Yikes! I could never memorize an entire book of the Bible – maybe a couple of verses. This sentiment assumes that memorizing books would prove to be more time consuming and difficult than memorizing scattered verses.
Let me tell you about a man who was in my church in Mississippi. One day he came up to me and announced “I wanted you to know that I’m going to memorize the book of Philippians this year. I’ve counted 104 verses, and there’s 52 weeks in the year, so that’s two verses a week. I think I can do it.”
His confidence came from breaking it down. Though not my method, his was a simple, doable plan. Now let’s just suppose that he accomplished his goal. At the end of the year he would have an entire book memorized – Philippians. The next year he would be motivated to take on another book of similar size:
- 1 Peter = 105 verses
- 2 Timothy = 83 verses
- 1 John = 105 verses
If he did this for ten years, at the same pace of two verses a week, he could have ten books memorized in ten years. Wow! A little insight here: I’ve done 15 books in 20 years, so you see I’m not working as hard as you might think.
Two reasons why memorizing books and passages is easier than scattered verses:
- You don’t have to memorize the references. The #1 reason people don’t like to memorize Scripture – they have trouble with the references. Me too!
- Reviewing is easier and quicker. It only takes 2-3 minutes to review an entire chapter. Review like you would a poem or a song, and do this review while you do other things: getting ready in the morning, exercising, walking the dog, driving to work, waiting for water to boil. Capture pockets of time throughout your day.
I always recommend starting with a Psalm before attempting a book. Psalms are beautiful and enjoyable. After you’ve done 3 or 4 psalms, you now have confidence that a 3-4 chapter books is doable.
Does this remove some of the intimidation?
Wow!! Looks like the blog is up and running. I am very excited to be encouraged along the way in my scripture memory. That was me just a few short years ago – Intimidated to memorize long passages of scripture. I didn’t think it was possible. I have since discovered that “Nothing is impossible with God.” Luke 1:37
I wrote this post knowing it was a huge stumbling block for many. Your words are encouraging and true. God is able!
So encouraging! Yes, it can be done. Our brains are really wired to do it, aren’t they? Repetition makes it sink in deep. Love the blog!
The brain is an amazing machine. We tell it what we want it to store by repeating the information over and over. What could be more important to store than God’s Word?