TODAY’S SIGNATURE VERSE ••• I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you. (Psalm 119:11 ESV)
PRAISE & PRAYER PROMPT ••• This past Sunday was my day to teach Sunday School and because I was told we’d have a guest speaker visiting our class to talk about missions, I knew I wouldn’t have as much time for a lesson. So, I decided to skip teaching and have our class play a game instead. It was a hybrid of Jeopardy and Sword Drills.
One of the ladies from my class also serves with me on a committee and last night, after our committee meeting, we were chatting about the game in the church parking lot. Our class is hilariously competitive, even without a prize on the table, but it’s all in good spirit and everyone seemed to have fun with it!
But what really astounded us the most was one of the gentlemen in our class… for almost every Bible verse that came up on the screen, he would lean over and whisper it to his wife. While everyone else was scrambling through pages of their Bibles to find the verses for the hybrid-Sword-drill challenge, Wally had done what the Psalmist wrote in Psalm 119:11, “I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.”
I stink at memorizing, so I am in awe of anyone who can do it. But to have the ability to recall over 30 verses at random without notice or preparation? I was astounded! And I’m certain that those 30 were just the tip of the iceberg for what Wally has committed to memory.
Unfortunately, because I stink at memorization, I don’t have any tips for you… because none have worked for me. I want to use the excuse from the meme that says, “My brain is like an internet browser: 17 tabs are open, 3 of them are frozen, and I have no idea where the music is coming from.” But honestly, I was terrible at memorizing long before the modern Internet (and memes) existed (insert the sounds of crying here).
If you are good at memorizing, then please—invest in storing God’s Word in your heart! Know what He says so that at a moment’s notice or when the need arises, you can easily access it!
If you’re more like me, I can at least give you hope, if not tips. Because this is my method. Read your Bible. Then read it again. And again. And again. As you become familiar with Scripture, you may not have total recall, but you’ll be able to find it with a few keyword searches or at least, have the gist of it in your mind when you need it. I even have a text shortcut on my phone that when I type “BV,” it automatically types “Bible verse about” so I don’t have to keep typing that part of a search. And tools like OpenBible.info and BibleHub are great tools to search topical verses.
Please note—I’m not advocating for adding to or taking away from God’s word, but simply having enough familiarity that you can at least summarize, even if you can’t give a precise book/chapter/verse reference. This is important because when we’re faced with temptation or when we’re trying to ascertain God’s point of view for a circumstance, we will always benefit from having God’s Word readily available. When we hold Scripture in our hearts, in conjunction with prayer, we have what we need for any situation.
Today, as you pray, thank God for His Holy Word! Ask the Holy Spirit to help you commit His word to memory or at least, have some degree of recall so you have it readily available whenever you need it.
SHARING ••• Please feel free to comment or share this blog with others. Also, download a free Bible-In-A-Year Reading Plan when you subscribe to www.MyGraceFullLife.com! ***Unless noted otherwise, all Scripture references are from the ESV translation.
2 Responses
Denise:
I’m reading an excellent book right now on learning, and the psychologists who co-wrote have found that using recall and intermittent testing techniques are much mor effective than t re-reading material when it comes to putting into long-term memory. One example is flash cards, which almost all of us have used at some point in our lives.
My parents had me commit Bible verses to memory from a young age, but like you, I don’t have the best memory. I have found that recording my verses and then playing them back in the car has been a good way to keep them available in my memory.
The book on learning by the way, is Make it Stick.