Admit it. Go ahead. There is no shame in it. Be honest and admit it. I have had to…even though it kills me to do so. They say the older you get you start forgetting to do things. I want to amend that. The older you get the more you start forgetting. Period. There used to a time when I memorized my sermon word for word. That’s right. Word for word. And I preached them that way. I started giving up on that when I forgot a poem midway through and had to make up the rest. Then it was memorize by clusters.  Or main thoughts. Or key statements. Now it’s called cheat sheets in my Bible or on the pulpit. 🙂

Memorizing verses is the same way. I can remember being a memory machine. Going against the pastor in a head-to-head competition of Scripture memory battle and holding my own. I knew them word for word. Now…when it came to school work my memory suddenly flew out the window. 🙂 🙂 But I digress. I envy those who are young and can memorize Scripture like its the phone number they have committed to memory.

Psalm 119:11 says, “Your Word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against You.” Hiding God’s Word in my heart puts a “protective barrier” around it. I read of a young Christian who came to his mentor to show him how he had memorized Scripture. He proceeded to quote the entire Sermon on the Mount (Mt. 5-7). His mentor was amazed and encouraged him not only to “say” but to “live” the words. To which the young man said, “That’s the way I learned them. The Scripture wasn’t sticking so I decided to practice what I memorized on a non-believer. When I did I found it stuck.”

What a unique way of learning Scripture! Sort of hard to forget the “life lessons”…no matter how old you are.

“Father, may Your Word be life to me. Help me to hide it in my heart. May it stand as a barrier between me and sin.”