Memorizing Bible Verses: 1 John 4:11-12 (ESV-English Standard Version)

An important part of keeping God’s word in your heart and having it available for when you need to quote it to fight against the devil’s temptations is to memorize scripture. There are many ways to do this including singing verses, using pneumonic devices, and old-fashioned look and don’t look as you try to say the verse. Here is a technique that I learned from memverse.com. Try it out and see if it works for you. The goal for the Beloved series is to memorize 1 John 4:7-21. This is a passage about our relationship to God and others. At two verses a week (one week will be three verses), it should take seven weeks to memorize this passage, but you can work faster if you wish.

Step 1: First read or sing or chant the verses several times.

(Verse 11) Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 
(Verse 12)  No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. 

Step 2: Now try saying the verses with words missing.

(Verse 11)  Beloved, if ___________ so ___________ us, we also ought to ___________ one another. 

(Verse 12) No one has ever seen ___________; if we love one another, ___________ abides in us and his ___________ is perfected in us. 

Step 3: Try saying the verses with more words missing.

(Verse 11)  ___________, if ___________ so ___________ us, we also ___________ to ___________ one another. 

(Verse 12) ___________ one has ever seen ___________; if we ___________ one another, ___________ ___________ in us and his ___________ is perfected in us. 

Step 4: Try saying the verses with even more words missing.

(Verse 11)  ___________, if ___________ so ___________ ___________, we also ___________ to ___________ one ___________. 

(Verse 12) ___________ one has ever ___________ ___________; if we ___________ one ___________, ___________ ___________ in ___________ and his ___________ is perfected in ___________. 

Step 6: Try saying the verses with only blanks.

(Verse 11)  ___________, ___________ ___________ ___________ ___________ ___________, ___________ ___________ ___________ ___________ ___________ ___________ ___________. 

(Verse 12) ___________ ___________ ___________ ___________ ___________ ___________; ___________ ___________ ___________ ___________ ___________, ___________ ___________ ___________ ___________ ___________ ___________ ___________ ___________ ___________ ___________ ___________. 

Final Step: Try saying the verses without blanks: 1 John 4:11-12.