Growing up my Wednesday nights were spent at Awana. For those who don’t know, Awana is a youth program where kids play games, have fun, and learn Scripture. I didn’t know it at the time, but my 8 or so years in Awana was one of the best gifts my parents gave me. As I got older, God’s Word was firmly implanted in my mind and in my heart. Even when I didn’t have the printed pages of the Bible in front of me, I had immediate access to the truth it taught because of the many verses I had learned.
One of the benefits of Awana is that there is built-in accountability for your verse memorization goals. Kids study the verses during the week and then recite them from memory to one of their leaders. When you are memorizing verses by yourself, it is easy to trick your mind into thinking that you know them. When you have to say them aloud, the veracity of your claims is apparent.
Because so much good comes from memorizing God’s Word with others, I wanted to provide some suggestions on how we can do that as adults. As I often say, the fact that we pursue Christ alongside other believers is something to be treasured; it is a good gift of God. Therefore, we should not forsake that gift when it comes to hiding His Word in our hearts.
If you want to memorize more Scripture, and I hope that you do, here are five more ways to accomplish that, with a focus on doing so with others:
- Memorize with a Friend – One of the best ways to be held accountable for memorizing God’s Word is to ask someone to join you in the endeavor. Perhaps you and another person in your Bible Study group can pick a verse from the study each week and commit it to memory. Another suggestion (and one that I have used on more than one occasion) is to ask someone if they will hold you accountable to memorizing a Bible verse by committing to send them a recording of you saying that selected verse by a selected date. This has been especially helpful when I want to memorize a long passage of Scripture. A friend and I may choose to add a verse to what we are memorizing each week and we text each other a video of us reciting what we have learned. As we add on verses, we start from the beginning making sure we do not lose what we previously committed to memory. It is helpful if you and your friend are both memorizing a passage because you can encourage and spur one another on, but this certainly isn’t required. As Christians we should care about other believers’ progress in sanctification. So even if they aren’t memorizing the passage with you, you can still record your recitation and send it to them. As they listen to you say the verse, they will be blessed by hearing God’s Word!
- Memorize as a Family – One of the ways that I try to increase the amount of Scripture I have memorized is by memorizing the same verses that my kids are learning. If they are studying verses for Awana, Vacation Bible School, or summer camp – I make it my aim to know them as well. Sometimes the verses are already familiar to me, and our study sessions serve as a review of verses I already know. Other times, the verses are new and although they tend to commit them to memory much faster than I do, I work hard to memorize it as well. As I mentioned in my previous post, sometimes I have written their verses with a dry erase marker on their bathroom mirror. This way every time anyone in our family passes it, we see the verse and it reinforces what we are trying to learn. We also review their verses in the car which requires that I know them! Additionally, sometimes I will have my kids quiz each other in the car which means that as they study, I’m studying too. Too often I fear that we make a distinction between our personal spiritual disciplines and the spiritual disciplines that we are trying to teach our kids. When we can, it is beneficial to grow in our knowledge of God together. When we do this, not only are we making the most of the opportunities to learn God’s Word, but our kids will also appreciate the opportunity to show they learn the verses even quicker than their parents!
- Talk about Your Memory Verses – Although the first two suggestions in this list involved other people actively working with you to help you learn the Word of God, that is not the only way to utilize the body of Christ to help you memorize more verses. Another way that you can do this is to simply talk about the verse that you are studying when you are in conversation with other believers. It is hard for someone to effectively talk about something that they don’t know, so if you commit to have at least 3 conversations in the week about your memory verse, that is going to help propel you to study the verse more diligently. Of course, you don’t only have to talk about your memory verse with people who are part of the family of God. Perhaps He will give you an opportunity to share what you are memorizing with an unchurched neighbor or a discouraged coworker. Far too often when people ask us what we are “up to,” we give only the answers that we think they want to hear. Let us use those opportunities to share that we are working on memorizing a new verse, and then share with them what that verse is! It is certainly a way to redeem a conversation that otherwise may stay on a surface level.
- Pray Your Memory Verses Aloud – In my previous post, I shared that one way to help us memorize more of God’s Word is to incorporate verses into our prayer time. The implicit implication was that we would do so in our times of private prayer. However, as I stated previously, the more senses we involve in our memorization efforts, the more effective they are going to be. Therefore, we should also strive to incorporate our memory verses into our time of corporate prayer. Of course, we don’t want to think of prayer as primarily a memorization tool and if we did so, we would be dishonoring the privilege that prayer is. But we also shouldn’t shy away from praying Scripture when we are gathered with others to petition our Heavenly Father. When we speak God’s Word back to Him, both our prayers and our knowledge of God’s Word are enhanced.
It may seem strange to some that I have devoted two posts on how we can memorize more Scripture. To them, memorizing God’s Word may seem like a rather mundane or elementary topic. Unfortunately, I fear it is something that adult Christians rarely commit to do. One of the thoughts that constantly motivates me in my memorization efforts is this: if I were imprisoned for my faith and no longer had access to a Bible, would I know enough Scripture to preach God’s Word to myself for however long I was in that cell? I realize that might sound dramatic to some, but many Christians throughout history and across the globe have found themselves in that position. I want to know and cherish God’s Word in my heart to such a degree that I can confidently answer “yes” to that question. And when I commit His Word to memory, it means whether I can access a Bible or not, I can always meditate on and be encouraged by His Truth.
