How To Memorize Scripture: 8 Helpful Tactics

In this article, we will look at some of the best ways on how to memorize scripture. So, grab your favorite verses, and let’s start memorizing!

The Word of God is an anchor for every believer. The Bible shows us everything we need to know about God and about how to walk as Christians. Among the best ways to apply the Scriptures to your life is to memorize them, but this can feel super hard and impossible.

How do you memorize scriptures? What are the best methods for committing Bible verses to memory?

There are many methods of memorization out there, but not all of them work for Scripture. Scriptures are weighty (naturally and supernaturally) and can feel challenging to memorize, and they should not be misremembered or out of context.

This adds to the difficulty of memorizing the Scriptures and makes this skill even more important. But we shouldn’t let these things hinder us from trying.

Every Scripture in the Bible is essential. All Scripture is critical to the life of believers, but memorizing the Scriptures that the Holy Spirit highlights for you is an important skill to learn, as they are tools that help you strengthen your faith and walk with the Lord.

It is also super helpful during times of trials or spiritual warfare.

Let’s explore some of the best ways to memorize Scriptures from the Bible and how to keep these Scriptures active in your life. All these tactics are practical and easy to apply in our lives if we are just willing to put in the effort.

And if you are looking for help for kids please check out Bible Verses for Kids to Memorize: Top Picks for Spiritual Growth

How To Memorize Scripture

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, ¹⁷ that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. – 2 Timothy 3:16-17

Memorizing Scripture is important for all believers because it’s an ability to access God’s Word any time without needing a literal Bible.

The Bible is a direct connection to God, as it is His Word, and it contains everything we need to develop a relationship with Him, walk with Him, and demonstrate Jesus to the earth.

2 Timothy 3:16-17 teaches us that God breathes all Scripture and that it is all profitable for us. This passage also states that the Scriptures allow every believer to be complete and thoroughly equipped for every good work.

This demonstrates the importance of the Scriptures and shows us that learning them is good for every area of life, including what to believe. If you do not know the Scriptures, life as a believer can be downright tough and, if I’m being real… it’s dangerous.

When we are not anchored in God’s Word, it’s easy to be pulled from all kinds of angles and fall into false doctrines.

With this said, here are a few of the best ways a Christian can begin to memorize the Bible.

Ask God to Help You Memorize the Bible

James 1:5 says that those who lack wisdom can ask of God, who gives to all liberally without reproach. If you want to learn the Scriptures better and have them memorized, ask the Lord to help you do it.

The Bible is supernatural. Nothing of it can be only understood with just human intellect. It requires the Holy Spirit to understand it in its fullness properly. For this reason, it is vital to ask God to help you remember the Scriptures and to help you understand their meaning.

Coming to God in prayer is the best way to memorize anything in the Bible as you ask God for His help. Here are some key things you can pray for:

• Ask the Lord to bring scripture to your remembrance when you need it.
  
• Ask the Lord to make it easy or quick for you to memorize scripture.
  
• Ask the Lord to highlight the verses you are supposed to memorize.
  
• Ask the Lord for wisdom on how you should memorize the Bible.

Start By Memorizing Scriptures That Are Important To You

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. – Colossians 3:16 NKJV

The best verse to start memorizing is those that are important to you. The Scriptures you find yourself thinking about, ones the Holy Spirit has highlighted to you, or those that have the most relevance to your life or season you are in.

Memorizing these Scriptures is significantly easier because they are active and alive in your life. Applying them to your life is easy, and you feel God’s presence in them. There are many parts of the psalms I have memorized during a certain season of my life, and even though I am out of those seasons, those verses have remained in my memory.

Try committing these Scriptures to memory by reading them repeatedly, praying them, speaking them out loud, speaking them to yourself throughout the day, reminding yourself of the Scriptures, and trying to apply them to your life daily, almost like how you would do Bible affirmations.

