Hiding God’s Word in Your Heart

Glenna Marshall: Well, good afternoon. I’m so encouraged to see so many women in this room because when this session is about memorizing Scripture, you really don’t expect to see so many show up. (laughter) I’m shocked, to be perfectly honest. I’m really encouraged, though.

Yesterday, before I got on the road to drive up here, my husband sat down to pray with me, and the thing that he prayed just choked me up. He said, “Lord, I pray that the women who attend this session, that when they leave, that Scripture will be like honey on their lips. That it will be so sweet to them, that they see the worthwhile pursuit of storing it up in their hearts.”

And that is my prayer for you as well. I’ve prayed for you all. And I’m just, again, so encouraged that you’re here to talk about memorizing Scripture. I feel like memorizing Scripture is a spiritual discipline that has sort of fallen on hard times. I kind of refer to it as the long-lost spiritual discipline.

And so, today, what I want you to leave with. . .I want you to leave with two things:

I want you to leave feeling inspired to memorize Scripture.

And I want you to leave feeling equipped to memorize Scripture.

So the way I’m going to structure this session, I really want to give you sort of some whys behind why memorizing Scripture. I want you to have some reasons. “What is the why behind this?”

And then I want to shift and give you some hows, because I have a feeling that a lot of you are pretty convinced that you should memorize Scripture, and you just want to know how. You want to know if there’s a secret that I’m going to give you that’s going to help you leave with the how that you want.

But before we get to the how, we’re going to get to the why. And I just want to give you a little background about myself about why I’m even up here talking about memorizing Scripture.

So, I grew up in West Tennessee. I’m sure you can hear it. I live in Missouri with my husband where he’s a pastor, and we’ve lived there for almost twenty years. But I grew up in West Tennessee, and in the South—and maybe it’s not just limited to the South—but there was a program in the Baptist church of my childhood in the late eighties, early nineties. And we called it “Bible drill.” Now, it’s West Tennessee, so we called it “Bable drill” (spoken with a drawl—laughter)

Now, you may know it as “Sword drill,” depending on where you’re from. And so if you’re not familiar with this phenomenon, let me break it down for you. You take the children of the church, like ages six to twelve. You teach them a handful of Scripture verses to memorize, and you teach them the books of the Bible in order.

Then, you get them a team t-shirt, and you go to another church, and you make them compete. (laughter) And the way the competition works is: They stand up there. They recite the verses. And whoever can recite it the best, the most, I guess, perfectly, word for word, without getting hung up, if they can find the book of the Bible the fastest, they win points.

And they compete with other churches. If you were like me, you were a little Pharisee with pigtails and saddle shoes. This was your dream because this was your moment to look better than everybody in the whole world because I had a good memory as a small child, as they often do. They’re sponges. And this was my time to shine. I could recite anything.

Those years in Bible drill, I’m sorry to say, were my last foray into Scripture memorization until my late thirties. I memorized probably, I don’t know, twenty-five to fifty verses as a child, and then I never came back to it again.

When I was in my mid-to-late thirties, parenting young kids, I noticed a besetting sin in my life that the Lord kept bringing to my attention over and over again, and it was the sin of anger.

I felt like I would simmer, simmer, simmer, simmer, and then just boil over—at my kids, my husband, usually just the people I loved the most. Why is that? (laughter) And I would come to the Lord in the morning. I was a faithful Bible studier, a faithful pray-er. I loved to pray. I loved to study. I loved to teach the Bible.

And yet I would come to the Lord morning after morning and confess the sin of anger again and again and again and again. And sometimes I would just say, “Glenna, do you even know God? Have you ever even actually met Jesus? Because if you had, you would not still struggle with this ongoing sin in your life over and over and over again.”

One day I was praying about my anger, yet again, and just asking the Lord, “What is it that I am missing here because I cannot seem to have any victory over this area of sin?”

And in His kindness, He brought to mind a verse that I memorized as a small child in Bible drill. It was Psalm 119:11. “I have stored up Your word in my heart that I might not sin against You.” Now, as a six-year old, it would have been KJV 100%. (laughter)

I thought about that verse. I wrote it down in my journal. Prayed about it. And thought, Is this what I am missing? In order to not sin against the Lord, I should store up His Word, hide it in my heart. So what does that look like?

So I began to experiment. I started, as many of us do, by googling—not by memorizing, but by googling. Write that down. (laughter) So, I googled, and I stumbled across encouragement to memorize long passages of Scripture.

One of the things I stumbled across was a podcast that Nancy Wolgemuth had given with Revive Our Hearts where she was interviewing someone on Scripture memorization, and Nancy talked about memorizing the entire book of Revelation. And I thought, No way! (laughter) No way is that humanly possible. Nobody can do that.

But Nancy’s not lying. She’s not a liar. So I believed her and took that as encouragement—a little intimidating—but I decided, “Okay, what do I have to lose? I’m going to start small.”

