Bible Memory Challenge!
If you grew up in the church, maybe, like me, you memorized plenty of Bible verses. I still remember many I learned as a child—we had cassette tapes with Bible verses put to songs and those are still in my brain. And I’m really glad of that. I think it’s important. Scripture memory is something I emphasize with our kidztown classes.
But it seems like kids are encouraged in this more than adults, so I’m here today for all you grown-ups. If you haven’t tried memorizing a Bible verse or passage recently, I encourage you to give it a shot. I usually choose a passage that I come across in my daily Bible reading and linger over it for a few days or as long as it takes. For me, the goal of memorizing isn’t to try to get a verse to stick permanently in my head. I often can’t remember a passage I’ve memorized even a week or two later, and that’s fine with me. The reason I memorize is to chew on a passage and keep it on the forefront of my mind for a while. Memorizing helps me meditate on God’s word, and I find that when I do this, I notice things in the passage I might not have otherwise.
I memorize scripture to bring me closer to God. To have his word in my heart for when I or others need them. To get to know God more and become more like him. To praise him throughout the day. To love others because of his love for me. To encourage me. To avoid sinning. To be reminded of God's promises. To pray more. To encourage others. I could go on and on. I don't know about you, but when I actively focus on a Bible verse or a passage for a day, days, or however long, I'm more aware of his presence in my life and follow his lead more.
If memorizing the Bible is hard or scary for you, try it anyway! Here are some tips:
Read the passage through several times
Meditate on what it means, linger over it, paraphrase it
Say it out loud
Write it down
Pray it
Put the verse as your screensaver on your phone
Write it on sticky notes around your house, office, car, etc.
Write it on your bathroom mirror with a dry erase pen
Write the first part of it or the reference on your hand or somewhere you'll see it throughout the day
Try a Bible Memory app (I've never done this, but they're out there)
Set a reminder on your phone
Get your family to learn it together
For anyone looking for more of a challenge, something I’ve done a few times this past year is memorize larger chunks. I think the most I’ve done recently is 20 verses or so. I only mention this because I learned a neat way to memorize bigger sections and wanted to pass it along. You make a grid, 5 boxes wide and however long it needs to be, and write the verse number in the corner of each box. The article I read about this said to color in the 5th, 10th, etc. boxes, to help your brain organize things, I guess. Then as you go about memorizing (for me a verse or two a day), you write the first letter of each word in that verse's box. It’ll look something like this:
You can see in the first box for verse 1 it says Afy, ywdiytas: “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins.” I also write each verse out on the back so I can refer to it when needed. When I was going through this I kept it on the window sill at my kitchen sink so I could see it often. Now, even though it’s been a couple months since I memorized this passage, I can look at this little sheet and know exactly what it says. Anyway, this is just a technique that works for me, maybe something different would work for you.
Either way, whether it's one short verse or a whole chapter, memorizing God's word is such a great way to spend your time.
It might be challenging, but so worth it!
"Scripture memory, at its best, is about feeding your soul today and mapping your life and mind into the very life and mind of God."
-Dave Mathis, Habits of Grace