Knowing His Word

I have been listening to the thoughts and sermons of Ray Van Der Laan recently and have found them extremely inspiring. One of the great thoughts he discussed (not original with him-I believe it came from a prolific Rabbi named Akiva) was the fact that it is important for us to promote memorization of God's word with our teens, students and adults. The idea is not that rote memorization, in and of itself, is to be pressed, but that knowing God's word inside and out is!

I have heard all this before. Here is what hooked me in, though. Akiva said that we should take one passage (and I believe we can be free with our interpretation of that word-whether it mean book, chapter, small paragraph or single verse) and work on memorization all day long. If we remember it the next day after all that work, then that's great and we've got it. If, however, we do not remember it we don't need to worry. Let God worry about that because it's in there somewhere and He will pull it out for us when we need it the most in our lives.

What do you think about that?!? God knows what He is doing. And if we truly work on remembering His word each day, He will take care that it is at our fingertips when we need it the most.

So work on what you can and I mean work at it and let God take the rest.
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If you would like to do this with us, I will post the verse every Monday starting next week. Here is the verse that the Meat Eaters group worked on Monday night.

Proverbs 4:23 (NIV)
"Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life."