So, I started with a psalm. I think it was Psalm 46. And then I moved to another psalm.

And then I moved to the book of James. And I spent an entire year memorizing the book of James.

And then I moved to the book of Colossians, and it took me eighteen months to memorize Colossians.

And more recently I have moved to the book of 1 Peter, which is where I am currently memorizing.

And I have to tell you, after several years now of memorizing Scripture, that I am sold on this discipline for life. Because nothing has armed me to fight my sin like thinking about God’s Word.

I don’t even know if I can explain it properly, but there is something that happens when you fix your mind on this inerrant, true, good, forever eternal Word of God. The Bible is not like any other book. It is God’s Word. It is inspired by Him. It is “breathed out,” to use Paul’s language in 2 Timothy. It is God’s Word.

And something happens to our hearts when we think about the words of our Lord. God’s Word is His chosen means of revelation of Himself. So we can’t know God or think about God apart from the way He has given us to know Him, which is His Word.

With time, thinking about the Word of God all day, rehearsing it to myself over and over as I buried the truths of Scripture in my brain, it changed me. I have noticed major areas of victory in the sin of anger in my life. Something that I truly thought was not possible.

Now, I do still struggle with anger. It is something that the Lord is going to sanctify out of me until the day I see Him face to face. One day—Heaven rules. Heaven rules over anger, and I will be free completely. But in the years that I have spent hiding God’s Word in my heart, I have seen Him reshape my heart and change the way that I think.

With Scripture memorization and the help of the Holy Spirit, I’ve seen the Lord renew my mind, help me find victory over sin (like anger), deepen my affection for the Lord, dilute my love to the things of this world, and know how to encourage others.

Thinking about the Word of God changes you. It’s a means of sanctification—memorizing Scripture is.

So I want you to walk away from this session with some tips for memorization for sure—I’ll give those in just a little bit—but I want to sort of dive into the why behind it. So let’s start with some biblical exhortations.

Now, if you are looking for a command, like, “Thou shalt memorize Scripture,” you will not find it. (laughter) I have looked. It is not there. However, you will, throughout the whole Bible, see exhortations to meditate on God’s Word. You will see precedents of the people of God, patterns of the people of God memorizing and thinking about God’s Word throughout Scripture.

Even the way that some of the Bible is structured is done in such a way as to encourage memorization. And so, while you won’t find an explicit command that maybe you want, there are plenty of exhortations or strong encouragements in Scripture that someone who loves the Lord will also honor His Word and give it a place of primary position in their life.

It is through God’s Word that we know how to live as His people. The only way we know how to follow Jesus is through God’s Word that He has given us that tells us how to do so.

If you go back to the Old Testament, to the book of Deuteronomy 11 (you can turn there if you want to, or you can just listen. I’m not going to be there long), when God is giving the Law to Israel.

So He has rescued Israel out of 400 years of slavery in Egypt. These are His people. He has called them unto Himself. They’re going to be His people. He’s going to be their God. He’s keeping promises that He made to Abraham back in Genesis.

He has redeemed them from slavery. So, now they’re out of slavery. He’s going to take them to a land that He has promised to give them. It’s His land. He’s going to give it to them. They don’t know how to live as His people. They were former slaves to a pagan idolatrous nation. So what do they know of God? What do they know of how to worship Him? What do they know of belonging to Him?

So God gives them His Law to remind them of who He is and of who they are. He says many times, “I am your God, and you will be My people. And I will dwell among you.” Beautiful, beautiful statements about God and who He is to His people throughout the first five books of the Old Testament. Then He tells them that He is giving them His Law so that they will remember who He is and what He has done, and He gives them some really specific instructions.

So if you look at Deuteronomy 11, verse 18, He says this . . . this is God speaking to Israel through Moses.

You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house and when you’re walking by the way and when you lie down and when you rise. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates so that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers to give them as long as the heavens are above the earth. (vv. 18–21)

I love this passage so much. There’s so much to visualize here.

So what God is saying is He knew that these people would forget. They would forget His miraculous signs that He did to bring them out of slavery. They would forget the pillar of cloud and the smoke that guided them as they left Egypt. They would forget those things, and they would run over and over and over toward the idols of the pagan nations around them. They were forgetful people.

The first shiny thing that they see, they’re just running right after it. And I feel that temptation. Don’t you? I’m so distracted. I give my worship so freely to anything that entertains me or temporarily satisfies me. I mean, we are not that different from Israel.

So God knows that they are forgetful. He tells them, “I want you to lay up My words in your heart. I want you to store them there and in your soul. And you shall put them on your person.”

And then He says, “You shall teach them to your children—talking of them at home, talking of them when you’re out walking by the way, when you’re getting up in the morning, when you’re going to bed. Keeping God’s Word ever before their faces, ever in their mouths, before their eyes and in their mouths, and in their hearts.”

