How many Bible verses do you know by memory? How well can you memorize a verse? Why do you memorize Bible verses? What is your favorite verse? Do you have a Life Verse?
I grew up in Sunday School being encouraged to memorize Bible verses every week. Even in our family devotions my Mom made it a point to familiarize me with the Word of God early on in life. I am truly privileged and grateful for my parents bringing me up this way.
In my teenage years, I belonged to a Youth Discipleship Program and our Bible Study material was from The Navigators. Together with this lesson was a set of Memory Verse cards. Each weekly lesson/chapter comes with 2 memory verses. This Topical Memory System is composed of 72 Bible verses, divided into 7 sets each with a specific topic. The purpose was that when you finish The Navigators Series we were using, you will have memorized 72 Bible verses to keep in your heart, to post in your mirror, planner, car dashboard, walls of your room, or wherever you think you can see it most often and be reminded of (especially when challenging times are around or when you go out and share the Word of God with your friends, they become really handy!).
I had these MEMORY VERSE CARDS for almost 30 years, we started our youth group Navigators Bible Study when I was still in High School. I have carried these CARDS with me through my dormitory days in college, to living abroad in London and now these are still with me here in California and getting ready to hand these down to my 9-year old boy who loves to fiddle with my things and to give him the benefit of the doubt for being so nosy, he can start using them.
Look down below is a picture of these said cards...(I must say, they still look good considering they are three decades old! not to stressing my age too much). Here I have stacked them up in sets. If you will notice on the right hand side, the blue card tells you of the seven main topics the verses were divided into namely, A. Live the New Life; B. Proclaim Christ, C. Rely on God's Resources, D. Be Christ's Disciples, E. Grow in Christlikeness and F. Develop Christian Character. I just recently checked The Navigators website and they still offer these Topical Memory System (TMS) that you can buy online or download on their app (of course there's an APP for this! WINK).
Memorizing Verses is actually fun and it is also a discipline. You have to get into a routine of reading the Scriptures; discipline your mind into memorization by repeatedly reading it and maybe re-writing it. They say that the more senses you use, the better you can remember it. Our Little Man has his own journal where he writes a Bible Verse every week to memorize. He is 9 and I start him with short, simple and yet powerful words to live by.
Here are seven vital memory habits to develop and maintain for a successful SCRIPTURE MEMORY as suggested by The Navigators when using their TMS.
START EARLY. Begin your memory work early in the day.
CARRY OUR PACK. Keep your cards with you; review in free moments during the day.
LEARN TOPICS AND REFERENCES. Always state the topic first, then the reference. Next, quote the verse and repeat the reference.
MAINTAIN WORD PERFECTION. Keeping your standards high will bolster your confidence.
REVIEW ALL VERSES DAILY. For success review all memorized verses at least once each day six days a week.
CHECK OUT NEW VERSES. Be certain you have learned all new verses correctly. At week's end write them out for yourself or quote them to a friend.
OVER LEARN YOUR VERSES. At least 36 repetitions, once a day for six weeks, are necessary to give a verse sufficient over learning to assure instant recall. After this, they should be kept available for periodic review in order to keep them sharp.
How helpful are these tips? They are the best, sounds like a prescription to a new medication, then again it is! A prescription for our thirsty souls, for our depleting source of encouragement and weakening spiritual life in Jesus Christ. Take a dose or you can even take as much as you want of these Memory Verse each day, the more the better! No worries about getting an overdose! Keep doing it. Make it a habit! Keep it in your head, in your heart and it will build up your Spirit too! Remember what the Scripture says, "Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful." [Joshua 1:8]
Have you all heard of Spiritual Disciplines? Do you know what these disciplines are? Are you doing all these disciplines as a Jesus follower? Discipline according to Merriam-Webster Dictionary is "an orderly or prescribed conduct or pattern of behavior". If that is not clear enough to me and you, I don't know how else to define Discipline any better than that (emphasis)! In the Proverbs 31 Ministries current OBS "Hidden Joy", Spiritual Discipline is simply described as "habits, that when practiced, make us more like Jesus (sanctification)". Easy, right? These six spiritual disciplines are as follows -
Prayer
Studying and Memorizing Scriptures
Fasting
Rest
Worship
Fellowship
So, our blog today is indeed a reminder of one of our Spiritual Disciplines. If you have not got into the habit of Studying and Memorizing the Scriptures, it is not too late. Start today. Start NOW even. I have a few Bible Verses quoted on this blog, you can start with these or try The Navigators TMS app. Try it, do it. There is nothing too lose keeping GOD's word in your hearts and minds, all the more there is to gain! As you would recall an earlier Blog Post entitled "We All Need A Quiet Time", God's word offers and gives more than we can imagine. It has the answers to our life questions, help in times of needs, prayers for different purposes, greatest stories of faith ever told and even the best of historical facts yet printed. Now, if we keep these Words in our hearts and minds, they become our weapons against the enemy (Satan) when the temptation to sin begins. Oh yes, it is true that even him knows how to use the Scripture (to lure us into his side) but if we are well-charged, fully-equipped for this spiritual warfare then we will win and we will win with the LORD on our side! We will be victorious for the glory of GOD!
Above is a short video of a few Little Jesus followers (with permission granted by my Mommy friends and families) I have collected to show and encourage us all to get into the habit of Studying and Memorizing GOD's Words cause if these little ones can do it, SO CAN WE! And let us all continue to live looking more like Jesus everyday.
"Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as reminders on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, speaking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates, so that as long as the heavens are above the earth, your days and those of your children may be multiplied in the land the LORD swore to give your fathers." [Deuteronomy 11:18-21]
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