- 2 + 2 = ?
- The first president of the United States was ______________.
- H2O is the symbol for what chemical formula?
Memorize this. Memorize that.
Maybe the thought of “memorization” conjures up images of elementary school flash cards and multiplication tables. Repetition. Repetitiveness. Repetition. And rote, mind-numbing repetition.
Yet, when talking about Scripture memorization, we’d be hard pressed to find the disadvantages. Fixing the Word of God into our minds, hearing His voice, shaping our own language & understanding of the Lord comes from putting Scripture into our heads & hearts through memorization.
But HOW?
Here are 3 Simple Steps to Help with Scripture Memorization.
1. Read (Visual)
This may be way too obvious, but…if you don’t read Scripture, you’ll find it very difficult to memorize it. Read the verse or passage. Then read it again. Then read it once again while planning to read it again & again. (You get the idea.) The more your eyes pass over each word, sentence, verse and passage, the more connections your mind will make.
2. Write (Kinesthetic)
There are a couple ways to memorize God’s Word through writing.
- You can take out the old fashioned (yet still fashionable) pen & paper and write out the verse(s) in your own handwriting.
- You can type out the verse(s) multiple times on your computer, phone or tablet. This is another tactile way to help the words stick.
- You can use a Bible memorization app (I use “The Bible Memory App”) which allows you to interact with the text in several ways. This has been extremely helpful in committing larger chunks of Scripture to memory!
3. Listen (Auditory)
- When listening to an audio Bible, you get to hear the Word of God from someone else’s lips. You’ll get to hear their inflections (& pronunciations of those difficult old cities and names) which may be helpful in addition to simply reading the words.
- Recording your own voice and listening to the playback is also beneficial because you’ll hear your own pacing and inflections, solidifying the words deeper in your memory.
- Music! You can put the Scripture to a melody of your own or listen to several recordings out there of Scripture to music. Here are 3:
It takes serious effort and work to commit even a single verse to memory, but…
What if I were to challenge you to memorize a full passage of Scripture?
“He can’t be serious?!” Oh yes, he can be…
As we begin our series “Unshakable Joy” through the book of Philippians, I’m going to challenge you to memorize the “Christ Hymn” of Philippians 2:6-11. In so doing, you will, in a new way, behold Jesus.
Challenge a friend. Post a video of yourself reciting it. Let the truth & beauty of Jesus sink into your head & heart as you store up His Word. I hope these 3 simple steps help you along the way. Get at it!
Philippians 2:6-11 (ESV),
“[Christ Jesus], who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”