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How to memorize Bible verses

Ten simple methods that work, whether you are learning your first verse or your hundredth.

Memorizing Scripture is less about a good memory and more about a good routine. Most people who can quote dozens of verses learned them a few minutes a day, by reviewing old verses as often as they learned new ones. Here is how to build that habit.

1. Start with one verse a week

A week gives you time to learn a verse well instead of half-learning seven. Pick something short and meaningful to you. Once one a week feels easy, try two.

2. Understand it before you memorize it

Read the whole chapter around the verse. Knowing who is speaking, to whom and why gives the words a place to hang in your mind, and keeps you from using a verse out of context.

3. Say the reference at the start and the end

Recite it as "Psalm 119:11. Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee. Psalm 119:11." Saying the reference twice ties the words to their location, so you can find the verse again and share it with others.

4. Break it into phrases

Learn the first phrase until you can say it without looking, then add the next. Longer verses become a short chain of easy pieces. Punctuation marks are natural breaking points.

5. Use the first-letter method

Write only the first letter of each word, then recite the verse from the letters. For Psalm 119:11 that is:

T w h I h i m h, t I m n s a t.

The letters are just enough of a prompt to make your memory do the work, which is what makes it stick.

6. Write it out by hand

Copying a verse slowly, word for word, uses a different kind of memory than reading or speaking. Many people find that writing a verse three times is worth ten readings.

7. Review on a schedule

New memories fade fast unless you revisit them. Review a new verse after 1 day, 2 days, 4 days, a week, two weeks and a month. Each review can take under a minute, and after a month the verse is usually yours for good.

8. Put it where you will see it

An index card on the bathroom mirror, a sticky note on the fridge, or the verse as your phone's lock screen turns spare moments into review time.

9. Learn it with someone

Families, friends and small groups who learn the same verse each week can quiz each other. Saying a verse to another person is one of the best tests of whether you really know it.

10. Play every day

Recognizing a verse and knowing where it lives in the Bible is its own skill. Verse Guess gives you one verse a day, and working out the book, chapter and verse builds your sense of where things are in Scripture.

Ten verses to start with

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