Colossians 3:12-17
     Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
     Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

The passage above is one of my favorite explanations of how a Christian is to live; you can take a lot to apply from those two paragraphs. It includes the loving fellowship, compassion, and patience we are to have with one another. The text speaks of how the peace of God is to rule our hearts (Romans 5:1-5; through faith we have peace), how we are to praise God, and how we are to do everything to glorify Christ (1st Corinthians 10:31; do everything to the glory of God). Every line in this passage stands out to me, it really is great to read, but there is one part of this text that I would like to write about more closely.

"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly..." when I hear this I think of meditation and a mature grasp of Scripture; and of course those two things are virtually one in the same. I honestly don't believe that you're going to grow at all if you never meditate on the word, but whether they know it or not, many already do meditate on the Gospel as long as they are reading it every day and applying it to their lives. Only I don't find the act of meditating on Scripture by mere accident to be as fruitful as actually sitting down and memorizing Scripture with your focus set on using those verses to meditate and to put them into practice.

The problem is that for most of today's Christians, Scripture memorization has really lost its sense of importance. People think of memorization as a meaningless way of reciting information from the Bible that you could as easily remember rather than memorize word-by-word. I mean, face it, memorizing Scripture is hard and people just don't find its practice to be as beneficial as taking the time to read Scripture. I think the reason for this is, one, people don't memorize enough and thereby don't get the results of growth that they would get if they made it a priority. Secondly, I don't think people do it correctly. From childhood experience, such as AWANA, to student classes at my present age, the verses we memorize seem to be of little help to any degree because they have always been presented to us as a meager task. But Scripture memorization is so advantageous and God glorifying, that it cannot be ignored! I truly feel that many people who have put aside memorization have done so because they have never done it correctly.

Memorization is most closely compared to meditation, and it would seem the mediation aspect has been cut out. In fact, due to the lack of mediation on verses, memorized Scripture can rightfully be classified as a “meager task”. Memorizing Scripture, without the purpose of pondering it or using it for sharing the Word, is deficient in quality and quantity; it is lacking in fullness and richness. That is why people have become so discouraged by the prospect of memorizing the Word, most only know the empty feeling you get from lackadaisically skimming a verse. But now the question is: what is the correct way? How can memorization be fulfilling?

Joshua 1:8
Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.

Again, the key is mediation, and for that we can look to the Psalmists. Psalms 77 and Psalms 119 have always stuck out to me whenever I have read Psalms. Actually, when I think of meditation, I think of a line from 77 saying: I will meditate on all your works and consider all your deeds. This statement is coming from a man who was so stricken by anxiety that he could not sleep, his soul would not be comforted. But when he takes the time to meditate on God’s character and greatness, he finds solace. In Psalm 119, many of the sections to this acrostic poem speak of finding peace in God through meditation. It’s really quite a wonder to read these chapters if you ever get the chance.

Now this is where memorization and meditation meet because, ultimately, application is to come from all of this. It’s almost like an equation: Memorization + mediation = application. Memorizing Scripture will lead to meditation. When you memorize it is as if you tear the passage from your Bible and store it in your mind; you are keeping it to meditate on when your Bible is not around. No matter where you are, you can reach into that scrapbook of verses that you’ve stored away in your mind and pull them out and mediate on them. Now, I know you can also read a passage and do this without memorization because most people are pretty good at remembering what they’ve read, but you have to believe me when I say that memorizing a verse word-by-word makes you feel so much more confident about the passage and what it means; compared to simply happening remember a passage.

And of course this all leads up to application. When you know what the Word says, you know what to do, and when you do it you are blessed (John 13:17). Also, the benefit that memorization has to sharing the Word is incredible. The Word of God is “the sword of the Spirit”, when we store verses away in our minds, we are actually building a diverse arsenal of weaponry that will make us much more confident and effective when we share the Gospel. With memorization put into practice, we will become well-armed, spiritual warriors. With meditation, we will find comfort and peace in any trial or anxiety.

This is why I urge you all to incorporate memorization into part of your daily Bible intake. Find a passage that suits your needs or concerns (for some this may be the hardest part), read it, meditate on it, write it out and memorize it word perfectly. Make a plan to memorize a verse a day for a year, or something like that. Meditation is important too. Think through the verses as you go throughout the day so that the Word of God will truly “dwell in you richly”. And when you’re feeling depressed on uneasy, do as the Psalmists did and meditate on God.

Psalms 119: 49-50
Remember your word to your servant,
       for you have given me hope.
 My comfort in my suffering is this:
       Your promise preserves my life.

I'm praying for all of you guys.