I've really been convicted lately how important memorizing scripture is. As my mom always says, "You never know when there may come a time when you don't have the Bible, so it's important to have hidden in your heart." I had been slacking off for awhile, as it does take some effort and mental work, but a few months ago, it dawned on me how much time I had wasted, and how much I could have memorized in the previous 5 or 6 months.
Having grown up with Psalm 119:11 word-perfect, you would think that the wonderful benefit of memorizing God's word would be constantly with me. Unfortunately though, it seems that most of those verses that I learned as a child, I repeat blithely without a second thought as to what they mean. Familiarity, in my case, has led me to not appreciate the full value of them. I can't think of a greater incentive for memorizing Scripture than to not sin against our Lord- and yet I often think of it in 2nd place to, lets say, prayer.
So that being said, I wanted to share with you a method for memorizing Scripture that blew my mind away the first time I tried it, for its simplicity yet effectiveness. It's based on the booklet An Approach to the Extended Memorization of Scripture, by Andrew Davis, but in the article I'm pasting here, It's been simplified by John Piper. I've been using this technique for a few months now, and can't tell you how helpful it has been. It does take longer than taking a huge chunk of Scripture and trying to lock it in your brain in 1 day, but it really makes it stick... and that's what counts. And the work you do each day is in such manageable sizes that its perfect for memorizing chapters, and even books of the Bible, something I never thought I would or could be doing.
So from someone who's put it to the test, it works. Try it!
How do you memorize Scripture?
By John Piper. © Desiring God. Website: desiringGod.org
First of all, by praying for discipline and setting aside time.
I set aside a block of time in the morning (an hour or so) to be with God alone, reading my Bible, praying for my family, praying for the church, and praying for my soul. And I can generally finish my four chapters or so of Bible reading in about 20 minutes, depending on how long I pause and contemplate. And my prayers may extend for 20 or 30 minutes. So I've got 5 or 10 minutes in that hour.
If you decide to memorize Scripture for 5 or 10 minutes a day, you can memorize a lot of Scripture! I mean, it's incredible! And I put circles around the paragraphs or the verses, and I put a little "M" beside them if I worked on them so I can come back and review.
I got my help here from a little booklet about how to memorize long passages of Scripture. And basically he says to take your first verse, read it ten times, and then close your eyes or shut your Bible and say it ten times. And that's the end for that day. (I think if you do that you can memorize almost any verse in the Bible: ten times read, ten times said, and then you've got it.)
Then you come back the next day. You open your Bible up, and you say that verse again 5 or 10 times. If it's easy, just 5 times. And then you do the same thing with the next verse. And then you do them both together. And then you shut your Bible and you leave. Then you come back.
So basically, the answer is: repetition and review. Repetition and review.
Here's one other little tip that I use. If I pick a verse or a couple of verses or a paragraph, I'll put it on a piece of paper and I'll carry it here in my shirt pocket. And at little times during the day, I'll pull it out and read it for my soul. For my soul! I don't memorize verses that don't help my soul.
I'm not into mechanical memorizing. I'm into fighting the fight of faith. I want to memorize Scripture so that I can defeat the devil at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, that's why! It's so that I can minister to a saint in the hospital at 10 o'clock at night if I've forgotten my Bible. This is for our soul. So I carry it around and I review it. Review is so crucial.
So I would just encourage people to set aside 5 or 10 minutes, and then repeat, repeat, repeat. Read the verse 10 times, say it 10 times, close your Bible, and then review it during the day from a piece of paper.
If you'd rather, you can listen to the audio of this transcript here.
2 comments:
That is a good idea for memorization. I too find that when I don't have my Bible it is so hard to remember verses that you would like to share with other people.
And I don't mean to flood your blog with comments, but this was so, so important for me to read today. I've been praying for commitment just for devotions, and have been finding about ten minutes of time a morning for them - not enough, when I realize I've been given 24 hours a day, and I give him roughly 600 seconds of it!
I think I need some "Structure" to my devotions - I'm working my way through the bible, but I need to pray, keep a prayer journal or something, and memorization might be good to add, too.
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