Scripture Typer - the Value of Memory Verses

Recently, I stumbled onto Scripture Typer, a website that helps you memorize scriptures by typing them. Scripture typer keeps track of the verses that you memorize and prompts you to periodically retype verses that you haven't been over in a while to ensure that you retain them. I've never been a fan of flashcards, and Scripture Typer helps me memorize bible verses whenever I get a few free minutes in front of the computer. You can add verses in a variety of translations, and they have lists of popular verses if you can't decide where to start.

The main purpose of this article is to plug Scripture Typer because I think it's a great tool for memorizing verses, which I've always found to be difficult. The secondary purpose is to give you some motivational reasons to actually go there and use it!

Until recently, I haven't actually sat down and focused on memorizing a scripture since I was a little kid in Vacation Bible School - needless to say, I wasn't very interested or aware of what the verses really said at the time. Reading, studying, and meditating on God's word is a good start towards living a godly life, and memorizing scripture is a unique tool toward that end. It forces you to focus on every word, and often helps you uncover meaning that you might have missed otherwise. The bible doesn't explicitly say that we should be trying to memorize scripture, but there are a few verses that come to mind:

Deuteronomy 6:6-9
And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. 

God wants His word to be in our hearts. Perhaps a modern paraphrase of this verse would say "Do whatever you have to to learn my law: read it, speak, write it on the walls - whatever it takes!"

Joshua 1:8
This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.

God's instruction to Joshua is just as relevant to us: if we want to live a successful and prosperous life spiritually, then we should be putting in real effort to learn God's way. My modern paraphrase: "Success comes from living God's Word, and living God's Word comes from knowing God's Word."

Jeremiah 31:33
But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.

You're probably getting the point by now: God wants so badly for us to know His ways that the foundation of the New Covenant is that He will ingrain them in us so that we can do them! In a way, we are judged by how much we do to facilitate that process - do we reject the Spirit, which compels us to live by the law, or do we follow the Spirit as it leads us into living God's law?

Another reason to spend time memorizing scripture is because it is the Word of God, and it's an awesome thing to behold:

Hebrews 4:12
For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. 

If you want to truly know yourself, then learn God's law. We know that God does not see our outward appearance, but that God sees the heart - whether good or bad. God knows our innermost thoughts and desires, and He judges them by the law. If we learn God's law, then we also, knowing our innermost thoughts and desires, can judge ourselves. This is the foundation of repentance and living a godly life:

1 Corinthians 2:14-15
But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one.

You, like me, may not have given any thought lately to sitting down and drilling yourself on memory verses. If you've got a few minutes, head over to Scripture Typer and give it a try!