Weekly Memory Verses

Memorizing Scripture

God speaks to us through the words of the prophets and apostles whenever we sing them, pray them, and read them. Eugene Peterson urges us to “eat” the word of God, to chew on it, to let Scripture reshape us so that we have God-shaped hearts.

One way that God’s people have taken Scripture within is by memorizing it. In 2011, my wife, Patti, and I are undertaking a program of Scripture memorization. We invite you to join us.

Each week, this study will include a text box with the memory verse for that week and a few words of background on the verse. As the months go on, we’ll tackle a few longer passages from Scripture that all of us ought to carry within us.

Getting Started

Here are a few tips to get us started:

1.       Read the paragraph or section from which the verse is taken – in the NRSV translation -- so you get the context for the verse.

2.       Learn the verse in chunks that make sense to you. Then piece them together into the whole.

3.       Learn the verse exactly as written. Don’t leave out any of the words.

4.       Be sure to memorize the reference.

5.       Once you feel like you’ve got the verse memorized, spend some time meditating on it. Make the verse a part of your daily prayers.

6.       As you begin to accumulate memorized verses, be sure to devote some time each week to reviewing the verse you’ve already learned.

7.       Consider cutting out the verse and carrying it with you.

Weekly Verses

January 23, 2011

So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new. (2 Corinthians 5:17, NRSV)

January 30, 2011

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God – what is good and acceptable and perfect.   (Romans 12:2, NRSV)

February 6, 2011

Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. (Deuteronomy 6:4-5 NRSV)

February 13, 2011

You shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.  (Leviticus 19:18b  NRSV)

February 27, 2011

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. (John 3:16  NRSV)

March 6, 2011

Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.  (Philippians 4:6-7  NRSV)

March 13, 2011

He has told you , O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8  NRSV)

March 20, 2011

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (John 15:12-13  NRSV)

March 27, 2011

For I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith; to the Jew first and also the Greek.  (Romans 1:16  NRSV)

April 3, 2011

“If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it.” (Luke 9:23-24  NRSV)

April 10, 2011

If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead. (James 2:15-17  NRSV)

April 17, 2011

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”  (Matthew 28:19-20  NRSV)

April 24, 2011

If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. . . . If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.  (1 Corinthians 15:17, 19  NRSV)