“Ten-round spelling final has crowd spell-bound”, was the headline of the national spelling competition. One of the finalists challenged the judges twice and eventually emerged as the winner of the RHB-The Straits times National Spelling Championship.  The tense final ran for about two hours and through 10 rounds.  The champion emerged from 31 finalists who emerged from 1400 registrants in the preliminary and 132 rounds of zonal competitions. The champion stole the show when he maintained that “prescatarian” could also be spelled as “prescetarian”. “I’m pretty sure it can be spelt as “c-e”.  Can you check please?” When the judges stuck to their call, after referring to the Oxford Dictionary of English and the Cambridge Pronouncing Dictionary, he stood his ground.  The judges then checked the Merriam-Webster Dictionary for American derivations and sure enough, he was right and awarded him the word.  That gave him the winning shot at “pulchritudinous.”  When he spelt that word correctly, the 400-strong crowd erupted and he was crowned the champion.

I believe, the champion must have spent hours in memorizing difficult words.  What made him a champion was that he was so sure of the spelling of the word that he could challenge the judges who eventually award him the point that helped him become a champion.

We thank God that our church is embarking on a bible reading and scripture-memorizing program.  In the same way, when we take time and effort to memorize God’s Word, God’s Word will help us to be a champion in our Christian life – to live a holy and victorious Christian life. Psalms 119:11 reads “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you”.  Satan tempted Jesus thrice.  Each time, our LORD Jesus quoted the Old Testament and did not fall into temptation, nor did he sin against God.  Satan eventually left Jesus and that signalled Jesus’ victory over Satan’s temptation.

In life, we go through trials and temptations.  Through the Word of God, we derive wisdom, strength, joy and peace as we walk through life’s journey.  Each victory that God gives us will only strengthen us in our faith.  Only God and His word alone can give us victory to overcome our sinful self, the world and our archenemy Satan.

I have benefitted tremendously from memorizing God’s word.  From assurance of salvation, forgiveness, guidance, answered prayer and victory over temptations, these verses have been a source of comfort, strength and joy and have greatly helped me in my Christian walk with our LORD.

Reading through the Old Testament has reminded me of our origin, the greatness of our God, the faith of our patriarchs and history of Israel as a nation.  From the success of characters of the Bible, I can emulate their victorious living, and from the failures of the bible characters, I can avoid what brought their downfall.  All the bible reading and scripture memorization would make me a wiser Christian and I will stand a higher chance of living a victorious Christian life.  To those who are faithfully memorizing and reading God’s Word on a daily basis, keep up the good work!  For those who are wavering or standing by the wayside, may I strongly encourage you to get started and be a strong Christian for our LORD.  Happy reading and memorizing God’s Word and stay tuned for rewards for the faithful and persevering ones.