hiding God's Word in your heart

"Systematic memorization of Scripture is a discipline that every Christian should practice. It is a powerful weapon in the spiritual battle"

-John MacArthur

I grew up in a church that promoted memorizing scripture. I was taught Bible verses through song and constant repeating in Sunday school classes, in the lists of scriptures to learn with fun challenges through Vacation Bible School, and when acquiring the next step up in GA's I was required to memorize larger passages of Scripture.

 Though the years into adulthood I have never lost my desire to be a memorizer of God's Word, but I have not had a true systematic way that I have continued in over time. During the summers when I homeschooled my children, we would use the Scripture Memory Fellowship resources. That was fun, and if we found another family to participate with us that added to the motivation. I would continue throughout the year using various SMF materials that were very helpful and at the least kept me trying to memorize with some form of success.
I am older now. There are no excuses left of why I can not take the time to focus on letting Bible Memorization become a daily lifetime discipline in my life. I have more alone time to review and less years to see all the rich benefits to my life that memorizing God's Word will provide, both spiritually and in general.
I like listening to others that have prioritized memorizing God's Word. I am journeying on to the next step of memorizing an entire book of the Bible. Since I began a Bible Study this summer in the book of James, that is the book I am presently memorizing.
Is it easy? No. It is a discipline. But I can tell you with complete confidence, it does get easier. You witness the delight of those verses staying with you throughout the day. You find opportunities to pray  specific verses in a particular situation. You meditate on God's Word constantly and it changes your thinking, more importantly, it changes you.

I would love to hear from any of you highlighting your stories and experiences of memorizing God's Word. It has never been an easy task to get a great deal of active support with memorization of the Scriptures. Many women want this discipline very much, but more times than I want to count start off with, " I just can not do it". I say we can.