Now, Israel took this very, very literally, and they developed these things called phylacteries and mezuzahs. And basically these were little—I really don’t even know what to call them—compartments? Devices? Something small. And they would put the Shema from Deuteronomy 6 printed out. And the mezuzah, they would put on the doorposts of their house, and the phylacteries, they would wear on their person to remind them to have God’s Word ever with them.

Now, we do not have to do that. I am not encouraging you to put the Bible on you. I mean, you’re welcome to get a tattoo. I mean, if that’s your thing. But this is not . . . we don’t have to obey the command in that way. I think the principle here is to keep God’s Word ever before us—before our eyes and in our mouths and in our hearts—so that we don’t forget who He is, how He has loved us in sending Jesus to save us from our sins, and who we are now in Christ to follow Him in freedom and in obedience and in love.

Do you sometimes feel—if you are a regular Bible studier, maybe like a morning Bible-study person. That’s me. I love all the morning people. Or maybe you’re an evening person. Those are okay, too. I go to bed at nine, so I don’t get you. (laughter)

But do you ever feel like you spend your time in the Word, and you have this great time of study and prayer, and you close your Bible, and it’s like you’ve closed the door on Jesus for the rest of the day? And you feel so distant from Him because you’re busy. You’re working or you’re parenting or all of the things that you have on your schedule, and you might not even think of Him again until the next morning when you get out your Bible. Does anyone feel like that?

I have found that Scripture memorization is a way to keep me tethered to Jesus throughout the day, to keep coming back to the Word over and over and over again. Scripture memorization bridges the gap between your Bible study and your Bible living.

We heard Joni talk last night about living on the biblical principles. Not just memorizing Scripture just to have it, but to actually apply them and live them. I think that meditating on Scripture all day long at different points throughout the day—I’ll get to that in a minute—that practice keeps you tethered to the Lord. Keeps you praying without ceasing. Keeps your mind coming back to the gospel over and over. And you’ll see how the gospel applies to your day throughout your entire day when you are meditating on Scripture.

I think that Scripture meditation is a great way to follow the principle of keeping God’s Word before your eyes and in your mouth and in your heart. It keeps you tethered to Christ all day long.

Another passage to consider: Psalm 1. This was a psalm I memorized with a friend a couple of years ago. We actually memorized this together when our church was closed for a little while during the pandemic. And we would FaceTime each other and rehearse it to each other.

And then one Sunday our pastors were preaching, and one of them wanted to read that psalm and asked us to share the screen and recite it. The fear in my heart. (laughter) It actually wasn’t the recitation that was satisfying to me. It was the work of memorizing with my friend that was so encouraging.

But I love this psalm because it really sets the stage for all of the psalms. And it gives us a great picture of what biblical meditation, what Scripture memorization, does and can look like.

So, Psalm 1 starts off, “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers. His delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.”

So you have this man who’s called “blessed” or “happy,” depending on your translation, and he avoids sin—walking, standing, or sitting in sin. And you can see the progression of sin there. He’s walking with it. He’s standing in it. And he sits, and he’s camped out in it. Sin will always take you further than you want to go.

So the way he avoids sin is by delighting on God’s Law.

And in the psalms, you’ll see the word “Law” used many times. It’s referring to God’s Word. The people of the Old Testament would have been referring to the Torah—Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. We are so privileged to have the entire Bible. So when we hear “Law,” we can apply all of Scripture in a passage like this.

So “his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on the law he meditates day and night.” Now, this word “meditates,” in the Hebrew—I am not a Hebrew scholar. My husband is. I am not. So I check my Hebrew with him. But the Hebrew for this literally transliterates into—meditate—is to “mumble aloud to oneself.” That’s what it means. “Mumble aloud to oneself.”

So when I say the word “meditation” in this session, I am certainly not referring to worldly meditation. It’s important that you understand the distinction between biblical meditation and what I would call the Eastern religion, mysticism forms of meditation, where the goal is to empty your mind and achieve some kind of peace.

There is never going to be any peace in here if it is empty. It’s like a black hole. I do not need a black hole of chaos in my mind. (laughter) That is the last thing I need.

When we’re talking about biblical meditation, we are talking about filling up to the very brim with God’s Word. Biblical meditation is mumbling God’s Word aloud to yourself. It’s just as simple as that.

So when you have this word “meditation” like this in the psalms, I want you to always think, “mumble aloud, mumble aloud.” I’m going to come back to that.

What this man does in Psalm 1, he avoids sin by delighting in God’s Law, mumbling it aloud to himself morning and night. This is a man who is prizing God’s Word.

And the psalm goes on to talk about how, it compares him to a tree that is planted by a stream. And in whatever season it is, whether it’s fall, spring, summer, winter, whatever season, he is flourishing and bearing fruit because he is perpetually fed and nourished by the stream of water. The tree is rooted in the stream.

