TREASURING GOD’S WORD

“I have not departed from the commandment of His lips; I have TREASURED THE WORDS of His mouth more than my necessary food” – Job 23:12

Let’s dig deeper into the WHY of Memorising or TREASURING God’s WORD in our hearts: “…I have TREASURED THE WORDS of His mouth more than my necessary food” (Job 23:12b). Treasures are precious metals, gems, jewels, or other valuable objects. To treasure a valuable is to keep it carefully in a hidden or safe place. God wants us to treasure His words by keeping them in our hearts as very precious gems, so that we’ll never wander away or depart from His commandment, His Will, and His Way. Storing the Word is an indication of our Value for the Word. We value the Word and therefore we have it stored in our hearts. In a sense, we are to memorise Scripture the way an ant gathers food in summer, because it is so valuable and will be needed in the winter months: “Provides her supplies in the summer, and gathers her food in the harvest” (Pro.6:8).

Here are few of the many benefits of memorising Scripture:

Memorisation makes your gaze on Jesus clearer, sharper, and steadier; your spiritual transformation real; and your conformity to Christ complete (2Cor.3:18).

Memorisation helps you to slay sin’s temptation with the superior worth and beauty of Christ, and put Satan to flight (Psa.119:9,11; Mt.4:1-11; Eph.6:17).

Memorisation enables you to comfort and counsel the people you love with God’s Word spoken spontaneously from your heart (Pro.25:11). When the heart full of God’s love can draw on the mind full of God’s Word, timely blessings flow from the mouth.

Memorisation empowers you to communicate the Gospel to unbelievers, even if you do not have the Bible in hand. You must be ready in season and out of season to share God’s Word.

Memorisation enhances communion with God and the enjoyment of His Person and Ways (Psa.103:1).

Of all the disciplines of the spiritual life, Bible memorisation is absolutely essential to spiritual transformation, being a fundamental means of filling our minds with what it needs. Memorisation is how you ensure that the book of the law doesn’t depart out of your mouth (Jos.1:8). Memorising Scriptures can be highly rewarding: your mind will become alive and alert; your prayer life will be strengthened; your witnessing will be sharper and much more effective; your attitudes and outlook will change for the best; your confidence and assurance will be enhanced; and your faith will be solidified.

God designed Faith to feed on the promises of Scripture all day long. Faith depends for its strength on steady access to precious Scriptural truth: “For it is a pleasant thing if you keep them within you; let them all be fixed upon your lips” (Pro.22:18). Faith rises or falls to the degree that it feeds regularly on the treasure of God’s truth stored in the heart. Memorising Scripture is not a discipline for its own sake. It is because the Scriptures are a treasure that must be kept ahead of the time of need. Memorisation and meditation in Scripture have transformed inner and outer lives of many believers. The Lord Jesus memorised Scripture verbatim. When He fasted in the wilderness, there were no library or books, and with every temptation of the devil He quoted a passage of Scripture to defeat the devil (Mt.4:4,7,10).

Think of this and be motivated: If you were offered £1,000 for every verse you memorised in the next week, how many could you memorise? Yet, God says of His Word: “More to be desired are they than gold, Yea, than much fine gold; Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.  Moreover by them Your servant is warned, and in keeping them there is great reward” (Psa.19:10-11). The real value of a verse is far greater than £1,000! When Dawson Trotman, the founder of the Navigators became a Christian in 1926, he formed the holy habit of memorising a verse a day while driving a truck for a lumberyard in Los Angeles. During the first three years of his Christian life, he memorised his first thousand verses! You can do likewise and even better!