HIDING GOD’S WORD

“Your WORD I have HIDDEN in my heart, that I might not sin against You” – Psalm 119:11

One of the unique ways of cherishing God’s Word is HIDING His WORD in your heart – Memorising the Word: “Your WORD I have HIDDEN in my heart, that I might not sin against You” (Psa.119:11). We need to internalize the Word in order to lead a victorious Christian life. Memory verses act as reminders for us to keep praying and praising the Lord as we walk with Him on this side of eternity. Indeed, virtually all other disciplines of devotion in the Word harmonise when we memorise the Word: meditation, reading, hearing, listening, and studying. Memorisation reinforces scripture verses in your mind, “tattooing” them into your heart as you read, re-read, hear, listen, and mutter them under your breath countless times!

Memorising Scripture is a very ancient practice, which the Jews were extremely proficient at. Some Jewish rabbis could recite the entire Old Testament from memory! Divine endowment from the Lord makes memorisation possible. God has given us very powerful minds and extremely capable brains, which when superimposed upon by supernatural Grace, produce phenomenal results. Science confirms that when properly trained and effectively used, the human mind can store up to a hundred billion gigabytes of information and process a million billion operations a second. It is claimed that most of the time the average person is using about ten per cent of the brain capacity. Our minds are capable of performing much more than we think!

Memorising Scripture is not only of personal benefit to you in terms of spiritual edification and mental stimulation, it enhances your ability to minister to and pray for others scripturally. It is important that you consciously internalize God’s Word so that when you face any attacks from Satan, the Sword of the Spirit will always be ready for use at your side. Start honing the skill of hiding God’s Word in your heart right now! Begin with few familiar scriptures before moving on to newer verses. Develop the personal habit of hiding God’s Word in your heart, until Scripture memorisation becomes a part of you. Although individual believers will have a different method of memorising scriptures, it is the discipline to do so that matters more. But there are a few useful tips.

First, set a goal to memorise one verse of the wonderful words of life each day – like your daily meal. You’ll soon graduate to three verses: breakfast, lunch, and dinner! But it doesn’t have to be a mechanical routine. Rather, you should handle Scriptures like your meal: “I will delight myself in Your statutes; I will not forget Your word” (Psa.119:16). To memorise the Word is to deliberately meditate on Scripture verses, write them down and recite them several times until they register in your mind and become inscribed indelibly in your heart. It is helpful to pre-select a range of simple and beautiful verses applicable to various life circumstances. Just like you chew on portions of a meal, break the verse down into smaller bits in order to assimilate; and meditate upon it, as you try to comprehend it better. Recite it as frequently as time permits including some pockets of spare time in the course of the day.

Where applicable, use memory aids such as mnemonic and imagery. In our days, technology comes in really handy. You can now carry the Word around. You only need to open the Bible app on your phone, search out the particular verse of interest, take a screenshot of it and keep reading and muttering it over and over again from the screenshot. This will help your brain block out all other words and prevent distraction. Although visual aids may help you to remember the verses better, the keys to effectively memorising the Word is to seek God’s Grace and Help, have discipline and to persevere. It can only get easier with practice, and will definitely be a worthwhile exercise. Beloved, it’s time to take God’s Word more seriously and actively memorise it. Memorising the Word takes patience, but it can be done. You can successfully hide God’s Word in your heart and profit by it!