And I think the picture we are to take from this, the metaphor, is: Look, if you are rooted in God’s Word, delighting in it, mumbling it aloud day and night, you will flourish and bear fruit of faithfulness in every season. No matter the circumstances in your life, God can cultivate fruitfulness and faithfulness when you are rooted in God’s Word, meditating on it day and night.

The act of mumbling God’s Word aloud helps you to avoid sin because you are delighting in God’s Word and not your sin. The more closely you live to God’s Word, the farther you will live from your sin. And I can tell you that from experience. The more closely you live to God’s Word, the farther you will live from your sin. I can only explain that as the powerful work of the Holy Spirit. He is pleased to sanctify me through His Word. What a gift that is.

Another psalm to quickly look at (and I’m not going to read this whole psalm). I just want to draw your attention to Psalm 119. You don’t have to turn there. It is a very long psalm.

What’s interesting about this psalm, this psalm doesn’t come across in the English so much to us, but you’ll notice the sub-sections with the little Hebrew words. So it was written in an acrostic form in order to encourage memorization. And what Psalm 119 is is a celebration of God’s Word. It’s a beautiful celebration of God’s Word.

I would encourage you—if, when you leave this session, you’re thinking, Well, I want to start somewhere, memorizing something—consider starting with Psalm 119, or at least a section of Psalm 119.

You’ll see several words used interchangeably: precept, Law, testament, testimony, command, statutes. All of those words are used interchangeably to refer to God’s Word. The psalmist in Psalm 119 just celebrates God’s Word over and over and over, and talks about how God’s Word gives him joy, sustains him in suffering, keeps him far from sin, encourages him, counsels him, gives him wisdom, helps him to know how to encourage others. It’s a really beautiful psalm as a celebration of God’s Word.

And so, when you read it, you will be encouraged. It is of value for me to meditate on God’s Word. So, I would encourage you to go there at some point.

A New Testament passage, Colossians 3:16, where Paul is writing to the Colossian church, and he says to them: “Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom. . .” and he goes on, “in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.”

“Let the Word of Christ live in you richly.” Not just a little, but lavishly. “Let His Word lavishly take up residence in your heart.” I love that picture that Paul gives us.

Now, the Colossian church, New Testament church—first century, so at that point, the Scripture, what we would call the “closed canon of Scripture,” was not closed at that point. The Scriptures were still emerging and being written. Colossians itself—New Testament epistle, written by Paul—they would have received it.

And at the same time, their access to the written Word would have been very, very limited. The availability of tools, like papyrus and ink and all of the things that they would have used back then, would not have been something that they would have had access to like we have paper and ink and pen. It’s just not the same.

So how would the Colossians have let God’s Word live in them richly? They would have had to memorize. They would have had to gather together as a Body of Christ to hear the proclamation of God’s Word. And they would have hidden it in their hearts together to take it home because there was no Bible for them to take home.

There was no Bible app to take home and scroll through or listen to. They didn’t have that. So in order for God’s Word to dwell in them, they had to put it there and hide it in their hearts.

And one more passage: Jesus Himself, gives us a beautiful picture of how Scripture memorization can aid you in Matthew 4. This is the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness. I love this story because Jesus has been fasting for forty days and forty nights, and He was God, but He was also man. He would have been quite hungry by that point.

And so Satan comes along, and he is trying to poke Jesus where he thinks Jesus is weak. So he tempts Him to turn stones into bread because he knows Jesus is hungry.

And he also tempts Jesus to throw Himself off a building. Basically what Satan is doing is tempting Jesus to satisfy His desires or needs immediately.

He’s tempting Him to give Satan primary influence in His life rather than the Father. And he’s tempting Him to bypass the path to the cross.

And Jesus responded with the Word. Interestingly, so did Satan. But what Satan does is twist Scripture out of context. What Jesus does is rightly divide the Word.

And that should be an encouragement to us when we are memorizing Scripture, to make sure that we are looking at overall context. Because we like to go through and pick out—if we’re going to memorize, which is a hard enough decision in the first place—we pick out our favorite verses. Right?

But sometimes we pick out verses, and we use them in a way that’s not really helpful. We miss the overall historical context. We claim, perhaps, a promise that was meant for a specific person at a specific point in redemptive history. And we claim it as our own, and then we get mad at God when He doesn’t do what He never actually promised to do. It’s interesting. Context is really, really important. There are many beautiful promises in Scripture that are ours to claim, that are for us.

But it is important when we are memorizing that we both understand the background of where we’re trying to memorize—who’s speaking, who’s being spoken to, what kind of genre. Is it poetry? Is it a narrative? Is it a letter? It’s helpful to keep those things in mind.

And this is why—I know this is scary—but I’m going to encourage you to memorize long passages. Either a whole chapter, or—gird yourself—a book. And I’m telling you, you can do it. You may be thinking, I’m not a mind reader, but I know someone in here is thinking, But you don’t know me. I have a terrible memory. It’s really bad.

