes this verse is an answer to his prayer. It is hard to believe—does God truly promise never to allow temptation to be more than I can resist?—Chase knows the first step to beating temptation is to think God’s thoughts on the subject. So he writes the verse down and begins memorizing it.
- Finally, Hannah is a young lady who is a little self-conscious. She thinks all her friends are skinny and cute, with trendy clothes and perfect hair. Hannah doesn’t believe she could ever be like them. She doesn’t have the looks for it, her hair has a mind of its own, and she has always been heavier. Her friends are nice to her, but Hannah still feels insecure and it robs her of confidence. Then one Sunday Hannah listens to a sermon about godly women based on Proverbs 31. Throughout the entire sermon, Hannah thinks it applies to her friends, but not to her. She could never be a “Proverbs 31 Woman.” But then the pastor reads verse thirty: “Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain. But a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised” Proverbs 31:30. Hannah thinks That’s me! I can do that. I will never be as charming and beautiful as those other girls, but I can fear the Lord! I can definitely love Jesus! Hannah is excited and writes the verse down and memorizes it. Why? Because this verse is TREASURE. It is a gold nugget that will change her life![1]
Can a Bible verse really change your life? YES! Here’s how it works. Right now your mind is filled with your own thoughts on every subject. Some you learned from parents, others from school, still others from peers, and finally, there are thoughts you made up, conclusions you drew for yourself. Are any of those sources as good as learning your thoughts from God? No. God is the ultimate source of truth—and he has given us his word, which contains more truth than any of us could master in a lifetime. But you have to get your thoughts—your wrong thoughts—out of your mind and replace them with God’s right thoughts. How do you do that? By memorizing God’s word.
Just write the Bible verse down. Use a Post-it note. Or an index card. Or the back of an envelope. (These are the three I use most often.) Write down the verse and put it in your car or on your desk or somewhere that you will see it often so you can begin memorizing it. Read it out loud over and over until you can say it without looking. It’s simple.
But the time you spend memorizing the verse will give you time to reflect on it and what it means and how it applies in different ways to different areas of your life. By the time you have memorized the verse, it has gained a powerful foothold in your mind, replacing your wrong thoughts with God’s right thoughts.
Do this several times, with several verses, and your life will really begin to change. Do this dozens of times or a hundred times, and people will not even recognize you anymore. You may no longer recognize yourself—your life will be radically different than it was before. I have experienced this myself.
Memorizing scripture COMPLETELY transformed my life.
Let me say it another way. Becoming a Christian did not radically change my life, at least not on the outside. My young life was ruled by bad habits. But memorizing Bible verses did radically change my life. I owe everything to memorizing scripture—and I have not memorized anywhere near the amount that some people do.
Have you seen a prospector panning for gold? The men used to stand in the middle of California’s streams and rivers, sifting through the shiny pebbles, desperately hoping to find that one nugget that would set them up for life. And if they found a big one, you can bet they did not shrug and mumble to themselves, Well, isn’t that nice. They screamed and whooped and hollered “Eureka!” and threw a party for all their friends. Those men knew how to treasure things of great value. But most Christians hear words of extraordinary value and fail to appreciate them.
I like the way Jeremiah puts it:
“Thy words were found and I did eat them, and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart, for I am called by thy name, O Lord, God of hosts” Jeremiah 15:16.
Thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart!
Dear God, teach us to love your word! Make it the joy and rejoicing of our hearts. Show us how to react to your word, and never let us miss those gold nuggets, those powerful truths and promises that address exactly our need at the moment. May our lives be changed by memorizing your amazing word.
AΩ
[1] Speaking of outer beauty, I also love 1 Samuel 16:7: “But the LORD said to Samuel, ‘Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God does not see as man sees; man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.’”
Household Words: 