On that first Sunday morning of my conversion experience, someone handed me a piece of paper with 1 Cor. 10:13 written on it, saying something to the effect that I should memorize it because I was going to need it along the way of my new faith journey. To me it looked like some type of hieroglyphic symbolism.
The next day after school, I drove downtown where I had seen a Christian bookstore, and I purchased my first Bible. Back in my car I pulled out that piece of paper. I noted in the front of my new Bible a table of contents with abbreviations for the names of the books. My eyes fell on “Cor” and I quickly turned to the page number listed and discovered it stood for Corinthians. I figured out that the “10” represented the chapter and the “13” was obviously the verse.
And there it was, the first verse I ever read—“No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it” (NKJV). Sitting there in my car, mesmerized by that truth, I memorized it on the spot and thus began a journey of Scripture memory that has buried multiplied hundreds of verses in my heart and mind and served me across all these decades since. Only the Lord knows how many times across the years I have arrived at temptation’s corner, and that one verse initially hidden in my heart came out of my mouth and kept me on the right path before I made a wrong turn.
Scripture memorization has enabled me to take the Word of God with me anywhere and everywhere without always having my Bible with me. It has enabled me across all these decades to receive the Word into my heart, On that first Sunday morning of my conversion experience, someone handed me a piece of paper with 1 Cor. 10:13 written on it, saying something to the effect that I should memorize it because I was going to need it along the way of my new faith journey. To me it looked like some type of hieroglyphic symbolism.
The next day after school, I drove downtown where I had seen a Christian bookstore, and I purchased my first Bible. Back in my car I pulled out that piece of paper. I noted in the front of my new Bible a table of contents with abbreviations for the names of the books. My eyes fell on “Cor” and I quickly turned to the page number listed and discovered it stood for Corinthians. I figured out that the “10” represented the chapter and the “13” was obviously the verse.
And there it was, the first verse I ever read—“No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it” (NKJV). Sitting there in my car, mesmerized by that truth, I memorized it on the spot and thus began a journey of Scripture memory that has buried multiplied hundreds of verses in my heart and mind and served me across all these decades since. Only the Lord knows how many times across the years I have arrived at temptation’s corner, and that one verse initially hidden in my heart came out of my mouth and kept me on the right path before I made a wrong turn.
Scripture memorization has enabled me to take the Word of God with me anywhere and everywhere without always having my Bible with me. It has enabled me across all these decades to receive the Word into my heart, retain it in my mind and recite it with my mouth in all types of circumstances and situations.
This is exactly what the Lord Jesus did during those days of temptation in the wilderness of Judea as He burst forth from the obscurity of the carpenter’s shop and began His earthly ministry. With each temptation recorded in Matthew 4 that Satan brought the Lord’s way, Jesus answered saying, “It is written …” The Word of God received and retained in our own hearts and minds enables us, like our Lord Himself, to overcome our own temptations when the words are spoken from memory through our mouths.
For me personally, Scripture memorization has been a never-ending life discipline. When memorizing Scripture, I have found it helpful to write it out in my own handwriting, phrase by phrase, on a small note card. I then keep the card in my pocket throughout the next few days. Then, numerous times, whether at my desk, in my car at a stop light, or on other such occasions, I simply review it until the first phrase is memorized and then the next and so on. Finally, I often quote it to myself a hundred times until it becomes sealed forever in my heart.
To me it is a strange thing that many believers who once memorized Scripture now, for one reason or another, have not memorized a single verse in years. The discipline of Scripture memory should be a sustained, lifelong pursuit. Even now as I sit at my desk and type these words, I see before me on a card a Scripture I am putting to memory: “Good sense makes one slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offense” (Proverbs 19:11, ESV). I feel certain this verse will surface in my mind in times to come when I am tempted to harbor resentment and hold offenses. Yes, as the psalmist of old once said, “Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You” (Psalm 119:11, NKJV).
If it only takes a spark to get a fire going, it only takes one verse memorized and hidden in your heart to get a journey of Scripture memorization going. Scripture memory will change your life … forever! ©2025 O.S. Hawkins
O.S. Hawkins is former senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas and the author of the “Code Series” of devotionals, including THE JOSHUA CODE: 52 Scripture Verses Every Believer Should Know, which challenges readers to memorize one verse a week for a year. Visit him at oshawkins.com.
This is exactly what the Lord Jesus did during those days of temptation in the wilderness of Judea as He burst forth from the obscurity of the carpenter’s shop and began His earthly ministry. With each temptation recorded in Matthew 4 that Satan brought the Lord’s way, Jesus answered saying, “It is written …” The Word of God received and retained in our own hearts and minds enables us, like our Lord Himself, to overcome our own temptations when the words are spoken from memory through our mouths.
For me personally, Scripture memorization has been a never-ending life discipline. When memorizing Scripture, I have found it helpful to write it out in my own handwriting, phrase by phrase, on a small note card. I then keep the card in my pocket throughout the next few days. Then, numerous times, whether at my desk, in my car at a stop light, or on other such occasions, I simply review it until the first phrase is memorized and then the next and so on. Finally, I often quote it to myself a hundred times until it becomes sealed forever in my heart.
To me it is a strange thing that many believers who once memorized Scripture now, for one reason or another, have not memorized a single verse in years. The discipline of Scripture memory should be a sustained, lifelong pursuit. Even now as I sit at my desk and type these words, I see before me on a card a Scripture I am putting to memory: “Good sense makes one slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offense” (Proverbs 19:11, ESV). I feel certain this verse will surface in my mind in times to come when I am tempted to harbor resentment and hold offenses. Yes, as the psalmist of old once said, “Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You” (Psalm 119:11, NKJV).
If it only takes a spark to get a fire going, it only takes one verse memorized and hidden in your heart to get a journey of Scripture memorization going. Scripture memory will change your life … forever! ©2025 O.S. Hawkins
O.S. Hawkins is former senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas and the author of the “Code Series” of devotionals, including THE JOSHUA CODE: 52 Scripture Verses Every Believer Should Know, which challenges readers to memorize one verse a week for a year. Visit him at oshawkins.com.
