Memorizing Scripture

When I ask people to join me in memorizing scripture, I often get the comment that “I am not very good at memorizing verses.” It does take work but it’s not impossible…actually, if we truly believe God’s word, ANYTHING is possible with God. And if our goal is to memorize HIS WORD, don’t you think that He will help you do that if you truly try? It’s really a matter of discipline…taking the time to study. Just like it’s a matter of discipline to exercise, eat right, and make yourself get up and get ready to do whatever you do each day.

I’ve read 3 blogs just in the last few weeks about memorizing scripture this year.

Ann Voskamp’s “A Holy Experience” (www.aholyexperience.com) is challenging her readers to memorize the entire book of Colossians this year. She has some great tips on HOW to memorize scripture & reasons why we should.

Beth Moore has launched her second round of the “Siesta Scripture Memory Team” (blog.lproof.org). She encourages you to have a notecard spiral and to write your scriptures in the spiral & carry it everywhere you go. You can review those scriptures any time you have a few free minutes…waiting in line, waiting in the doctor’s office, waiting at a red light (probably not the safest), etc.

And if you choose to join Beth Moore and the rest of us, you can attend a wonderful celebration next January in her home church for an extremely reasonable price…the ticket is just your spiral & the ability to recite half of your scriptures to a partner during the conference! This was such a special conference last January…I can’t wait until next year!

Another way to memorize scripture is to truly meditate on it. Courtney & Angela at Good Morning Girls, (www.goodmorninggirls.org) have challenged their readers to a study on James. They are suggesting the “SOAP” method to study the entire book of James in three months, meditating on just 1-2 verses per day. This method is new to me, but I’m excited about trying it. Here’s the deal…in a spiral, you do the following each day:

1. S – write out the SCRIPTURE passage for the day.

2. O – write down 1-2 OBSERVATIONS from the passage.

3. A – write down 1-2 APPLICATIONS from the passage.

4. P – PRAY over what you learned from the day’s passage.

By the end of the 12 weeks, you will write out the entire book of James in your journal! How amazing is that!

One of my friends, Jenna, told me that she read about a tip where you write down the 1^st letter of each word of the verse to help you memorize.

For example, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me,” Philippians 4:13, you would write

I C D A T T C W S M

She said this really helps her. I haven’t tried it yet, but plan on writing this out on the back of each of my scripture cards in my spiral as I enter each verse this year. I think it will really help because I am such a visual learner.

So there you have it…many tips on helping you memorize scripture. Won’t you join me on my journey to “hide God’s word in my heart?”