Read The Bible Every Day

Reading the Bible daily trains you to remember the Scriptures more easily and familiarizes you with its content. You will be quicker to know what the pastor or speakers are talking about; you will know the characters and stories better. And as you continue to read and repeat, read verses start to stick.

As a young Christian, I knew nothing of the Bible. So I went crazy reading it. In high school, I averaged 25 chapters a day. Within 45-50 days, I had read the whole Bible, and I would start over again. I soon became extremely familiar with verses and stories. I would be able to recite them easily and they would come to my remembrance when situations or circumstances arose.

To be honest it is significantly more difficult to remember verses if you are not reading the Scriptures every day. The Bible is dense. There is so much to it. If you are not used to reading and digesting it, it will feel impossible to remember anything from it.

If you take time every day to read your Bible, remembering the Scriptures will feel much easier and be part of your devotional time. Simply because you are used to it and familiar with how it is written, what it says, and the heart of the Lord in the Scriptures.

Memorize One Bible Verse At A Time

If you are like me you will get overly ambitious and declare…I shall memorize 20 verses this week! Yeah, I don’t recommend doing that. I have learned that it’s easy to get overwhelmed and feel like a failure when you have too many verses you want to memorize.

Remembering only one Scripture at a time is a good technique when memorizing Scriptures. Maybe two or three if you are in the swing of memorizing and doing well. But memorizing one by one has it’s perks since it helps you stick with the context and can be very helpful for memorizing long passages of Scripture.

I had a friend who memorized whole chapters by just focusing on that one chapter alone.

If you find a section of Scripture that you want to memorize, read the passage several times and return to it daily. Memorize a new section of the passage every day by speaking it out loud, trying to remember it, and reminding yourself of it throughout the day.

Learn the next verse every day until you have memorized the entire passage. You will know that you have memorized the section when you can speak all of the Scriptures you learned without hesitation.

Writing Scripture Out

Another good way to help yourself remember the Scriptures is to write them down. Write down the verses to which the Lord leads you and those that mean the most to you.

It’s helpful to write them down by reading them as you write them. This practice forces you to read the words slowly and repeatedly and remember them as you write them.

This is an excellent method for remembering the Scriptures that have been used for generations by students of the Bible.

This is one of the methods I use in my Bible Study Planner and Romans Memory Verse Worksheets. You first fill in the gaps in the verse then you write out the whole verse. It’s a great way to

Repeating Scriptures To Yourself

Another good technique to add is to repeat them aloud. This technique is used for memorizing various forms of writing, but it is also beneficial for remembering the Scriptures. Plus, hearing the verse is powerful.

So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. – Romans 10:17

Once you have your verse picked out, simply speak it out loud multiple times. I encourage you to take it slow and really process the verse as you say it. This will help you familiarize word usage.

Keep repeating it throughout the day (write them out on a flash card), and soon you will discover that the Scriptures are easy to recite, and they will eventually be committed to memory.

** Another fun way to use repetition is to do it in song or poetry.

Apply The Scriptures To Your Life

This proactive method is powerful as you will apply the memory verse to your life. This is an effective method because it makes the scriptures practical. It is usually easier to remember something you do than to remember something you say. Now, this doesn’t work for every verse, but it will for a good chunk.

Here is an example…Your memory verse is Galatians 5:13:

For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. -Galatians 5:13

You want to apply this to your life so you take the opportunity at church to look for a way to serve others in love. You decided to help out every Thursday by visiting the elderly. You love on them and encourage them in the Lord.

Actively doing what the Scriptures say is very good to help you remember them. It makes the Bible more alive and active in your life, which is essential for every believer.

Talk About The Scriptures With Other Believers

When trying to memorize Scriptures, a good method is to talk about these Scriptures or passages of the Bible with other believers. Connecting with other Christians and reading the Bible together is an excellent way to remember the Word, and it’s FUN!

Discuss the Scriptures after reading them, read them in different translations of the Bible, and learn about the Scriptures together.

