As you begin to establish your Daily Bible Reading Plan, you will come across many interesting verses. Some verses will make you pause and think, other verses will encourage you, some verses will even convict you, and other verses will stimulate you. Memorizing those verses is a good way to continue thinking about those verses and letting those verses work in your life.
As you memorize the verses, you will begin to see how the Word of God is active and alive. Apart from daily Bible Reading, you should also consider memorizing verses. The Spirit of God works in the life of the believer and I like to think of reading and memorizing verses as the food or fuel the Holy Spirit needs to effectively work in my life. If I don’t feed myself with the Word of God, how do I expect the Spirit to use the Word of God to guide me, correct me, or encourage me?
Choosing the Verses
Some of the difficulty in beginning to memorize verses is choosing which ones to memorize. I wouldn’t worry too much about verse selection for the time being. To start things off, pick a verse that spoke to you or stood out in your reading.
If you are like me, and your memory is not the best, you may want to consider memorizing short bible verses to begin with. As you develop your memorizing skills you will quickly move onto longer verses.
How many and how often?
Some people decide to memorize one verse per day. I have a hard time with that and am not able to keep up with the pace. Remember that part of the goal is to memorize the verse, and keep it memorized. Being able to quote a verse one day and then not being able to quote it the following day, does not constitute having it memorized.
Your goal should be to have it memorized in such a way that weeks or months or years down the road when you hear someone start quoting a verse you know, you can join in and finish quoting it without pause.
I prefer memorizing one verse per week. That is, picking one verse and for seven days reading it, memorizing it, reviewing it. Repetition is the key to success. Part of the exercise is not only to memorize but also to understand what the verse is saying. While you are going through the process of memorizing it, the bonus is, that you will also be meditating on it.
Once you have finished the week, it will be time to choose another verse.
Repetition and Review
With memorizing, as with many things in life, repetition is the key to success. After having reviewed the verse for seven days you might be tempted to chalk it up as “memorized”. Don’t stop there, keep repeating it.
Timely review is one of the best reinforcement tools there is. Don’t forget to keep reviewing the verses you have in your memory bank. Reviewing it a few times in the week, or weeks, following will continue to firmly etch it into your memory. That is why I encourage you to keep track of the verses you are memorizing and have them at hand for quick reference and for a quick refresher.
Memorizing Buddy
Let’s face it, memorizing verses on your own can be difficult and boring. Why not try to add a little life to the process by making it fun and enjoyable.
One option is to find a memorizing buddy. A family member, a co-worker, a friend, someone who like you, wants to memorize Scripture. As the week goes on, and you start memorizing the verse, you can help each other out. Not only will your memorizing buddy encourage you, correct you and laugh with you, they will help keep you accountable to the goals you set out.
Play Games
Who said you couldn’t have fun with the Bible? You can make a game out of memorizing verses. When you meet up with your buddy, or chat on the phone, or wherever you might be in contact, test each other with a pop quiz. Set up the verse reference (book, chapter, verse) as a trigger. When one of you says the reference, the other responds by quoting the verse.
Another option you can use, is the recording function on your phone. Once a day (or as often as you like), record yourself quoting the verse. If you are doing it on your own, replay it and listen for any mistakes you might have made. If you are working with your memorizing buddy, send them the audio and wait for the confirmation or correction message.
The “old-fashioned” way to have a little fun, is to build up your own set of flashcards. Write the verse on one side, and write the reference on the other. When you pull up the card, whatever is showing is your trigger. You need to respond with what is on the other side of the card. So, if the reference shows up, you quote the verse. If the verse shows up, you say the reference. You can do this on your own, and you can use it with your memorizing buddy. You pull up the card and show them one side, they in turn must tell you what is on the other side.
Don’t be afraid to change things up. I will provide other options in future posts.
Theme Bible Verses
A good way to gain traction as you begin to memorize verses, is to pick verses that are related by a theme. This will help you maintain focus and will also build up your knowledge about this theme in Scripture. You might consider doing groupings of four or eight verses using themes such as creation, salvation, encouragement, faith, hope, eternal life etc…
Verses by the Number
There are 31,102 verses in the English KJV Bible. Some of them are very long, and can be very difficult to memorize. Focusing on shorter verses to begin with will give you confidence, but do not limit yourself, nor short change yourself. The challenge of memorizing verses will benefit you in ways you can’t imagine.
A fun fact for you, if you memorize one verse per week, for 52 weeks a year, you will be able to memorize the Bible in 598 years; piece of cake. If you memorize one verse per day, for 365 days per year, you will be able to memorize the Bible in 85 years; no sweat. On a more realistic note, if you memorize one verse per week for 52 weeks per year, you will have memorized 520 verses in 10 years. An impressive feat.
Action Point: Start Memorizing
- If you want to pick your own verses and start memorizing, that is a great choice. I have prepared a chart for you to write down the verses you are selecting in order to keep them handy for periodic review and to keep track of your progress.
- I have also given you the option of beginning with a preselected list of verses that I have prepared for you.
- Download the Printable Memory Verse PDF – Preselected Chart here (link to be added soon)
- If you have a Bible Verse Memorizing system please leave a comment and share it with us. Someone will more than likely find it useful and be thankful for the idea.
- Get ready for next year with one of a selection of elegant 2019 Daily Verse Calendars
The calendar is a good suggestion. I have a small book that I like to breeze through called “Jesus Calling” . It gives me small snippets from the bible to think about when I need some comfort.
Hi Alison,
Thanks for sharing. Glad to hear you have a “go to” book with Scripture that you use as a pick me up.
Life can be tough and the comforts of the Word of God is what keeps us going.
All the best.