Welcome, everyone, to 2013---a new year in which we can
celebrate God’s goodness to us by memorizing and meditating upon His Word!
Perhaps you have felt the nudge to memorize Scripture, but
you don’t know where to begin. Consider asking God to help you find a verse to
memorize. It could be a verse that you’ve heard used in a sermon or one that
you’ve recently read in your Bible reading. Find a verse that resonates with
your soul, that is meaningful to you, that challenges you or comforts you or
strengthens you. Choose a verse that you need, because it is so much easier to
memorize when you feel a connection to it.
Personally, I keep a list of verses that I want to
memorize---so many that it’s likely that I won’t get to them all this side of
heaven. I star verses in my Bible reading, verses that I hear in sermons, and
verses that I see in Bible studies, all of which I want to sear into my soul so
that they can transform my spirit.
I first saw the following verses in connection with last
year’s fall Bible study by Jennifer Rothschild, Missing Pieces: Real Hope When Life Doesn’t Make Sense. As soon as
I heard them, I knew that I wanted to make them my first memory verses of 2013.
Habakkuk 3:17-18 (NIV)
Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines,
Though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food,
Though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls,
Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior.
These verses remind me that even when there seems to be no
hope, I can still choose to rejoice in God Himself. This is a battle cry of sorts to be recited
out loud and often!
On Beth Moore’s blog (http://blog.lproof.org/),
she offers a verse to memorize that is so appropriate for the start of a new year: You crown the year with Your bounty, and
Your carts overflow with abundance. Psalm 65:11 (NIV)
What verse are you memorizing at the beginning of this new
year?
