Bible Memorization - Two Chapters Into James

Many of you know that I've been very excited to be memorizing the book of James. I started talking about it back a few blogs ago and I really thought that now was a good time to give an update and some lessons learned. Feel free to go back to the original blog post here to get a foundation of what I'm talking about before you come back to this blog. Since I talk about some ways that I've failed in this post, I want to make something very clear: I am full of joy in the pursuit of something that is so valuable. I bring up the things below not only to help others, but also to celebrate the revelations and victories I've encountered on the way. I pray that everything I say will be an encouragement and - if applicable - a caution to you. Being a disciple of Christ is not easy, but it is always infinitely more satisfying in the end.

My first thought on this topic is that I have a dramatically different and - I hope - deeper understanding of the first two chapters of James. God has promised that we can be found when we seek him. Because I have been meditating on the same verses over and over again, I find that they sink deeper and deeper into me. It is as if, little by little, the roots of his Word have been breaking into the concrete of my soul. Psalm 19:15-16 is an expression of the kind of pure, hungry heart that I so deeply desire to cultivate in myself through this: "I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways. I will delight in your statutes; I will not forget your word."

My second thought is this: Don't be too hard on yourself if you get behind schedule. However, you must continue to be disciplined and dedicated to your decision, no matter what. While I was scheduling my plan, I thoughtfully added in some days that acted as a buffer to allow me to miss a few or take a day off here and there if I felt I needed it. Unfortunately, I have to confess that I should have finished memorizing the book already. Today, I just got to the first verse of chapter 3. I sadly let my schedule get in the way for a few days here and there and I ended up finding myself coming near the time that I should have been finished with several chapters to go. Don't let this happen to you! As I was writing this and remembering the times that I pushed off the Bible memorization multiple days, Matthew 26:40-41 rang out in my ears: "And [Jesus] came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, “So, could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” It is so very important that we remain vigilant in our walk with Jesus. We cannot let our wimpy desire to be comfortable stop us from strengthening our spirit.

Third, I have discovered how much I leak truth on a consistent basis. While God's Word has been making inroads into my mind these past few months in incredible ways, I have found myself reciting sections of James from memory and thinking "Is that REALLY what it says? Wow! I had that totally wrong." That realization in the moment is both wonderful and terrifying. In the same way as James 1:23-24 says, "For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like." Don't let yourself immediately fade away from the truth when you get distracted. Look into the perfect law of liberty (see James 1:25 at the end of this post) and be blessed in your doing.

Lastly, this time memorizing James has given me an additional glimpse into my own heart. For the last few weeks, my routine has been to recite James while walking at lunch time. The fresh air and the ability to recite James as loudly as I'd like really brings a life to me on most days. To my dismay, there are some days where I have found myself bustling through the end of the first chapter of James and I hadn't yet invited my heart or my God to join. Then the devil immediately tries to sucker punch me in the chest with guilt and fear that I am not God's child. Those moments are crucial for your walk in God. In fact, I believe that they are meant to happen for us to train ourselves to constantly renew the parts of our minds that just want to get things done. Instead of just checking off your Bible memorization check box and moving on with your day, I urge you to preach the Word to yourself as if you would never be able to hear it again. I believe the words of Pastor Richard Baxter are relevant here: “I preach as never sure to preach again, and as a dying man to dying men.”

To close out, I would like to give a recommendation that should sum up everything that I've said: Schedule a specific time to memorize your Bible and stick with your schedule, genuinely believing that the greatest joy is to genuinely seek God. The easiest way to cheat yourself out of any significant prize in your life is to say "I'll do it later". Yes, sometimes it genuinely won't work at that exact time, but more often than not we are just being selfish when we push it off to the next day, which ironically deprives us of a greater joy.

I leave you with this last thought: "But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing." - James 1:25