Last fall I stood in line at the pharmacy, and the pharmacist asked me for my phone number to verify my prescription. And I blinked at her for ten seconds. I could not remember my phone number! (laughter) But I was memorizing Colossians. (laughter) So, I had a tiny panic attack in the line, and then my phone number came to me.

But, if you feel like, “Okay, I love the idea of memorizing Scripture, but I just don’t have a good memory,” I just want to tell you right now (I’m going to free you from that excuse): God designed your brain to remember things. He also designed your brain to forget things, which is actually a relief because if you remembered every sight, sound, number, annoying commercial jingle, you would lose it.

It is actually God’s grace that we have something called a “hippocampus,” which is what we call a working memory, a short-term memory. It is designed to hold onto information for, like, ten to fifteen seconds. If you create neural pathways to the brain, to move that information to your long-term memory, then it’s there. The more pathways you give and experience the easier it is to retrieve. And that is why mumbling aloud to yourself is a great way.

Do you ever need to type in a pass code, and it’s like 5416, 5416, 5416, 5416, 5416 (laughter), and you say it until you type it in there? And it’s like, “Ah!” (laughter) So what you’re doing is using your hippocampus to its maximum degree, and you are moving that information, and now you’re going to remember 5416 forever because you said it twenty-five times.

Rehearsing and reciting is one of your brain’s ways of remembering things and forming memories. I’m going to come back to that more practical, but I do just want to free you from the excuse that you can’t memorize, because you can. God has designed our brains in an amazing way, and I just want to tell you your memory is a beautiful thing.

And I believe that the Lord is pleased to help you memorize because, if you are a believer, then the Holy Spirit lives in you. And God’s Word does not return void. It is no empty Word. It is your very life. With the Lord’s help, and with some practical tools, I do believe that you can hide God’s Word effectively in your heart.

One last passage—I just got done studying this passage a couple weeks ago. I have a Bible study group that meets every week. We just got done with the book of Romans. We camped out in Romans 12 for a little while, and this passage just kept coming to me over and over again where Paul says to the Roman believers:

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

So then Paul goes on in that chapter to give a very practical list of commands, ways to interact in the Church:

• Let your love be genuine.
• Show hospitality.
• Have family affection for one another. 
• Do not seek vengeance.
• Be forgiving.

. . . this long list telling believers how to live. But before he says all that, he says, “Don’t be conformed to the world, but be transformed by renewing your mind.”

Renewing means “to influence or change the way that you think.” If you were dead in yours sins, and then Jesus saved you, you’re a new creation in Christ. So essentially your call here is, “Don’t be who you used to be. Be who you are now.”

My husband and I talk about this a lot. He’s a pastor. So when we talk about Paul’s letters, Paul always does this. He’s like: “This is who you used to be. This is who you are now.” Essentially what he’s saying is, “Be who you be.” And that’s how we sum up Paul’s letters. “Who you were. Who you are. Be who you be.”

This is who you are in Christ. You’re a new creation. So your mind does not need to be transformed into who you used to be. Your mind needs to be transformed into who you actually are now in Christ. So you have to take into consideration what you are putting into your mind.

The world is trying to renew your mind to something. You are being influenced by something. What is it? Is it a nightly Netflix binge? Is it a social media scroll? Is it an Instagram influencer? Is it TV? Is it news? Is it Facebook politics? (Please say “No.” Laughter.) Is it a murder podcast?

What are you constantly feeding your mind? Because something is influencing you. You’re renewing your mind to something. And Jesus said in Matthew, that, “Out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks” (Matt. 12:34). So what is in here will come out. What are you putting in?

So my call here, and I think what Paul is telling us to do is be transformed by renewing your mind to God’s Word. You are not who you used to be. You belong to Him. He wants your mind. That’s what it boils down to. Heart. Soul. Mind. Strength. 

Not because He is persnickety and wants you to be unhappy. But because He knows that your heart will be restless until it rests in Him, that you will not be satisfied by whatever offering this world has. You will only be satisfied when you are wholly devoted to Him, heart, soul, mind, strength.

When you fix your mind on the Word of God, then what is in comes out. And it changes how you think. Mind renewal in some ways, I feel like, is mind rewiring.

• You begin to think like Jesus.
• You begin to speak like Jesus.
• You begin to respond to stress like Jesus.
• You respond to suffering like Jesus.
• You respond to temptation like Jesus.

Living closely to God’s Word renews your mind and changes the way that you think.

The Lord wants your mind. He wants the primary place of influence in your life. As God, He deserves it. And as His people, we need it. We need the Lord to be the primary voice speaking into our lives.

In the process of Scripture memorization, I think you will find, that as you mumble God’s Word aloud to yourself, as you grow in meditating on His Word, you will find your love for this world greatly diluted.

