Spicing up your review of Scripture Memory verses

Published on Updated on Scripture Memory

For many people, the hardest thing about Scripture Memory is review. Here are two ways to spice up your review efforts and give you some variety.

 

 

Sure, at least some of us can memorize a new verse now and then. But the real challenge is to review your legacy verses each day.

We’d like to suggest two ways to spice up your review efforts and give you some variety.

 

SUGGESTION 1. REVIEW BACKWARDS

 

Let’s say we are memorizing Matthew 28. Each week, we memorize one new verse. That means we need to review the previous verses each day.

Normally, we would review them in sequential order:

  • Verse 1
  • Verses 1 and 2
  • Verses 1, 2 and 3
  • Verses 1, 2, 3 and 4
  • Verses 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5
  • Verses 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6
  • Verses 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7

 

Reviewing them that way makes sense. It is the order that they’re listed in the Bible.

But doing it that way can get, well, a little repetitive.

Plus, over the course of weeks and months, you’ll end up reviewing the earlier verses a lot more often than you will the later verses.

What if we reviewed them backwards?

Here’s how that would go:

  • Verse 7
  • Verses 6 and 7
  • Verses 5, 6 and 7
  • Verses 4, 5, 6 and 7
  • Verses 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7
  • Verses 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7
  • Verses 1, 2 , 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7

There are several advantages to reviewing backwards:

 

It helps make things fresh

By stepping yourself backwards through the chapter, you see the chapter in fresh ways.

New things will stand out to you.

It balances out

Over the course of time, it balances out how many times you review each verse.

 

It strengthens your “connectors”

Connectors are what we call the “trick” you use to jump from one verse to another:

  • Some people use a mnemonic.
  • Other people notice the flow of consonants or the flow of vowels.
  • Some people set it to music.
  • Other people visualize a cascade of things that help them remember.

Whatever it is that helps you jump from one verse to the next, that’s what we call a connector.

By stepping backwards through your verses, you will likely find your connectors strengthened.

 

SUGGESTION 2. REVIEW YOUR SETTING

 

Another way to spice up your review of Scripture Memory verses is to review your setting.

Let’s say you’re reviewing verse three.

Where were you when you first memorized verse three?

  • Were you out for a walk?
  • What season was it?
  • How were you dressed?
  • What was your state of mind?
  • Were you feeling close to God?
  • Were you stressed?
  • Overwhelmed?
  • Feeling obliged?
  • Feeling motivated?

Even if you’re brand new at memorizing Scripture, your experiences while you memorize each verse will become a powerful library of information that can help spice up your review efforts.

And it will likely supercharge your ability to remember the workings of God in your life.

 

RESOURCES

 

Unless otherwise noted, all Bible quotations on this page are from the World English Bible and the World Messianic Edition. These translations have no copyright restrictions. They are in the Public Domain.