I'm reading through the New Testament, a chapter a day, and when I got to the first chapter of Ephesians, I was struck by the power of it. Same thing the next day when I read the second chapter. By the time I got to chapter 3, the Lord had spoken to me to memorize the entire book of Ephesians. I wasn't sure that was even possible, but He assured me it was. Still, I put it off as I finished reading the rest of Ephesians and then read all of Philippians with the Lord's suggestion still bouncing around in my head. Finally, on July 20, I made a plan for how to do it and jumped in with verse one (in The Passion Translation). The plan is:
1. Recite the previous day's verse 10 times.
2. Read today's verse 10 times.
3. Recite todays' verse 10 times.
4. Recite everything I've memorized all the way through one time.
According to my calculations, I should have all six chapters memorized on Dec. 22.
The first day, it took me all of two minutes. By the time I had memorized about three verses, I started to question whether I could cram any more into my brain. The Lord reminded me that I have the mind of Christ and that He'll help me do it because He called me to it. Still, after every new verse, I doubted my ability to add any more. But then the next day, I would add one more, and it gave me confidence that if I could do it today, surely I could do it tomorrow. And then I would add just one more verse.
Mike has been helping me with step 4. He listens patiently as I stumble hesitantly through each new verse, and he corrects me when I make a mistake.
I have now memorized all 23 verses of chapter one and the first seven verses of chapter two, and I'm feeling somewhat more confident that I'll be able to do the whole thing.
So far, the fruit I've seen from this experience is:
1. After repeating these verses over and over every day, I have a better understanding of the meaning of the words in each verse and the overall context of the whole book.
2. On day 18, someone at Costco said she needed wisdom and I had just memorized verse 18 that day, so I prayed it over her and we had a little discussion about it.
3. Somewhere near the beginning of chapter two, I woke up with the verses parading along in my head as if they had been playing in my sleep. That's when I knew it was becoming part of me.
4. The first three verses of chapter two are pretty dark and depressing, and repeating them 10 times every day was bringing me down. Verse four begins "But God..." and those two words were especially impactful after being mired in the pit for the past three days. Verse four was easy to memorize, and I cried all the way through it. It remains my favorite verse so far. In fact, verses four and five embody the Gospel in a nutshell. It's a mic drop moment. Still, no matter how many times I've repeated them, they make me stop and wonder in awe.
5. It gives my mind something to do when I'm stuck in traffic or there's nothing to do at work or I'm waiting in line...any time I have time to kill.
I look forward to adding to this list, as I still have over 80% of the book to go.
9/19/22 update: I'm almost 50% there! I'm up to chapter 3, verse 15 today. I hit a rough patch about a week ago where I felt like I just couldn't cram anymore into my brain. I tried every day, but the new verses weren't sticking, and I was losing some of the old ones. I didn't make progress for a few days but just reviewed and cemented. Now I'm back to moving forward again, and last night while I was praying for people at my class and giving them prophecies, I discovered a new fruit:
6. When I seek God's heart for someone in prophecy, the words of Ephesians often come to mind, and He expands on them with pictures, and prayer and prophecy flows easier.
11/16/22 update: I have 5 chapters and 17 verses memorized. Lately, it's been easier. When I first started, I was determined to stick with the plan and memorize a verse a day no matter what. It began to feel like a work. I've learned to give myself grace. I'll get there when I get there.
I've tried it in various environments and learned some things about myself. I learned that it's unfortunately very difficult for me to recite Ephesians while folding laundry, and it's downright impossible to do it while scrubbing the toilet. I learned that if I do it in bed, I'm more likely to doze off in the middle. It takes me my entire shift if I do it at Costco, because people constantly interrupt me, but I do it on almost every shift anyway (in my head, not out loud). The easiest time I had was (surprisingly!) when I was driving to Lincoln. It was a boring drive straight south on the interstate with not much traffic. My body had to be still, and my mind was free to concentrate.
Today I was late for work, all because I was utterly immersed in Ephesians and lost all sense of time and place. I dove deep into the ocean of this beautiful book and was just blissfully swimming around down there for hours apparently, because when I resurfaced, it was 9:58 and I was supposed to be at work at 10:00.
