God’s Word is a treasure trove. And treasure is exciting! As we become women who learn to study Scripture and grow bold in our faith, we need to be hiding God’s Word in our hearts through memorization. But instead of sharing with you the basic ways to memorize – reading it several times, writing it down, etc. – I want to share with you 10 fresh ways to memorize Scripture. Many of which utilize the thing we carry around often… our phones.
Why Memorize Scripture?
We all have that one movie we can quote 90% of (mine is Pride and Prejudice). And we memorize it because we’ve watched it several times, we find joy in knowing all the details of the movie, and it’s fun to be able to reference it in random conversations. But while memorizing movie lines is fun, memorizing Scripture is life giving.
Memorization is a means to storing God’s Word in your heart. It’s the tool we have that allows us to dwell on what God says when we don’t have the Bible open in front of us. What we store in our hearts and our minds the Holy Spirit uses to comfort us, teach us, and convict us. How many times have you stored away a verse only to be reminded of it by the Holy Spirit later on when you needed it? Yet if you hadn’t stored it away, it wouldn’t have been readily available in your time of need.
There could come a time when you don’t have your Bible, whether because it was forcefully taken from you or you’re in a spot where you don’t have access to it. I don’t write this reason to cause you to fear, but this is a very real possibility. I think of the several Christians being persecuted around the world – Niger and even Canada. If we are ever to be in a time of persecution without our Bibles, it will be life giving to us to have God’s Word written on our heart. Memorizing Scripture allows you to carry God’s Word with you, even when you don’t have a physical and tangible copy.
“I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you” Psalm 119:11. As mentioned above, memorization is a way to store God’s Word in our hearts. And we do so in order to know God’s commandments and not sin against Him.
Fresh Ways to Memorize Scripture
1. Lock Screens
I’ve picked up my phone 83 times today (it’s almost 8:30 pm). With as much time as we spend on our phones and how often we look at them, our lock screens become the perfect place to keep our memory verse. Use Over App or Canva to create free backgrounds for your phone. Every time you pick up your phone, you’ll be reminded of your verse. The more you see it, the more it’ll root in your heart.
2. Set several daily notifications on your phone to remind you to recite the verse you are memorizing.
Only set 3-5 notifications or alerts on your phone. Let’s avoid getting annoyed at the sound of memorizing a verse. Each time you hear the alert, try to recite your memory verse. If you can’t recite it, look it up and read it a few times.
3. Give yourself minor rewards for memorizing a verse – but you only get the reward when you can recite the verse aloud to another person.
Find rewards that actually give you incentives to memorize a verse. If you’re not sure what to reward yourself with, ask yourself what you usually say “no” to, yet still would like to have/get. Maybe it’s that extra unnecessary latte or that extra minute in the shower. If you don’t want to reward yourself, know that you’re getting the best reward by storing God’s Word in your heart.
4. Use the verse you’re memorizing in your prayers.
You can always pray Scripture. In fact, when you’re not sure what to pray, pray God’s Word! In this instance, try using your memory verse when you pray.
5. Take time to ponder each word in the verse.
Meditate on the words that make up the verse, slowly taking your time to recognize each word rather than reading the verse quickly over and over.
6. Do a Bible verse study to help plant the verse in your mind and heart.
Studying the verse you’re memorizing will help you remember the verse a lot better. If you’re not sure how to do a Bible verse study, click here.
7. If you don’t want to use sticky notes, create (or buy) a pretty print of the verse and hang it in a frame.
I personally don’t love putting sticky notes all over the house. They tend to lose their stickiness after a while and I don’t like that it creates a cluttered look. Instead, make a print (Over App or Canva is great for this, or use your own handwriting and creativity) or buy a print and hang it in a frame. Swap it out every time you’re memorizing a new verse.
8. The Bible Memory App
This app makes memorizing Scripture a little bit easier with the fun tools it incorporates. Try it out here!
9. Write the verse down anytime you’re writing on paper – your planner, to-do list, grocery list, cards, letters, notes, etc.
Or do this electronically as well if you use your phone for everything. Whatever your making notes on, write the verse down off to the side.
10. While you’re on the go and have some free minutes here and there, look up synonyms and definitions of the words in your memory verse to get a better understanding of the verse.
If we’re going to carry our phone around everywhere, we might as well use it to deepen our faith in Christ.
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Memorizing Bible verses is not always an easy task, yet the fruit that stems from memorizing makes the struggle worth it. Memorization takes time. It will come easier to some and be harder for others. But my prayer is that you are boldly willing to take the time to store up His words in your heart.
You’ve likely heard of the same ways to memorize Scripture – read it a lot, write it down a lot, listen to it, etc. And while these tactics bring results, I wanted to give you some fresh ways to memorize Scripture with the tools you literally have in your hand several times a day. I want memorizing the Bible to be exciting and challenging, yet rewarding.
You don’t have to memorize Scripture, you get to.
What verse are you trying to memorize right now? What fresh way to memorize Scripture are you going to try?
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