That’s been one of the more surprising effects of Scripture memorization that I have noticed. The things that used to make me laugh, embarrass me a little. The shows I used to watch make me cringe—and not because I’m getting older and I’m becoming a prude. It’s just that the things that used to entertain me embarrass me now.

When you fix your mind on God’s pure, holy Word, then you see sin for what it is. It’s not funny anymore.

You will find that, as your love for the things of this earth are diluted, you will feel less at home here. You will find that your heart longs for eternity because, as we’re learning this weekend, this isn’t your home. Your home is yet to come. Heaven with God is your home forever. And heaven is where your heart is.

The Lord is building a city for you. He is the Architect and the Builder, and He is making a home for you. Until then, we need to fix our hearts on His Word so that we will be carried and sustained until we see Him in our new home forever.

Saturating our minds with Scripture helps us to find our true allegiance to Christ, not to this world. And I’ve got to tell you, when you begin to feel out of step with this culture, be thankful because that is a good, good thing. If you feel very settled and very at home, I want to encourage you to memorize Scripture because you need to be shaken up a little.

I did not realize that I needed to be unsettled on this earth, that I was too comfortable with my entertainment and my comfort and my luxury. Memorizing Scripture has taught my heart to long for my true home. The more I think on God’s Word, the less I love what this world calls good, and I love what God calls good. There is a big difference.

I could go on. There are so many more benefits to memorizing Scripture. It gives you the words you need to encourage people when they’re hurting. It helps you to share the gospel, to have the words in your heart to speak in a gospel conversation. It will help you bear up under suffering. (That’s a whole other session I could teach.)

But for the sake of time, I want to shift now to some hows in our last few minutes together because I know that’s what some of you are really here for.

Now, some of you might think, “I do not have time to add another spiritual discipline to my life. I’m doing good to read a little bit of Scripture each day.”

I am not going to tell you that you need to find more time in your day. Nancy did not have thirty hours of her day when she was memorizing Revelation. She still had twenty-four hours just like everyone else. I still only have twenty-four hours a day to memorize some books of the Bible.

What I do want to encourage you to do is to redeem the time that you already have. I want you to utilize what I like to call “mental down times.” These are times during your day when your brain does not have to be engaged.

I mean, I’m folding laundry—twice a week there’s a laundry mountain on my bed. And, you know, it does not require my brain to be present. (laughter) Now, my husband would argue because he got a gray sock and a black sock matched up the other day. (laughter) I think he’d like my brain to be a little more engaged. (laughter)

But you don’t have to really give all your brain power to folding laundry or maybe commuting to work or taking a walk, you know, washing dishes, these times in your day where maybe your hands are active, but your mind isn’t.

Now, our temptation then is to turn on a show or a podcast or an audio book or the TV, just one of those things to fill the gap of time with our brains. Utilize a mental down time for memorizing Scripture because that’s time you have. You don’t have to find a new time. It’s already your time. We’re just going to use it for something else.

And, what that also does, if you pair Scripture memorization with a task, you are creating more neural pathways in your brain to retrieve memories.

Now, I am not a brain scientist. That’s not even the term. . .neuro-scientist? Neuro somebody. (Sounds of laughter.) Somebody smarter than me. So, I am not one of those people. However, I did a little research.

I just turned in a book on memorizing Scripture, and I did some brain research, some brain science (about the most I will nerd out about anything), and I was fascinated by the way that the brain can hold onto memories. Like, why you remember certain experiences better than others. The more sensory or senses that are involved in an experience, the more likely you are to remember those details.

So, if you are memorizing Scripture while doing something that you always do, you are more likely to have success in recalling those passages.

So, what does this like for me? I will give you an example:

I memorized the entire book of James in the shower—in the shower. And I’m going to tell you, this is my number one tip for Scripture memorization: Print off your text. Put it in a zip-lock bag upside down, with the seal on the bottom. (laughter) Tape that thing to the shower wall.

Now, here’s the thing: If you decide to memorize a whole book of the Bible, you do not have to wash that shower wall because it’s covered in Scripture. (laughter) It’s a win-win! (laughter) What could be better than not having to scrub the shower wall? (laughter)

All right. So, you’re going to memorize Scripture in the shower. Here’s what this looks like. I should say, to get started, choose a chapter or a book—don’t be scared. Choose a book you’ve recently studied. Like, if in the summer you studied 1 John, choose 1 John.

• Print out 1 John 1.
• Type it out, write it out.
• Put it in a zip-lock bag.
• Tape it to the shower.

You’re familiar with the flow of the book because you’ve studied it recently.

Or a Psalm that you’re familiar with.

Put it in the shower. And every time you get in the shower, you’re going to read the first phrase aloud ten times.

Let the commas and the punctuation—the semicolons, periods—let those be a guide for phrases. Okay? So, pick a phrase, and say it out loud ten times.

Then, while you’re rinsing the shampoo out of your hair, you’re going to close your eyes, and you’re going to recite that line ten times. You can always check to see.

