In last Sunday’s sermon on Ephesians 6:10-20, apart from other things, we looked at the sword of the Spirit – which is the Word of God. We found that the only weapon we have in the battle against Satan and his schemes is the Word of God. Jesus has won the victory over evil, sin, death and hell. And we need to actively live out this victory. We do this by wielding the weapon of God’s Word. One of the ways we do this is by memorising Scripture.
I’m super keen to see 5:17ers be a group of people who wield the weapon of the Word and reap the victory God promises. Thus, Scripture memorising will be on the front of our agenda for the coming weeks. We’ll start with our first memory verse this Sunday (Mark 11:22) – and below is a help from the ministry of The Navigators to aid our memorising. You’ll want to refer to these principles often in the coming weeks:
As you start to memorise a verse:
1. Read in your Bible the context of each verse you memorise.
2. Try to gain a clear understanding of what each verse actually means (you may want to read the verse in other Bible translations or paraphrases to get a better grasp of the meaning.)
3. Read the verse through several times thoughtfully, aloud or in a whisper. This will help you grasp the verse as a whole.
4. Discuss the verse with God in prayer, and continue to seek His help for success in Scripture memory.
While you are memorising Scripture:
5. Work on saying the verse aloud as much as possible.
6. If the verse has more than one phrase in it – learn the first phrase of the verse. Once you have learnt this and have repeated it several times, continue adding more phrases after you can quote correctly what you have already learned.
7. Think about how the verse applies to you and your daily circumstances.
8. Always include the Scripture reference when memorising the verse.
After you can quote correctly the reference and verse:
9. It is helpful to write the verse out. This deepens the impression in your mind.
10. Review the verse immediately after learning it, and repeat it frequently in the next few days. This is crucial for getting the verse firmly fixed in mind because of how quickly we tend to forget something recently learned.
11. Review, review, review! Repetition is the best way to engrave the verse on your memory.
(Source: The Navigators Scripture Memory Course: Topical Memory System, p15-16)
this has been really helpful, thanks for the post & push