Treasuring up God's Word in our hearts should be most important to us so that our minds and spirits may be attuned to the Holy Spirit. I believe that because I memorized the Scriptures as a child, my thoughts were more sensitive to the Lord, guarding my life pure during my teenage years.

Of course, as one grows older, verses memorized bring comfort to us and also help in being able to counsel with others more readily on the authority of the Scriptures. Memorization of the Scripture helps to keep our minds active in later life.

—Helen Baillie, missionary for many years to Central America

A few years before World War II, a humble villager in eastern Poland received a Bible from Michael Billester, a servant of the Lord, who visited his small hamlet. He read it, was converted, and passed the Bible on to others. Through that one Bible two hundred more became believers. When he revisited the town in the summer of 1940 and the group gathered together, Billester suggested that some might recite some verses of the Bible.

Then a man arose and asked, "Do you mean verses or chapters?"

"Are there any who can recite chapters?" asked Billester in astonishment.

That was precisely the case. Those villagers had memorized, not only chapters, but whole books of the Bible. Together, the two hundred knew practically the entire Bible. Passed around from family to family, the old Book had become so worn with use that its pages were hardly legible.

—The Sunday School Times

Captain James E. Ray, a U.S. Air Force pilot from Texas, relates the thrilling account of how the remembered Scriptures kept the men in the Hanoi prison from going mad.

"One night I lay with my ear pressed against the wall to hear 'thump … thumpety thump' as somewhere on the wall another P.O.W. tapped out in Morse code a verse of Scripture.

"The men began to pool the verses they could recall to have a 'consensus' Bible among them…. Verses on paper aren't one iota as useful," Captain Ray said, "as Scriptures burned into your mind where you can draw on them for guidance and comfort."

—N.A. Woychuk, You Need to Memorize Scripture

Dr. Wilfred T. Grenfell of Labrador declared: "Most gladly I add my testimony concerning the memorizing of Scripture. It has been an unfailing help in all the countless vicissitudes and problems of life. I believe in it enough to have devoted many, many hours to stowing away passages where I can neither leave them behind me, nor be unable to get at them. Facing death alone on a floating piece of ice on a frozen sea, the memorized Scriptures supplied all I needed. They stood by me like the truest of friends. With my whole heart I commend to others the giving of some little time each day to secure the immense returns it offers and ensures."

—Tales of Great Truths

Francis Ridley Havergal (1836-1879) committed to memory all of the New Testament, Psalms and Isaiah while still in her teens. Later she added all the Minor Prophets.