Learn By Heart

Thy word have I hind in mine heart,
that I might not sin against thee.
Psalm 119:11

While putting some finishing touches on our upcoming ladies Bible study, something dawned on me I hadn't thought of in years. When I'm about to lead such a study, I often look back at teachers from my past from whom I learned much and who taught me well. I think back to Sunday school teachers when I was more at the elementary school level. There were also excellent, godly ladies whose love each summer was for teaching in Daily Vacation Bible School. I dearly loved Bible School and didn't just attend them at my own church but would go to other churches sometimes for their Bible Schools.

I loved memorizing Scripture verses. After that, I really liked craft time. Memorizing the Bible came pretty easy for me. However, the thing that dawned on me was that I never heard the word “memorize.” In fact whether at church or in elementary school, I can't recall even hearing the word “memorize.” The first I heard the word, that I can recall, was in junior high school.

No matter where I was in an educational setting, the term that was used was “learning.” Grade school teachers didn't say to memorize spelling words. I recall teachers tell us to learn our spelling words by Friday because there would be a test. I remember at Bible School being told we would “learn” such and such verses. So what's the difference between the two concepts?

The bottom line is that what we memorize isn't always learned. There is a difference in memorizing a Bible verse and learning it....really learning it. That learning may mean committing a verse to memory, but in learning a verse, the concept of the verse is learned as well. I have read that the most memorized Bible verse among Christians if John 3:16. Unless I take on a different mental attitude, I can quote that verse perfectly. However, if you ask me after reciting that verse what I was thinking about while reciting it, most times I probably couldn't tell you. You see, memorizing is good, but it doesn't mean that there is meaning to the words unless I deliberately intend think on them.

In college, I had an English History class. In fact, it was a two semester class. I wondered after a month what I had got myself in to. I dearly love history and felt that class would broaden my knowledge. However, I had the sweetest lady as my professor but when it came to tests, she seemed to really go for dates on tests. She liked having the matching questions with a long list of dates on the left of the paper with answers on the right. It was the usual drawing a line from a date to an event. I can't tell you how many historical dates I crammed into my head, purely for the sake of the next upcoming test. To this day, I wouldn't be able to give you a single date from English history. The memorizing of that materials was an exercise in memorizing purely for the immediate.

Recently, I have been revisiting several verses I have no problem recalling from my memory bank. I am slowly going through them phrase by phrase, taking in every word, every thought. So often we feel guilty in our Bible reading if we don't read at least a chapter at one sitting. To sit and mentally chew on one verse doesn't seem to be enough. I wonder though, if God wouldn't be more pleased with our totally soaking in one verse than reading a whole chapter we really don't get much out of.

Those Bible school teachers often used that term “learn by heart.” I knew I would be learning the verse by memory but we did more than that. The verse was discussed as to it's meaning. If I just learn Scripture by memory, I consider that a head thing. If I learn a verse “by heart,” I believe the meat of that verse not only goes into my head for recall, but also to my heart where I call recall it's meaning as well as its words.

I'm determined to go back over some favorite verses from Scripture, taking one at a time, reading it over and over while asking the Holy Spirit to speak to me about the depth of meaning of it. I've put some of those verses on cards that I can drop in my purse and pull out during times of waiting or just for some times of “spiritual recreation.” We can become so familiar with Scripture at times that we fail to stop and let the truths of God sink deep into our spirits. There are some verses I have found lately that I am enjoying just squeezing all the stuffin' out of them I can.

Join me in “taking a new look, at the old Book...a new look at the Bible.”

Father, I'm so grateful for Your precious Word and for Your Holy Spirit Who is so willing to teach me its precepts and truths. Please continue to teach me and empower me to take it all in, making it work in my life. In Jesus' precious name...Amen