Fruit of Memorization

Jamie Ivey has been writing online since the golden age of blogging (circa 2005). What started out as sharing her first adoption story has turned into regular, honest conversations about the big and small moments of faith and life. Over time, she’s added podcast host and author to her list of titles and talents with her Happy Hour podcast and books like Why Can’t I Get It Together?

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One of the things I’ve wanted to get better at my entire life of following Jesus is Scripture memorization. Being in God’s Word and hiding it in your heart is definitely a spiritual practice, and it’s always been a little bit difficult for me.

I thought memorizing Scripture was difficult, but then I realized that when I listen to the radio and a country song from the 1990s comes on, I know every single word of it. You cannot put a song on that I don’t know the words of!

So, over the last couple of months, I’ve really started to put more into practice memorizing a verse a month. (I wish I could say it was a verse a week, but that’s just not where I am.) So far, this practice has been really encouraging for me.

I see the fruit of it because I’m memorizing it and writing it in my journal when I have my time with the Lord. For example, I was speaking at an event recently, and even though Romans 12:12 was not in my notes at all and didn’t have anything to do with my talk, I found myself saying it in the middle of the talk. It was this kind of light bulb moment that made me say, “God, this is why we hide your Word in our hearts—because it overflows when we don’t even plan for it to overflow.” That was a really cool moment. It felt good to say a portion of the Scripture that I’ve been meditating on this whole month. It made me feel proud of myself, and it also made me think, This is what I want. I want God’s Word to flow out when I don’t even know it’s going to come out.

—Jamie Ivey, the creator and host of the popular podcast “The Happy Hour With Jamie Ivey,” as told to Rapt Interviews