Now, do it out loud because mumbling aloud is far more effective than saying it in your head. If you’re just saying it in your head, you’re going to get distracted. You’re going to make your grocery list. You’re going to have an argument with someone in your head. (laughter) It’s just what’s going to happen. So, mumble it aloud to yourself like Psalm 1 tells us.

And then the next day you get in the shower—hopefully you’re not skipping too many showers (laughter)—and you’re going to review that first phrase. If you need to look at it, fine.

• Look at it once.
• Say it out loud once.
• Review it—say it ten times aloud.
• Go to the next phrase.
• And you’re going to do the exact same thing:
• Read it out loud ten times.
• Close your eyes; mumble it out loud ten times.

And it may take you a week to get through two phrases. It may take you two weeks. There is no race. This is not a race. The blessing of memorization is the journey. And I know that sounds cliché to say. It just is. Some things are clichés for a reason. The journey here is the blessing because it is the work of rehearsing those words over and over that will bless you the most.

I was memorizing the book of Colossians. I think I started at the end of 2020—I can’t really remember. But I was standing in the shower, washing my hair. I’m working on Colossians, and I am on this phrase in the very first chapter, and I noticed, just in pausing on this little phrase, noticing how Paul calls God Jesus’ Father, and he calls God our Father.

And as I’m standing there rehearsing these words, it’s hitting me. It’s like the Lord is preaching a sermon in one phrase. I’m thinking, God, our Father. Jesus our Father. I’m trying to get the words down, and it dawns on me: “This is spiritual adoption. You have been grafted into the family of God. Jesus is your Brother.”

And I’m like, “This is such good news!” and I’m washing my hair! (laughter) It’s great news! So, I’m just meditating on this one phrase, and it is giving my heart so much joy. And that’s the beauty.

Memorization is slow. It is such a slow process, and I am so glad that it is because, when I’m reading my Bible (which is a habit I will never give up—I love studying deeply and reading whole books), when I pause to memorize, it forces me to slow down.

It forces me to think through every word. “Why was this word placed in this order? Why did Paul use this qualifier? Why did David say it like this? Why did he use this word picture?”

And when you think about it while you’re mumbling it, the Lord is just burying that Word in your heart. In the crevices and folds of your brain, it is there. It slowly just changes the way you think, which will change the way you live and change the way you speak and change the way you respond.

So, shower Scripture memorization. I really do recommend it.

If that’s not your jam, print out the text somewhere else and put it where you will see it regularly. (I also keep a copy on the windowsill of my kitchen where I’m standing at the sink washing dishes multiple times a day.) So it’s there, somewhere that you’re going to see it regularly. Maybe that’s the bathroom mirror.

Or, I don’t know, if you take a train to work. (I live very rurally, so that’s a weird idea to me.) But if you’re a city person, and you ride a bus . . . I mean, I don’t know if I’d recommend doing this while you’re driving. Your brain should be engaged while you’re driving. But if you have a specific mental down time, where it’s regular—whatever is regular for you—pair Scripture memorization with that task and do it every day.

So, rehearse, rehearse, rehearse.

And I want you to keep in mind that reciting it is not the goal. Recitation, standing up before a group of people and reciting God’s Word is not the goal here. Saturation is the goal.

Soaking your heart with God’s Word is the goal because you can be the little six-year-old Glenna, Pharisee that she was, and you can stand and recite verses and say, “Look how good my memory is.” Or you can day in and day out, quietly and slowly, meditate on Scripture and watch the Lord change your life because that’s the goal. Right?

We meditate on God’s Word to delight in it. To delight in Him. To love Him more deeply. To stay far from sin. That’s our goal in Scripture meditation.

A couple of other practical tips:

There’s lots of different learning styles. There’s auditory, visual, and kinesthetic, I think is the other one. (You all are more science-y than me.) So there’s several different types of learning styles, and I would encourage you to try different methods. Even if you’re an audio person, try something that’s also visual. You may not know what works well for memorizing portions of Scripture in your heart.

If you are an auditory learner, though, no one has been more blessed by access to audio versions of Scripture than we are right now.

I’m a big fan of the Dwell Bible app. It does cost a little money. It’s a yearly subscription. This app will let you listen to any Scripture in any kind of accent that you like. (laughter) So if you like the British accent, you can do the British accent. You can pick your translation. You can pick ambient sounds or music in the background. There’s a sleep timer on it.

You can repeat passages, which is what I do. I will go for a walk, and turn on 1 Peter 1 and listen to it for thirty minutes. That’s a great way to get God’s Word into your heart in a way that’s different than reading or writing.

Speaking of apps, I don’t know if you’re familiar with the Verses app. If you go to your app store or wherever it is that you download apps, it is a little navy icon (that’s not what it’s called. I was born in the 80s). It has a little rings on it, and it’s just called Verses. This app utilizes many different learning styles. It has tap-to-reveal, a word bank, and first-letter method, which I’m going to talk about in just a second. Speak into it, it’ll read it to you. And it has a great feature called “groups”. If you want to memorize Scripture with other people, you can both use the app. Create a group, and it’s got some accountability built in, which is fun. I always say when you can bring others into your spiritual discipline, do it. It’s such a blessing. Such a blessing.

