Just take the time to read any of the below verses. If you love Christ and His Word, I think you will understand why I chose to memorize them.

People sometimes ask how I choose verses to memorize.  Rather than giving a longer explanation here, I decided to share 16 verses that I reviewed this evening and that I’ve had in my system for more than 20 years.

Jude 24-25 is one of the most beautiful benedictions in Scripture.

^24 eNow to him who is able ^fto keep you from stumbling and ^gto present you ^hblameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, ²⁵ to ⁱthe only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, ^jbe glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.

Psalm 37:3-4 both exhort us but also assure us that God will give us the desires of our heart.

^{3 z}Trust in the Lord, and do good;

^adwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.²

^{4   b}Delight yourself in the Lord,

and he will ^cgive you the desires of your heart.

Revelation 3:20 is a verse I memorized while going through an evangelism program. Looking back on it, I think we may have been taking the verse out of context. Notice it’s at the end of the letters to the seven churches.

²⁰ Behold, I stand at the door and ^zknock. ^aIf anyone hears my voice and opens the door, ^bI will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. ^21 cThe one who conquers, ^dI will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as ^eI also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. ^22 pHe who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’ ”

Deuteronomy 10:12-13 were recommended by Masters Seminary as verses seminary students should memorize.  I didn’t attend Masters, but I got my hands on the list and I am thankful I memorized these verses that summarize the central duty of man and why we should be motivated to do it.

^10:12 Now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you except to revere him,²¹ to obey all his commandments,²² to love him, to serve him²³ with all your mind and being,^{24 10:13} and to keep the Lord’s commandments and statutes that I am giving²⁵ you today for your own good?

Micah 5:2 is a key prophecy about our Lord.  See Matthew 2:6 and notice that Matthew adds that Bethlehem is by no means least!

^{2 3   q}But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah,

who are too little to be among the clans of ^rJudah,

from you shall come forth for me

one who is to be ^sruler in Israel,

^twhose coming forth is ^ufrom of old,

from ancient days.

 Romans 8:18-21 remind us that just as Creation was tainted and twisted by the rebellion of image bearers, even so will be redeemed.

^8:18 For I consider that our present sufferings cannot even be compared²³ to the glory that will be revealed to us. ^8:19 For the creation eagerly waits for the revelation of the sons of God. ^8:20 For the creation was subjected to futility – not willingly but because of God²⁴ who subjected it – in hope ^8:21 that the creation itself will also be set free from the bondage of decay into the glorious freedom of God’s children.

John 1:1-5 are incredible!

^1:1 In the beginning¹ was the Word, and the Word was with God,² and the Word was fully God.^{3 1:2} The Word⁴ was with God in the beginning. ^1:3 All things were created⁵ by him, and apart from him not one thing was created⁶ that has been created.^{7 1:4} In him was life,⁸ and the life was the light of mankind.^{9 1:5} And the light shines on¹⁰ in the darkness,¹¹ but¹² the darkness has not mastered it.¹³

For more on Scripture memory see here.

If you give Scripture memory just a few seconds every day, it will change your world.  (More here).

Today when I timed myself when reviewing 16 verses. It took 113 seconds. I cannot begin to describe to you what these verses have meant to me over the last 20 years that I have been working on them.

The verses included:

Romans 8:1-4 – No condemnation for those in Christ!

Proverbs 3:5-6

Hebrews 11:1-2 – A definition of faith and the introduction to that wonderful chapter.

Titus 2:14 – Conclusion to one of the richest paragraphs in all of Scripture (Titus 2:11-14).

Galatians 6:7-8 – As James MacDonald has summarized, “Choose to sin, choose to suffer.”

1 Cor 10:11-12 – If you think you are standing firm . . .

Isaiah 40:28-31 – Those who wait on the Lord will soar

Per Isaiah 55:11, if you join this project led by Timmy Brister, you can count on it changing your life.  (See here).

Seriously.  Why not?

As I’ve explained elsewhere, it’s the best approach to emotional healing.

Lots more to read here.

If I could give you only one piece of advice for life, it would be to memorize Scripture (more here).

Ann Voskamp (who I might add, like Patricia is a tremendous photographer) has a wonderful post on memorizing Scripture.

If nothing else, take a few moments to watch this video from John Piper which Ann includes in her post.

I know of nothing that will help you grow as a believer more than Scripture memory.

• John Piper speaks below about how to retain verses you have memorized. 
• See this post for help in memorizing.
• Several other posts on Scripture memory.

John Piper:

The following is an edited transcript of the audio.