This is especially good if you are first learning to read and remember the Bible, particularly if you can study the Bible with a more mature Christian. Ask one of your leaders to sit with you, read the Bible, and help you understand the Scriptures.

This will make the Scriptures more real to you and help you to memorize them more easily, especially because you will gain a better understanding of the Bible, making it easier to remember.

Recap On How To Memorize Bible Verses

Here is a quick recap of the eight tips to help you memorize Bible verses.

• Ask God to Help You Memorize the Bible:
  
  Prayer is a powerful tool we can use when approaching the memorization of scripture. God desires to help His children know His Word. So, ask Him!
  
• Start By Memorizing Scriptures That Are Important To You
  
  Focus on Bible verses that are highlighted to you in this season. This will help you connect with the Verse and what God is doing in your life.
  
• Read The Bible Every Day
  
  Familiarizing yourself with the Bible will help you understand word usage, stories, and characters which in turn help you memorize parts of scripture without even realizing it.
  
• Memorize One Bible Verse At A Time
  
  Start small and only memorize one verse at a time. This will help you focus and not feel overwhelmed.
  
• Writing Scripture Out
  
  Grab some flashcards, paper, or even a notebook and start writing the verses. This is a super effective way to memorize scripture.
  
• Repeating Scriptures To Yourself
  
  Writing scripture out and repeating scripture go together like peanut butter and jelly. It works!
  
• Apply The Scriptures To Your Life
  
  Taking a verse and applying it to your life will not just help you memorize the verse but also make it active and alive in your life.
  
• Talk About The Scriptures With Other Believers
  
  Having fellowship with believers and discussing the Bible is a great way to talk about your memory verse and let it go deeper within yourself through conversation.

Practical Tools To Help You Memorize Scripture

You can make memorizing the Bible super simple, or you can jazz it up and make it fancy. Both options have their pros and cons. And at the end of the day, you need to find out with works for you.

I am one of those people that falls in the middle. I like it simple, but I want to add a little of my own flare as well. But here are some practical tools you can use that will be helpful.

• Blank Flashcards or Index Cards: You can pick these up at your local office store or online. They are a great way to write down verses and use them to practice memorizing. If you grab colored flashcards, you can also create different categories of memory verses. For example, Green Cards are verses from the Gospels, or/and Pink Cards are verses on the topic of salvation.
  

• Premade Memory Verse Cards: Want something simple and pre-done. All you need to do is pick up the card and start memorizing the scripture. This works great when you don’t have the time to write out a bunch of verses or your penmanship isn’t the greatest.

• A Notebook or Journal: If you would like to practice writing out your verses or larger portions of scripture and/or keeping track of them, then a notebook or journal might be right up your alley!
  
  

• Use An App On Your Phone: There are many Christian apps out there, but did you know your phone or tablet can even help you memorize verses? There are apps like Scripture Typer (FREE) and Fighter Verses ($2.99), which are aimed at memorization. These are on my list to try out! Check out its cool features below for Fighter Verses.
  
  • 1,000+ preloaded verses
  • Ability to customize and organize your own memory program with My Verses
  • Multiple Bible translations and languages
  • Quizzes to help you memorize
  • Review prompts to encourage long-term retention
  • Songs and spoken verse audio

FAQ On Memorizing the Bible

I thought it would be fun to cover some popular FAQs on the topic of memorizing scripture. If you have any additional questions you want to be answered, please drop them below in the comment section.

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I seek you with all my heart;
    do not let me stray from your commands.
¹¹ I have hidden your word in my heart
    that I might not sin against you. – Psalm 119:10-11

Memorizing Scriptures from the Bible is easier than you may expect. It can feel challenging at first, but with wisdom and help from the Lord, and some simple techniques such as writing the scriptures down and reading the Bible consistently, you will quickly find that you can remember more of the Bible than you thought.

If you want to comment, you can do so below. I would love to learn how you are trying to memorize scripture and what techniques are helping you.