How to Memorize Scripture: Seven Methods That Work for Teens

Why bother

Phones can look up any verse in seconds, so memorising can feel pointless. The Bible's own answer is not that you will need it for a quiz. The psalmist writes, "I have hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you" (Psalm 119:11). The idea is that something you hold in your head is available in moments when no book is open: on a walk, in an argument, at three in the morning when you cannot sleep. Passages you know by heart also tend to get read more slowly, because you keep noticing what is in them.

Seven methods side by side

People learn differently, and no one method is the right one. Most successful memorisers combine two or three. What the methods share is that they make you retrieve the words from your own memory, rather than only read them again, which is the part that makes them stick.

A review schedule that works

Most forgetting happens quickly after learning. In the 1880s the German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus charted this decline and found that memories fade fastest straight after they are formed, and that reviewing them at widening intervals slows the decline a great deal. Modern research on retrieval practice supports the same point: testing yourself works better than rereading. The practical result is a simple schedule.

• Learn the passage today, and test yourself from memory at least three times before you stop.
• Review it tomorrow.
• Review it three days later.
• Review it a week after that.
• Review it a month later, and then every few months.

Memorise paragraphs, not just verses

The most common mistake is memorising a verse cut off from what surrounds it. Jeremiah 29:11 is a good example. It reads, "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you," says Yahweh, "thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you hope and a future." On a poster it sounds like a promise of an easy future. In the letter it comes from, God is writing to people taken from their homes to Babylon, telling them to settle there and that the exile will last seventy years (Jeremiah 29:4-10). The promise is real, and it is a promise made in the middle of a long hard season. Knowing the paragraph changes how the verse feels.

A good habit is to learn a passage of four to ten verses that makes a complete thought, and to say the reference first and last. The Rooted study of Philippians 2 and the opening of John (John 1:1-5) both work well, and so does Psalm 23.

Understanding first

It is slow to memorise words you do not understand, and it is of little use afterwards. Before you begin, read the passage a few times, look up any word you do not know, and put the main idea in one sentence of your own. A passage you understand also sticks more easily, because the sentences hang together instead of being a string of sounds. If a passage includes a Hebrew or Greek word that matters, as many of ours do, learn it too. Our post on word studies explains how to look one up well.

When it feels like nothing sticks

Everyone has weeks when a passage will not go in. Shrink the portion, perhaps to one verse or even one line, and review it more often. Study at a time when you are alert, and not as the last thing before sleep, though reviewing a passage just before sleep can help it settle. Memorise with someone else if you can, since saying it to a friend is a good test.

Finally, keep the point in view. The aim is not a record number of verses. It is to have a few passages deep enough in you that they come when you need them, and that you can pray with them. If you want a place to start practising, the Scripture Scramble and Verse Gaps games in the Rooted games use real passages and are a low-pressure way to begin.