Week 4 - Memorizing Scripture
This week we will focus on the memorizing of scripture. Now before you run for the hills, I'm only asking you in a week or so to memorize a few verses, and whats even more exciting… you are free to choose those verses.
This practice is an exceptional spiritual practice for three reasons.
1. This is a wonderful way to gain meaning from a piece of the bible. When one takes the time to write the wonderful words of life on their hearts, over time, new and deeper meaning is brought out of these words to the point of affecting one's life from the inside out.
2. This is a response to a culture of available information where it is extremely easy at any time to avail oneself of any given piece of knowledge. The byproduct of this is that we rarely store information in ourselves anymore. It has become so easy to "look it up" that we rarely take the time anymore to engage in the practice of truly knowing something.
3. When one writes these words on their hearts, they are taking the great step of making the words of scripture readily available to themselves in challenging times or in joyous times. When the words are ready, stored in the spirit of the disciple, they can easily come to mind in a time of despair or celebration, a time or seeking or revelation. The words become so much more relevant as we are able to put them into use and set them into context at any given moment. Our lives truly become living gospels when we achieve this practice.
The Practice
This practice involves finding a scripture and spending some serious time with it. If you are a person who memorizes well, use whatever techniques you are comfortable with. If you are a person who is fearful at the idea of trying to memorize a piece of scripture, I can give you a few tips.
Take it one verse at a time.
If you select a piece of scripture that is say 3 verses, work just on the first, second or third and when that one starts to take hold, add another on. Don't try to do too much at once.
Get off the paper.
As soon as you can, even if you are unsure, try reciting it out loud without looking at it. You'll advance so much more quickly by doing this because you'll find out very fast, which parts you've internalized and which you haven't.
Visualize it.
See it chunks in your mind so that you can focus on reciting a chunk rather than the whole thing. Its like remembering a phone number, you usually remember the first three numbers and the last four as two separate chunks, not seven individual numbers. One thing that might be helpful here for some of you is to type it out in phrase lines rather than in verses. When you then attempt to recite it, you can visualize the phrase lines instead of the verses or layout that appears in your Bible.
Get it word for word.
With whichever translation you use(NASB is recommended for its translational accuracy), nail it word for word. Why, you ask? Well if you strive to get it word for word, you will achieve in fully writing the words on your heart. Anything short of this may leave you with just the gist of text, which is only one step beyond simply knowing the chapter and verse numbers and coupling that with the general theme. We want to have the words, as they are given us by the Holy Spirit, written on our hearts.
Some other tips:
Here is a link to Bible Gateway's segment on memorizing scripture.
Here is a link to Mark Driscoll's website with tips for memorizing scripture.
Scripture Resources:
You can find scriptures to use by referencing the "Daily Office," which can be found by clicking here.
You could use the scriptures that come from the Lectionary for this coming Sunday. You can find them by clicking here.
Some other ones that might be good.
Matthew 6: 25-34 - Any segment.
Revelation 21: 1-5a(This is the one I did in class.)
Of course feel free to use any other scripture that you feel drawn to in this practice.
Your Assignment
Choose one scripture, either from the resources above, or of your own choosing, and memorize it this week. If you feel moved by this practice, feel free to memorize more than one.
Though I don't want you to feel pressured by this practice, I do want to be pushed a little. So go ahead and be ambitious with your choice. You'll be surprised how quickly you'll be able to internalize these words.
I won't ask you to recite your scripture next Sunday unless you want to. I will open a time for that, not as a way to show what you've achieved, but as a way to give yourself an opportunity to test this practice. What I will ask you to do is to share which scripture you've memorized and how having these words internalized within you has been meaningful to you.
Go to it with joy!