Meditation & Memorization
Open Your Bible
Deuteronomy 6:1-9, Psalm 1:1-3, Psalm 119:11, Matthew 4:1-11, 2 Timothy 3:14-17
BY Kristie Anyabwile
I don’t have an excellent memory or attention span, so I never really thought I could remember large portions of Scripture. I was content with picking up verses here and there as I studied, read, or listened to sermons. And I thought it was pretty cool if the pastor happened to be reading through a passage and I could follow along from memory every few verses or so.
Fast forward a few years later, when our pastor challenged our church to memorize the entire book of 1 Timothy. I found a little guide on extended Scripture memorization, and a group of us decided to take one chapter each and commit it to memory. This gave me confidence that I could do more, so I decided to work slowly toward memorizing a whole book of the Bible. Again, our pastor challenged the congregation to memorize it as he preached through short sections each week.
I decided to memorize one verse each day. I broke the verse down into two or three parts, focused on learning shorter sections, and then put the whole verse together. Once I had a few verses memorized, I worked on understanding what I’d read by following the argument of the author or the storyline presented. That’s when I saw how memorization and meditation work together.
Memorization is the ability to recall what you’ve read verbatim, so I had to practice a lot! I’d listen to a verse on audio while brushing my teeth or taking a shower or folding laundry, while waiting in the carpool line or shopping. I filled my downtime with the Word of God. Eventually, it became a sweet habit, and I found myself rehearsing God’s Word throughout the day.
Meditation is an ongoing conversation between the Holy Spirit and yourself about what you’re learning in God’s Word. In this way, you learn to hide His Word in your heart (Psalm 119:11) and discover meaningful ways to apply it to your life. Through the practice of meditation, I found myself starting to incorporate verses of Scripture into my prayer life. Soon, I found that I had God’s Word ready to encourage a friend. When I couldn’t sleep at night, I would rehearse my verses and fall asleep with God’s Word on my lips.
I have experienced the truth of Deuteronomy 6:6 that says, “These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart.” Even in more anxious times—through the whirring of the MRI scanner or when counting down as the anesthesia put me to sleep—God’s Word came to mind, comforting me. God’s Word, memorized over days and weeks and months, had made its way from my eyes and ears and mouth to my heart. And out of the abundance of what was in my heart, my mouth began to continually speak the words of life and truth to myself and to others (Matthew 12:34).
132 thoughts on "Meditation & Memorization"
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Beautiful
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Lauren, I love that you want to start somewhere – and my biggest encouragement is to START! I like reading the SRT studies that there is Bible memory built in on the Sunday lessons so you don’t have to pick and choose.
You’re right though that context is important. Here are a few other suggestions to maybe help:
-You could maybe start with a verse you often go to or “know” and then start to memorize verses around it – ex: John 3:16, then add 3:17. Then 3:18… then eventually back up to the beginning of the chapter, etc. And you get to take time to study the context of it, too when you do that!
– Or, if you’re looking to memorize a book, choose a shorter book that you love to read and are often convicted/ encouraged by and start at chapter 1 verse 1 and take it bit by bit. That’s helpful because you often get author and context in the introductions.
-Memorize a Psalm? Psalm 1 is a good one!As an aside, a good tool is the Verses Project – it sets verses to music. Also, I love using the Dwell app to listen to scripture I want to mediate on or memorize.
Hope that helps you, Lauren. I said a prayer tonight that the Lord would direct you in this. ♡
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Any suggestions for how to decide WHAT to memorize? It feels overwhelming or random to choose something blindly, as I don’t know much about context of the individual scriptures.
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Memorizing is huge! Right now I’m memorizing the new city catechism with my kids and it is great to recall those truths and I pray that it will stay in them too- that they will know the truths of the faith as they grow up in an insane world where right is wrong and wrong is right.
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Thanks for the encouragement. I have never tried to memorize verses. It will definitely be a new experience for me
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Just like the verse His delight is in the Lords instruction I truly do delight in how the Word resonates in my heart. I look forward for the opportunity to talk about what I’ve been meditating on.
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I love this so much! Kristie who wrote the devotional was on their Psalm 119 podcast a few months ago, and she inspired me to memorize Psalm 119 (176 verses). I’m over half way through and can declare that this is changing the way I think and go about my day. Memorizing scripture has been a beautiful and essential addition to my daily rhythms.
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I’ve always struggled with memorizing the Bible but this gives me some hope and motivation to start fresh and keep trying!
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