So the Verses app is another resource.

Now, first-letter method—I do this periodically to review long portions of text. So, when you are going to write the passage out, say you want to review. You want to write out the passage. Some of you may benefit from just writing out the whole passage. It’s time consuming. If you don’t have the time for that—the first-letter method—you’re just going to write the first letter of each word. And as you’re doing this, your brain can go at the pace that it wants to go because you don’t really need the whole word.

So, if you’re memorizing Psalm 23, and you start with verse 1, “The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want,” all you really need to write is, “T.L.I.M.S.I.S.N.W.” (I hope that’s right.) And as you’re writing that, your brain can fill in the blanks. If I get hung up on a phrase, where I’m just having a hard time wrapping my mind around it, I’ll sit down with that phrase and a piece of paper and a pen, and I’ll just do the first letter of each word, like, fifteen times. That really, really helps. And it’s a fast way to do that.

There are a couple of companies who have utilized the first-letter method in their products. Dwell Differently is one of them. They do temporary tattoos. And they have a new verse every month. The design of the tattoo is built around the first letters of the words of that month’s verse. They’ll send you a new packet every month.

The tattoos are black and white. I am a multi-cultural family, so we utilize both of them. My kids love them. They’re really beautiful, actually, and a great conversation starter. If you’re wearing one, and somebody asks you, it’s an easy path to a gospel conversation. So that is Dwell Differently.

Some other things you want to utilize when you’re memorizing Scripture—utilize mnemonic devices. So, I’m memorizing 1 Peter 1, and Peter opens his letter: “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.” Those are ancient cities. I don’t know where any of those places are. Like, how do you memorize a list?

Using a mnemonic device, I, in my shower, was trying to memorize the order of the cities, using the first letter. I cannot believe I’m about to share this—my mnemonic device was, “Please go call Amy and Ben.” I have no idea who Amy and Ben are. (Sounds of laughter.) I don’t know why I’m calling them. I don’t know who I’m telling to call them. But I formed a sentence with it, and I have been able to say the cities in order every time. So utilize devices.

I would also encourage music or rhythm. You know the Shane & Shane Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs albums? Great way to hide some Scripture in your heart—through music.

My family—my husband, my kids and I—we’re memorizing Romans 8:31–39 right now. And we get to this phrase in Romans 8:32—it is so hard to get your mouth around it. “How will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” We just don’t speak like that.

So my seven-year-old pounds it out. (Pounding sound with each.) “How.will.He.not.al.so.with.Him.gra.cious.ly.give.us.all.things?” I don’t know why that works. It works every time. That’s a great tool if you have little people in your house who can’t read; bring them into your memorization, use a rhythm. What you’re doing: more neural pathways in your brain to get those words down deep so you do not forget them.

I have a lot more resources I could share with you. I’m going to give you a website. If you need more or just want some more, or I talked too fast—I usually only have one cup of coffee. Today I’ve had three. (Sounds of laughter.)

You’re going to go to www.glennamarshall.com/scripturememoryresources. Everything I’ve shared here, plus more, can be found there.

As we finish, I just want to encourage you, again. I know Scripture memorization can be intimidating. Don’t let it. It is a gift to you. There is no race. There is no timeline. You have all of the days that the Lord has given you on this earth to saturate your heart with His Word, to delight in His Word.

It is the daily work of memorization, of mumbling God’s Word aloud to yourself, that affects change in your life and renews your mind.

Again, the goal is never recitation. That might be a fringe benefit. You might want to recite it for someone. It can be encouraging if you want to recite Scripture for someone. But the goal here is saturation—to keep God’s Word before your eyes and in your heart and in your mouth to remember what is true about Him, about Christ, about you, about who you are now, as opposed to who you used to be.

What carries you through the Christian life is living closely to God’s Word and storing it up like a treasure in your heart. Give the Lord your mind so that you can love Him with your heart.

Thank you for coming. I’m going to pray for you, and then you’re dismissed.

Lord, we thank You for the gift of Your Word. We thank You that it is rich and true, and that we can read it a hundred times, and learn something new every single time. That it is a well we can draw from over and over and over. That it is useful for correction, reproof, teaching, training in righteousness, that it is no empty word, but our very life.

That You did not save us and just leave us here. You have equipped us for everything we need in life in godliness because You are so faithful and so good. And we are so grateful that You have given us Yourself through Your Word.

Help us to treasure it. Help us to pile it up in big, huge piles in our hearts. Thank You for the gift of Your Word. May we be ever changed by it. In Jesus’ name, amen.

All Scripture taken from the ESV unless otherwise noted.