The next few posts are about the importance of memorizing Bible verses. The theme of our post last week was about memorizing Bible verses to have victory over sin. This week, we are going to look at another reason to memorize Bible verses. Discouragement is something everyone deals with. It can be at work, with the family, or in your own personal life and goals. Sometimes things don’t go like we hoped they would and that causes discouragement. How do we deal with discouragement? Is it even okay to be discouraged? I think the hard truth is that discouragement is a part of life. It is okay to get discouraged, although I don’t think you should remain discouraged! Being discouraged as a result of something and remaining discouraged are two totally different things. What can we do? I believe God’s Word has the answer. We should memorize verses in the Bible to help us in times of discouragement. 

People dealt with discouragement in the Bible. Remember that David encouraged himself in the Lord. “And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the Lord his God.” I Samuel 30:6 David was more than just discouraged, he was scared! The people that had followed him and trusted him were now ready to kill him. I think discouragement is an understatement! What did David do in this time? He encouraged himself in the Lord. How did he do so? The Bible doesn’t specifically make that clear, but I am sure he through on how God has worked in his life before, about how God loved him and cared for him. These things will help us too!

When you are discouraged, think on these Bible verses…

• God loves you. “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.” 1 John 3:1. Maybe things are bad, but God loves you. In failure God loves you, in success God loves you, and even in discouragement God loves you!
• You are accepted. “To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.” Ephesians 1:6. If you are a believer in Jesus, you are accepted. God is not watching you to see if you can stay “good enough”, you weren’t good enough to begin with! You are accepted!
• Jesus is preparing a place for you in Heaven. “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. ² In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. ³ And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” John 14:1-3. This life isn’t forever, in 100,000 years you will be with Jesus. What is going on right now cannot continue forever. Things will get better!
• Jesus has offered to take your burden. “²⁸ Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30. Discouragement can be a heavy burden, but Jesus wants to take that from you. 

It is great to have these verses on file to read, but it is even better to have them in your heart, so that when you are discouraged, the Holy Spirit recalls them to you! Sometimes you don’t have a Bible handy to read, but it is always with you when you memorize Scripture!

One of the men of the church will be teaching Psalm 1:1 as the memory verse this Sunday. This will be the third time our brother in Christ will be serving in context of the church by teaching a Bible verse! We are excited that he has this opportunity. While on furlough, we will be in Ohio. Please pray for Faith Baptist Church and for us, that God would use us all for His glory.

“Thy word have I hid in mine heart, That I might not sin against thee.” Psalm 119:11

Do you believe that the Bible is God’s Word? I do. I believe the Bible is exactly what God wants us to know about many subjects including about God Himself, about life and the purpose of life, about death and eternity, about the church and our purpose. The Bible is the one thing that God has given us to make us prepared to do all good works (II Timothy 3:16-17). The Bible is more than just a book, it is God’s message to His creation! So we should read it and more than just read the Bible, we should memorize verses and passages, or “hide God’s Word in our hearts”. Why should we memorize the Bible? The answer the psalmist gave us is very clear.

To gain victory over temptation.

“That I might not sin against God.” This was the reason the psalmist memorized Bible verses. We can memorize Bible verses to help give us the victory over sin. As temptation comes, we can answer it with Bible verses. The best example, and most obvious, is Jesus in Matthew 4. Jesus was tempted by Satan and answered each temptation with Scripture. As we are tempted to sin, we would do well to use God’s Word to combat such temptation. But we may not have a Bible handy, or we may not remember exactly where to look in the Bible for what we need! Today things are much easier. We can do a quick search on Google to find articles that will give specific verses of the Bible about specific topics, but there are times when even that is not convenient. The best solution is to put God’s Word where it will always be ready to help us, in our hearts!

If you have specific sins that tempt you (we all do), memorize verses about that specific topic. You will be amazed how God helps you to recall those verses!

The answer the psalmist gave us as to why he memorized Bible verses is very clear, but there are also other reasons to memorize God’s Word. We will address some of these reasons in upcoming posts.

Last week I posted about “the dreaded plateau”. In that post I mentioned the importance to read books. I am addressing this thought in more detail for this post. It is extremely important that we continue to read books on a regular basis. In 2003, The Jenkins Group conducted an interesting survey about reading. Here are a few of the results from this survey…

• One-third of high school graduates never read another book for the rest of their lives.

• 42 percent of college graduates never read another book after college.

• 80 percent of U.S. families did not buy or read a book last year.

• 70 percent of U.S. adults have not been in a bookstore in the last five years.

• 57 percent of new books are not read to completion.

Obviously things have probably changed since 2003, but I don’t know that they have changed for the better. This study shows us that many people just don’t read. My mentor has said many times that they way we grow and change is by the people we meet and the books we read. As Christians we should continually grow and reading books will help us. Here some things to think about…

• Read the Bible: This should really go without saying but if didn’t mention this, I would feel like I am ignoring the most important of all principles about reading. The Bible is God’s Word, if we are God’s children we should read His Word! The Bible is the way God communicates with us today. Out of all things, the Bible teaches us that it is what makes us mature (perfect), entirely prepared to do good works for Jesus (2 Timothy 3:16-17). There is no way to read the Bible too much! Study it, read it daily, and allow God to use His Word to work in you!
• Read books that will help: There are all kinds of books, so it can be daunting trying to choose a good book. Look for books that deal with topics that you want to grow in. Look for specific topics, like a study of a book in the Bible, or how to handle finances, or how to be a better spouse, raising children, or principles for walking closer to Jesus.
• Who is the author?: Before reading, find out about the author. Does he proclaim to be a Christian? What denomination does he affiliate with? Not every book you read needs to be authored by a Christian, but if I am going to read a book about the missionary life of the Apostle Paul and the author doesn’t believe that Bible is the Word of God, that will definitely determine how I accept the author’s thoughts (if I were to even read a book like that). It is pretty easy to find out about the author of most books.

There are many other principles to use in selecting a good book. The important thing is to know what you are reading, who you are reading after, and to keep reading!