Having gone to a private religious high school, one of the requirements for graduating was to memorize some 150 verses or so of Scripture and recite it to a teacher. Because my motivation for memorizing was to graduate rather than to help me meditate on God’s word, it wasn’t even a week after I had recited my verses that I had already forgotten most of it. Now, it pangs me with regret that I can only remember it was something in Romans.

But why is memorizing Scripture, or anything outside the classroom for that matter, relevant in our society today? For instance, we have address books so we don’t have to remember phone numbers or house addresses of our friends and family. GPS helps us get from one place to another without having to remember address or directions. Sites like workflowy.comcan organize our minds for us so we don’t have to. Smartphones can hold not just the Bible, but commentaries and various translations as well.

When it comes to information like phone numbers and to-do’s, I’m all for technology to help us do the remembering for us. However, let’s keep in mind (no pun intended) that the mind is not just a hard drive with lots and lots of space. When we memorize something, we don’t just store it as data. Dr. Kobi Rosenblum, a neurobiologist who studies memory, says:

“Long term memory creation in the human brain … is one of the incredible processes which is so clearly different than ‘artificial brains’ like those in a computer. While an artificial brain absorbs information and immediately saves it in its memory, the human brain continues to process information long after it is received, and the quality of memories depends on how the information is processed.”

Holding Scripture to memory isn’t merely to store it in our mind, but to process it into a form of knowledge which allows us to reflect and meditate on it. Ephesians 6:17 says that the word of God is the “sword of the Spirit”. How can we fight Satan, who himself knows Scripture quite well, without the sword? Not only will memorizing Scripture help fight against Satan and sin, but also help us evangelize, pray more deeply with God, and allow it to meld our lives to help us walk closer with Him. The benefits are endless, and yet some find difficulty in making time to read Scripture, let alone memorize. But here’s what Paul had to say:

“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” – Colossians 3:12

Let’s do our best in having Scripture not just in our iPhones, but more importantly in our minds to apply it to our hearts.

– Solomon