Bible Temptation

I listened to a priest preaching last night about Jesus being tempted during his time in the wilderness. The sermon centred on the fact that Jesus countered the Devil with quotes of scripture that he had obviously memorised. Thus the literal word of God was used to defeat the Devil. The priest then went on to talk about us and the constant temptation coming our way in life. His suggestion was that we should keep a constant contact with the bible and attempt to actually learn passages by heart so that we could as we felt necessary use them to fend off temptations.
What I started to feel was the general lack of bible knowledge that I have ( what many call scripture) let alone how much I could actually call upon for a specific purpose. Like many Christians I have read the Bible in bite size chunks for ages and listen to epistles and readings regularly at church. What I don't do is memorise it. To illustrate my point tell some one a story from the bible ( any story) without referring to the bible while you do it.
In our culture we don't remember things in detail, probably because there is just too much to know. But this got me thinking just how close are we to the knowledge in the bible and how do we apply it in daily life if we don't know it well. Thinking of William Wilberforce and my Lent course, I wonder how well he knew his bible and how many times he had to go scuttling off to read up on the fine print when he arguing about slavery.
I suspect his knowledge of the bible was better than mine. I also think that the priest has a rel event point we should be far more aware of the knowledge in the bible and far more able to apply it, even to the point of utilising specific pieces to ward off temptations. The Bible is our resource after all. I suggest that you make a little time this Lent to read and digest something from the bible. See how well you can remember it, maybe surprise someone you know with a bible story - they might like it.

Peace Dave.