How do you keep from forgetting Scripture after you’ve memorized it?

I don’t. But practically, what can you do to keep it as long as you can? There is only one word. Review.

Review, review, review. There is no way to memorize Scripture that keeps you from losing it. Some people don’t lose anything. Some people have traps in their head that just hang on to it. But only 1 in 10,000 people can do that. Average folks like me have to work real hard to memorize the first time, and then recurrently review to keep it. So I memorize verses every day, and I forget them every day.

This morning I re-memorized a verse. I finished Deuteronomy and ran across a verse that I memorized years ago. Maybe I memorize it once a year, because I read the whole Bible once every year.

The verse is Deuteronomy 33:26. "There is none like God, O Jeshurun, who rides through the heavens to your help, and through the skies in his majesty." So, I’ve got it memorized. I probably will forget it in a week. That verse is hard for me to remember.

I’ve memorized that verse probably five times in five years. I forget it because I don’t use it as often as some verses. So, I jot it down on a little piece of paper and carry it in my pocket, pulling it out during the day once or twice. If I try to nail it so that it is useful for me over the long haul, I keep it and review it.

A practical thing I would suggest for people to do, is decide what cluster of text they want to always be at their disposal. For me I could name Psalm 46, Psalm 23, Psalm 1, Romans 8, 2 Corinthians 5:21, a cluster of texts surrounding justification, 1 Peter 4:11—"let him who serves serve in the strength that God supplies, that in everything God may get the glory through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the dominion forever." This is the most quoted verse as we move into worship at Bethlehem.

So for my soul, for the warfare of my life, and for ministry in hospitals and counseling sessions, I want a cluster of texts at my disposal. Decide what those are, put them on a piece of paper, and review them until you have them down. I’ll give you a little story.

My first or second year of pastoring I was called to the hospital—quickly. I went without my Bible. Rollin Erickson’s wife just had a heart attack. I walk into a room of probably 20 family members that didn’t know if she was alive or dead—as she is in surgery. Rollin gave me a big hug and said, "John, give us a Word from the Lord." Now, if I had my Bible I would have opened it to a Psalm or something. I didn’t have my Bible, and for whatever reason at age 35 my mind went blank.

I felt so humiliated. It was horrible. Here are 20 people, and the husband of a dying woman says, "Give us a Word from the Lord." I can’t even remember what I said. I probably said, "Let’s pray," and tried to paraphrase some Scripture. I went home and got on my knees that afternoon. I said, "Lord Jesus, that will never happen again." I opened to Psalm 46—"God is our refuge and strength." I have been able to quote Psalm 46 verbatim for the last 28 years. I decided that Psalm 46 is going to be in my head because it is so useful all the time.

The answer is, review. But don’t try to do that with every verse you learn. You should be learning hundreds of Bible verses by heart, and forgetting 90% of them. But then you get to them again and relearn them, and they are still with you because you learned them once. Somehow they will function to get out into your life.

But really nail down a cluster of soul strengthening words

One of my sabbatical goals is to spend extra time on Scripture memory.  But, it doesn’t take a sabbatical!  Remember . . . it’s just not that hard.  You can memorize Scripture if you follow this approach and give it 10 minutes a day.

John Piper motivates us to memorize the Word:

First, a few testimonies: I have it third hand, that Dr. Howard Hendricks of Dallas Seminary once made the statement (and I paraphrase) that if it were his decision, every student graduating from Dallas Theological Seminary would be required to learn one thousand verses word perfect before they graduated.

Dallas Willard, professor of Philosophy at the University of Southern California, wrote, “Bible memorization is absolutely fundamental to spiritual formation. If I had to choose between all the disciplines of the spiritual life, I would choose Bible memorization, because it is a fundamental way of filling our minds with what it needs. This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth. That’s where you need it! How does it get in your mouth? Memorization” (“Spiritual Formation in Christ for the Whole Life and Whole Person” in Vocatio, Vol. 12, no. 2, Spring, 2001, p. 7).

Chuck Swindoll wrote, “I know of no other single practice in the Christian life more rewarding, practically speaking, than memorizing Scripture. . . . No other single exercise pays greater spiritual dividends! Your prayer life will be strengthened. Your witnessing will be sharper and much more effective. Your attitudes and outlook will begin to change. Your mind will become alert and observant.

The rest here.

HT: Z

Charles Bridges:

The sudden flash of light leaves no influence.  There is no movement from the heart, till the truth is clearly exhibited to the mind, set strongly and constantly in view, deeply pondered and closely applied.  The Christian Ministry, page 209.

More on Scripture memory.