Scripture passages are available for our help when putting on the whole armor of God that we might be able to stand against the wiles of the enemy. {See Ephesians 6:10-18} But how do we put scripture into our minds in an effective way where we can use it when needed most? If you don’t have a photographic memory, it may take some strategies and a little effort to put important scripture to memory. We are told that we need these scriptures to be partakers of the divine nature and to be fortified with the armor of God. Let me share with you some tips for memorizing scripture. If these scriptures are vital during ordinary times, how much more so through the day of trouble! Don’t wait to put the scriptures in your heart and mind.

BIBLE MEMORIZATION MADE EASY:
Download Bible Memorization Made Easy – PDF

A technique for memorizing scripture begins with simply reading the verse or range over and over until it becomes familiar. Make up a list of the verses so that you can read and rehearse them. You can do this over a span of time which is useful for you. When you are familiar with the scripture, then begin to memorize one or two verses at a time day by day until it is embedded in your memory. This works great for larger portions. Short verses you may only need to read repeatedly to become familiar with it. The visual or audio familiarity with the scripture will make memorizing much easier.

Once you have memorized a scripture in your list, it helps to cement it more solidly in your memory if you first list the beginning of the text along with the book, chapter and verse(s). It is also helpful in some cases to add a column for an acronym when trying to remember the verses of a particular book. Take the book of Deuteronomy for example. In my list, I have some difficulty remembering which verse goes with which text. So I made up an acronym NBOBOB to go beside each scripture in Deuteronomy. You can use an acronym or letter for a single text also. A letter of the alphabet helps me remember what word the text starts with. An acronym can give you a more information about the verse, or can give you the beginning letters of several key words in the text. See the Excel Memory Planner for an example. You can also use this document to adjust your memory verse helper to your liking.

But eventually, when you have rehearsed your scripture over and over again, you will want to have only the listing of the references without the text helps.

Stage three then, is to practice pulling your scriptures without any cheat sheet. We may not always have a list in front of us. In other words, try to remember all of the Psalms that you know and even in order.

How do you keep the memory verses fresh? Repeat those scriptures that you have learned, perhaps taking 20 or so to repeat every day in addition to what you are currently memorizing. It isn’t easy to get through a long list of memory verses every day and still find time to learn new ones. And of course the bigger the list gets, the more you have to manage it.

SUMMARY OF MEMORIZATION STEPS:
Download Bible Memorization Made Easy – PDF

MEMORY VERSE HELPER
DOWNLOAD EXCEL MEMORY PLANNER – XLS

In the Memory Planner, you will see icons such as a red heart and an arrow in a green box. The hearts signify that the verse has been memorized. The green box with the arrow is a tag alerting you that the verse has not been memorized. You can move the icons and alter your planner spreadsheet according to your plans.

By Deborah Jabs

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If a person’s father be the God of heaven, then that person does not sin for his Father’s seed is in him.  This is a particularly unpopular teaching today, one that is rarely heard.  The Bible does not speak error, so this is a truism that must be unpacked and relearned.

The seed of the Father of heaven causes us to be in a saved condition, not because we have lost the power of choice, but because the way of the Father is in us and we have been born again of the ways fo the Father.  One who has been born again unto his Father in heaven is not likely to turn back unto a life of sin because his Father’s seed is in him.  Yet it is clear that the power of choice is not removed for this goes against the gospel of love.  God never forces us to cooperate. 

The saved condition is a spiritual state where the direction of our lives is not in the path of sin unto death.  The Bible says there is a sin unto death.  [ref]  The sin unto death is the understanding we have lost as a whole.

What is the sin unto death?  It is the sin where one capitulates or ceases resisting almost even to the point of negotiating with one’s conscience, pushing the knowledge of right living to the side out of our direct attention.  One may do so due to excusing sin for the sake of the human nature.  It is also the sins one commits because of a lack of knowledge of how to overcome, either by avoidance of information or by a lack thereof for any reason.

To live a life direction that is in the path of overcoming, putting on the full armour of God and waging the war of Jacob’s struggle that puts us in the saved condition. 

Without Christ’s atoning sacrifice there would be no opportunity for salvation whatsoever.  His atonement has given us a fresh start as though we had never sinned.  But consider that without Christ’s work of sanctification there would be no deliverance from the life of sin for sanctification is the process Christ works in us throughout our lives.  Sanctification requires our placing ourselves under the authority of Christ and assumes a position of spiritual cooperation with Christ.  We are to put on the full armour of God and wage the war of Jacob’s struggle. 

The war of Jacob’s struggle necessitates struggling with God in place of struggling with sin.  The war is waged against the enemy by cooperating in certain ways.  The soldier of God is to do daily practice the spiritual disciplines: 

1.  Guard the sentinels

2.  Spend thoughtful time in devotion to God

3.  Read from the Word of God

4.  Pray and talk with God

5.  Intercede for others

6.  Learn truth that you be not deceived

7.  Memorize scripture that the Word may be hidden in your heart and keep you from the desire for sin.

8.  Put into practice right living

9.  Share truth and you testimony with others

10. Struggle with God for deliverance from every sinful trait.  This should be in place of struggling directly with the sin.

When we struggle directly against sin, we often end up doing so in our own strength and find ourselves about as successful as trying to pull ourselves out of a pit while holding on to ropes of sand.  To be successful, resistance must be met with the following biblical steps when we are tempted:

1.  Be truthful about the Word of God and what is expected of his followers.  Don’t make excuses for sin in your life.

2.  God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble.  Remember this and trust in his promised grace and deliverance.

3.  Submit yourself to God first.

4.  Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

5.  Draw nigh unto God and he will draw nigh unto you.

6.  Cleanse your hands and purify your hearts.  Throw off double mindedness.

7.  Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord and he will lift you up.

James 4:4-6

We must place ourselves where God has specified for us to remain safe in the saved condition, not having reached perfection, but living from strength unto strength as found in 2Peter 1:4-11.

As a final note…

King Josiah fought a battle God never asked him to fight.  He died in battle.  So also we often fight a battle God never asked us to fight.  He has not asked us to fight the spiritual battle in self strength.  He has asked us to trade in our ropes of sand for the reigns of righteousness.

For further reading on this topic download the e-book Harnessing the Power of the Will.