I've discovered certain phrases that feel good in my mouth. Not the meaning, just the way they flow. For example:
-"I'm writing this letter to all the devoted believers"
-"Now we have been stamped with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit"
-"And gifts were given to men"
-"By every revelation that's been given to you" (I like the letter V.)
And there are also some that are just hard to make my mouth say. Again, nothing to do with the meaning, just the pronunciation. Examples:
-"Before we were even born"
-"Never a reward for good works"
-"A future inheritance which"
Two more fruits:
7. My mom heard the first three chapters, because she listened to me practice reciting them.
8. It's fun! Here are some examples:
-Sometimes I do accents. I accidentally recited a verse in TVGV (The Valley Girl Version). "You have become like corpses ...like dead in your sins..." When I noticed that I'd added an extra "like" I did a few verses Valley Girl style. One day I accidentally pronounced "united to Christ" as "Unoited to Chroist" which led me to do a few verses in an Aussie accent. One time I slipped into TPT (The Pirate Translation) as I stuttered "our...our...our...arr arr arr, matey!" I accidentally dipped into the Elmer Fudd Version (yep, the EFV) one time as I lisped and stuttered my way through a verse.
-Somehow it seems more meaningful if I recite it to some kind of living being. (Maybe this is why the library has that program where beginning readers read to dogs.) If a human isn't available, our cats are my usual targets, but I even tried to preach it to a stink bug when I was outside and that was the only creature in my line of sight. I felt like it wasn't listening, and I began to question whether it was even alive, and I felt too ridiculous to continue. Birds in general aren't great listeners.
-My misspeaks sometimes make me laugh so hard that I have a hard time getting back on track. I said "spiritual apples" when I was trying to say "spiritual apathy" and "impart" became "imfart" but the one that made me laugh the most, for some reason, was when I tried to say chapter 3, verse 17: "Then, by constantly using your faith..." and it came out, "Then, by constantly using your face..."
12/21/22 update: The finish line is in sight. I'm going to make it! This morning I was reflecting on what a blessing this journey with the Lord has been. It turned out to be way more than just memorizing words. It's been an experience. God and I have had some good laughs, some deep talks, and intimate times as He's walked me through this powerful book of His. Actually it's been more of a swim than a walk. I dove in and immersed myself in this deep pool, following the currents, sometimes feeling like I'm drowning, but always floating along in His love and grace. He knows how much I love being in water, and swimming alongside Him is the best way to experience it. What a privilege to carry God's spoken Word around inside me: a gift that can never be taken away from me!
9. Pictures and revelation. Several times, He's given me pictures to go with the verse I'm memorizing. It helps me memorize and also deepens my understanding of the words as they play out like a movie in my mind. And a few times, He's given me a new revelation of what the verse means, a new facet of understanding of a verse I've read many times.
10. He's teaching me about flexibility and grace. Tomorrow is the day I should have finished this project if I had stuck to the rigid schedule I made for myself five months ago. But there have been times that I felt like I needed to camp on a verse longer than just one day, so I followed His leading instead of my own plan. (That's a good life lesson right there: Always follow His leading, not your own plan. That's what Proverbs 3:5-6 says, right?) He keeps reminding me that there is grace to complete this project whenever it's completed. It doesn't have to be, and in fact should not be, completed according to my self-imposed timeline.
12/28/22 update: I finished it around 4:00 a.m. this morning! I started on a Wednesday and ended on a Wednesday. It took me 161 days (5 months + 8 days). I was awake in the early morning hours as usual, and I knew that today was the day I was going to memorize the last verse, and I couldn't wait to get started! It was the same feeling of anticipation and excitement I had as a kid when I woke up early on Christmas morning. As a kid, I had to wait until a decent hour to wake my parents and start the celebration, but as an adult, I don't have to wait. I turned on the light around 2:00 a.m. and got the party started. God was awake too, so it was a party of two. I reviewed yesterday's verse 10 times, read today's 10 times, and recited it 10 times. Then I recited the entire book (took me 38 minutes). It wasn't absolutely perfect (the perfectionist in me would like to accomplish that) but there were no major omissions. It was fun and satisfying. I'm going to keep reciting it every day for awhile before I tackle the next book, which will be James.
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