"Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and Thy Word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart" (Jeremiah 15:16).

There is a great difference between "finding" the Word of God and "eating" it. The man who eats it gets the benefit. Eating makes digestion and assimilation possible, resulting in health, strength, and all the usefulness and joy of living.

Usefulness and joy in the spiritual life depend on spiritual health and strength. But these in turn depend on the spiritual nourishment one takes from the Word of God, which is the only food for a man's soul. "As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the Word, that ye may grow thereby" (1 Peter 2:2). The more one gets of the Word the better, provided it is digested and assimilated.

Prayer does to the Word what saliva does to food. Turning the Word round and round, thinking of it from this point of view and that, is like chewing. Holding the Word in your mind is like keeping food in your mouth until it is thoroughly chewed and ready to swallow. The only way to hold the Word in your mind is to memorize it.

I think this is what the prophet meant in the verse quoted above. This is why I urge every Christian to memorize a portion of the Word of God every day. It gives his soul something to feed upon, and the more he feeds and digests it, the greater is his spiritual strength, joy, and fruitfulness. If you want to be blessed and a blessing, memorize the Bible.

—James M. Gray

C.H. Spurgeon said, "It is blessed to eat into the very soul of the Bible, until at last you come to talk in scriptural language, and your spirit is flavored with the words of the Lord, so that your blood is 'Bibline' and the very essence of the Bible flows from you."