How I’m memorizing the entire book of Romans (Part 2)
In my last post I talked about why I’m memorizing the book of Romans and why I think you should memorize scripture regularly as well. In this article I’m going to give you the strategies that go into memorizing books of the Bible.
Here are the things we’re going to cover in this article:
1. Choosing the book.
2. Calculate how long it’s going to take to memorize the book.
3. The method.
4. Weeding the garden.
Let’s dive right in.
Choosing the book.
To start off, I would pick a smaller book, and by smaller, I mean anything less than 20 chapters long. One thing I’ve learned through doing big projects in my life is that if I start too fast, with too much, I quit 99% of the time. But the times that I start slow and small, and build it up from there I usually succeed.
This question helped me pick Romans, and I think it’ll help you pick your book. “What am I going to want to be memorized/engraved in my head 5 years from now?” Of course, any book of the bible will be beneficial to us in the future, but what is a book that might help you personally in the future.
God willing, I am going to be able to go on the mission field in the next 4–6 years. I know that I’m saved, but there are so many things about my salvation that I am only uncovering through the memorization of Romans, and that’s not only important to myself, but also to the people I will be sharing the gospel with now, and on the mission field.
The last thing I would do is pray to God, ask Him what He wants you to memorize, what He wants you to uncover from His word, and obey Him.
How long is this going to take?
I am starting at one verse per day, six days per week, and I would recommend the same for you. That way you’re taking one day off per week so you don’t get burned out, but at the same time you’re not losing what you’re memorizing.
So how do you calculate how long it’s going to take for you to memorize the book you picked? Grab a piece of paper, a pencil, and a calculator, and we’ll get started.
You can use this chart to find how many verses are in your book:
compiled by Felix Just, S.J., Ph.D.
Right down that number on your piece of paper.
Divide that number by the number of verses you will memorize per week (I recommend 6). This is how many weeks the book should take you. (Round the number)
After that, I would suggest adding 10% so that if you miss a day or two it won’t be the end of the world. All you have to do now is put an end date on your calendar!
Here’s how I did it for Romans:
433/6 = 72.16
I round that to 72, then I add 10%:
72 x (1+10%) = 79.2
I round that to 79, and now I know It’s going to take me 79 weeks to memorize Romans.
After that I’ll just google search “79 weeks from today” and boom, I know what date I will have memorized Romans by!
Sunday, November 14th, 2021 (Four days before my birthday next year)
The Method.
I want to get one thing straight before getting into this, so read this a few times if you have to. Put a priority on reviewing the old verses, not on memorizing the new ones. I mean what’s the point of memorizing more verses, if you keep forgetting them? Read this again. Put a priority on reviewing the old verses, not on memorizing the new ones.
A really cool thing about memorizing a lot of verses is how strong your memorization muscle gets! I’m only 17 verses into Romans, and verses are so much easier to memorize and recite now, then they were in the beginning. So, remember this as well, IT WILL GET EASIER.
I failed at verse 10, and I didn’t come back to it for a long time, and that’s because I felt like it was too much. But I’m not even kidding, when I came back and I got to verse 12 or 13, it all shifted. Since then it’s been a breeze to memorize a verse a day. Keep going.
One more thing before we get into the method. MEMORIZE THE VERSE NUMBERS. This is so important for so many reasons.
1. You’ll be able to speak about specific verses to other people instead of just reciting a sentence or paragraph from the book.
2. You won’t lose your place as easily when you recite the book.
3. It keeps your mind organized (You’ll be able to recite verse 15 on a dime just as much as you’ll be able to recite verse 37)
Now that I have all of that out of the way here is the method to memorizing a whole book of the Bible, one verse at a time. I’ll be using Romans for the example.
DAY 1: Read Romans 1:1 ten times out loud, including the number, then you’ll close your bible and recite it ten times out loud (You can open your bible to refresh your memory, but don’t count it as one of the 10 times). Boom you’re done for the day.
DAY 2: Recite yesterday’s verse FIRST, include the number (Romans 1:1). Now do your new verse. Read Romans 1:2 out loud 10 times, close your bible and recite it 10 times (include the number). Day 2 done.
DAY 3: Recite yesterday’s verse FIRST, include the number (Romans 1:2). Recite the old verses next, all together: Recite Romans 1:1–2 together once, being sure to include the verse numbers. Read Romans 1:3 out loud 10 times, close your bible and recite it 10 times (include the number). Day 3 in the books.
DAY 4: Recite yesterday’s verse FIRST, include the number (Romans 1:3). Recite the old verses next, all together: Recite Romans 1:1–3 together once, being sure to include the verse numbers. Read Romans 1:4 out loud 10 times, close your bible, and recite it 10 times (include the number). Day 4 down.
You’ll keep doing this cycle until you complete the entire book. The “old verses altogether” stage will soon take the most time. That’s exactly the way it should be. The entire book of Romans can be read in 1 hour. So, the “old verses altogether” stage of your review should not take longer than that on any given day (For Romans). You can get an idea of how long yours will take to read by taking a look at this chart:
Weeding the garden.
When you recite a book over a long period of time without looking at the Bible, you’ll begin to make little mistakes or leave verses out (again, this is why memorizing verse numbers is so helpful). In other words, “weeds” will start to grow in the garden of your mind.
When you “weed the garden,” once a week, read through the book (or the amount of verses you’ve memorized), looking at each verse carefully with your eyes. Just do this once a week and it’ll dramatically help you with correcting errors.
I want to hear what you have to say.
What book are you going to memorize?
Let me know by leaving a comment below!
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