I was talking to a professor a couple of weeks ago, he suddenly began to talk about the difference between Biology and Chemistry, Biology he stated can be memorized; it’s easy to adapt. Chemistry he stated cannot be memorized, it has to be learned. He went on to talk about a particular student he once had in his class, he stated that he noticed the student always looked angry, no matter what he taught; said or did; she always had a look of disgust on her face. She always left the class without asking questions or speaking with him, she hurriedly grab her books and stormed out every day. At this time he began to think that maybe he was either doing something wrong or this student just didn’t like him “AT ALL”.

As the last semester came to an end, he begin to ask the students to write a paper describing their year in the class, when he got this particular students paper – he then found out why she had a disgruntled look on her face for the whole semester. Her paper said. “Dr. Hobbs, I became frustrated and disgusted with your class for the entire school semester – I was angry because for the better part of my life, I sailed through classes based on my memorization which helped me to excel and succeed, it wasn’t until I came to your class that I realized that memorization would not work, I actually had to learn, study and challenge myself, something I was simply not good at. But by doing so I was able to open up a whole new world that has changed my life forever”

Sometimes in life we look to the Word of God as a memory course, we memorize certain scriptures and might breeze through others, we then use those scriptures to influence people that we are spiritual or know and/or read Gods word, It’s easy to dress up a memory verse as you can take it and use it so many ways. There was a preacher who taught on the scripture John 3:16 for 20yrs, he never reverted to any other scripture outside of this one, he used that passage of scripture in so many ways, versions and techniques. He definitely had it memorized….

Timothy 2:15 says – Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

In order to get the fullness of God and learn ALL of him, we have to buckle down and truly study the word, memorizing a scripture is Good because we can’t always take our bibles now in the workplace or other places…..but what about the alone time that we have, that could be time to truly study the Word of God, a lot of people say they fall asleep when they read the bible and trust me; it has happened to me on several occasions, I often tell people if you’re restless at night…..forget the Ambien or some other sleep aid, just read the bible; you’ll go to sleep every time…it’s proven to work.

If this happens to you, maybe you should change the time in which you actually spend time in the WORD, like maybe a lunch break or sometime during the day. God wants you to get to know him, not just some of him or a part of him but all of him, he wants to reveal things to you and about you concerning your present and your future, He died on the Cross for your Past so no need to worry about that. You know when we get into relationships weather it’s a friendship or dating and so forth, we long to get to know that individual; not just a piece of them but we want to know everything about them, so we take out time to study things about them like what makes them sad or happy, what’s their favorite food and/or color and the list goes on and on. Do you not think that’s what LEARNING the word will do for you and your relationship with God? He wants you to LEARN him, not memorize him and his works….But Learn his ways, learn to feel his presence, learn when it’s him that’s really talking to you, in this you will not only learn of him – but you might be surprised what you really begin to learn of yourself.

Learning opens up more understanding – As you learn you are able to find out better ways to perform better, talk better, listen better and treat others better. A memory can fade away, learning; can and will as the student said “Change your life Forever”

Memorization is good, but what would you rather have – Someone that has a MEMORY of you or someone that has LEARNED you.

A man of great memory without learning hath a rock and a spindle and no staff to spin.

George Herbert