I still remember watching spell bound as she quoted scripture from memory for over 30 minutes.
She made God’s word sound beautiful. She made it sound powerful. She made captivating.
I became convinced that there is something special about hiding God’s word in your heart. And something amazing about quoting it by memory.
When this women spoke the word of God, she didn’t stumble over unfamiliar words and phrases, she didn’t read monotone from an old book. She spoke the word of God from her heart.
And as I listened I realized that she loved these words. She believed these words. She was passionate about these words. These words had changed her life.
I wanted to own my Bible in that way too.
So, I sat down and picked a book. Philippians – only 4 chapters long. Then, I started.
How to start
I know a lot of people hear these stories and have a similar longing. We want to start, but it seems overwhelming to memorize so much. How do we even begin?
This is how I started memorizing Philippians when I had no regular scripture memory system in place.
First, develop a clear why
Memorizing God’s word is hard work. If you don’t know why you are doing it you’ll quit when you realize just how hard.
As I said in this article, “We need a why so powerful it removes the duty of obedience, motivates us even when it’s hard, and produces joyful spiritual growth.”
When I started memorizing, I knew why I was doing this.
- I wanted to know God the way the woman who inspired me knew God. “If you abide in My word you are My disciples indeed.” (John 8:31)
- I wanted victory over sin in my life. “You word I have hidden in my heart that I might not sin against You.” (Psalm 119:11)
- I wanted a life of faithfulness to God. “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” (Psalm 119:105)
I’d encourage you to go open the notes app on your phone or grab a sticky note and pen. Now write down why you want to memorize scripture. I give you full permission to steal my reasons. 😉
And when you feel like you’re not making progress, or you want to give up, pull out this list and remind yourself why you started.
Decide what you want to memorize
Our brains are lazy and will look for every excuse to not memorize scripture. So we need to get rid of all excuses.
Start by deciding how many verses you want to memorize each week. When I started Philippians, I did one verse a day. But maybe you only want to do one a week. That’s okay! Do what works for you.
Then decide which verses you want to memorize. I suggest planning out about 3 months in advance. Because every time we need to choose something new is an excuse for our brains to skip out on actually memorizing.
A few ways to do this are:
- Memorize a whole book (I loved and would highly suggest starting with Philippians)
- Make a list of verses on a topic you are currently studying or struggling with (Try checking a Bible concordance or do a google search for suggestions)
- Memorize a few chapters, such as the sermon on the mount, a few favourite psalms, or Romans 6-8.
- Ask if your church has a scripture memory program with a list of verses you could use.
Commit to Memorize daily
Regardless of your weekly goal, it is so important to spend time every day memorizing God’s word.
Remember your why? I’m guessing it is similar to mine. Our why is not to memorize an entire book or 100 verses. Our why is to know and love God.
We want to grow in relationship with God.
We want to fight sin.
We want to stay faithful to the Lord.
Are you content spending time getting to know God a couple days a week? Don’t you want to meditate on His character and goodness every single day?
So look at your schedule and pick a time you can commit to memorize every single day. It won’t just happen. You won’t just find time. You need to go and right now make that time.
Here are a couple tips I’ve found helpful:
- Feel like you don’t have time? Take a look at other things in your life that might be distractions and time wasters. Things like social media and Netflix or daydreaming.
- Choose a time when your mind is sharp and awake. Memorizing is so much easier for me in the morning than in the evening. So I’m making the choice to carve out time in my morning to memorize when my mind is sharp.
Review
When we are investing so much time and energy into memorizing God’s word, we want it to stay there for more than one week. We want to be able to pull out those verses when we are tempted, when we face lies, when we struggle, when we are rejoicing. This isn’t going to happen unless you review what you’ve memorized.
Schedule time to memorize new verses and time to review what you’ve already learned.
This might seem like it’s turning into a lot of time. But the good news is, review doesn’t take as much time as memorizing.
You can do it while you drive to work, walk your dog, clean your room, or brush your teeth. Instead of listening to music or podcasts, choose to quote scripture while you do other mindless activities.
Review isn’t difficult, but it’s so important.
Just Start
Now you need to stop making excuses and just start.
Yes it will be hard. But take note of the treasure you are gaining. You are learning who God is. You are learning who you are in Christ. You are stockpiling ammo for your fight against sin. You are laying solid foundations to stand on when the world around you crumbles. You are learning to listen to the voice of God.
Go write down your why. Go make your plan.
But then stop planning. Stop Google searching for the perfect verse for week three. Stop trying to figure out just how many minutes you need each day.
Every word of God that you hide in your heart is kindling for the Lord to light on fire. It’s words God can use to teach and equip you for life. It’s food to make you grow into the likeness of Christ.
You need to just start.
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For more on this topic check out my other articles:
- Busy, Forgetful Girl You can Memorize Scripture (where I outline my process of memorizing)
- Why we Read the Bible and Pray (where I talk about wrong, weak and strong whys for memorizing scripture)
- Memorize Scripture to Fight Sin (where I talk about how to memorize scripture to fight against sin)
I’d love to hear from you!
- What do you plan to memorize over the next few weeks? Share one verse you want to learn with us below.
- What do you find hardest about memorizing scripture?