RENEW - N - NEED IT

The "N" in Beth Moore's RENEW acrostic stands for "Need It," meaning an important part of Scripture memorization is that we genuinely recognize our NEED for God's Word to be "hidden in our heart."

This understanding is both general and specific. General because we know "all Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.." (2 Tim 3:16-17) Specific because God uses His Word to directly speak into our own, personal lives. By virtue of Scripture being "God-breathed," it is a living thing - able to commune with us and minister to us in beautifully personal ways. A good example of this from my own life is verse Psalm 113:9: He settles the barren woman in her home as a happy mother of children. Praise the Lord. I wouldn't expect this verse to speak to someone who has never struggled with infertility in the same way the words ministered to me in my years of longing for children.

This is the beauty of writing God's Word on our hearts - it is like carrying around a treasured love letter which we can pull out and re-read whenever we feel that longing to be near our Loved One, whenever we long for our Heavenly Home, whenever we need to be reminded of Whose we are and who we are.

When you select Scripture to memorize, do so prayerfully and personally. Don't memorize things so you can "use them" on your spouse or children. Don't memorize verses so you are more prepared for your next confrontation with a relative humanist. Memorize verses that speak to your heart. The Need involved when you use this approach will help motivate you to really get it down.

These were the points Beth Moore made. To be honest, they really challenged us regarding directing our first memorization to be Psalm 119 - because maybe not everyone "needs" these verses. But in the end we figured, if we are going to continue on with memorizing more and more (as we hope to do), we may find more motivation by really knowing our "why." As we move forward, we must remember we are hiding God's Word in our hearts that we might not sin against Him, that our ways would be blameless, that we might do nothing wrong and walk in the ways of the Lord. Let it be so - Amen.