Take The Bible Challenge

1. For 3 weeks, memorise a passage in Scripture
2. At the end of each week, you should be able to write the passage out in full without mistakes!
3. Journal out your thoughts and what God is speaking to you through His word.

INITIAL THOUGHTS
Gabriella: When I realised that the challenge was on memorising bible CHAPTERS, I was speechless and was not really looking forward for it. My church has memory verses tests and it is already a struggle for me — what more a chapter a week!

Chynne: When I received the challenge I was a little worried that I will not be able to see this challenge through. Memorising these chapters seem like it would take up a lot of my time and this is a period filled with many commitments to juggle.

THE CHALLENGE
Week 1 – Psalm 23
Gabriella: Thankfully, Week 1 was easy because I already knew Psalm 23 by heart. Even now, I still recite and meditate on Psalm 23 throughout the day and ask God to speak to me through His Word. Sure enough, God did speak! Through this Psalm, God renewed my perspective that He is the giver of strength and peace and I can find rest in Him. The days that followed were different because I remembered the promise of His words and I no longer carried the same burdened and heavy heart, but one of joy

Chynne: When I saw the reading for week 1, I was relieved because the length looked manageable. I decided to split it up and memorise about 2 to 3 Lines before I go to bed every night. As I kept re-reading the chapter, the words got easier to digest. Surprisingly it didn’t take as long as I thought!

The verses “He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul” were incredibly reassuring, and brought about waves of calmness whenever I felt the stress getting to me. So far so good for Week 1! I Hope I can say the same after Week 2.

Week 2 – Proverbs 4
Gabriella: When I saw that this week’s reading was on Proverbs, I knew that it was going to be a challenge. I decided to try to utilise my daily commute and lunch break time to memorise at least 4 verses a day. As I was so pre-occupied with work, I am sad to say that I only got as far as half of the passage.

Despite it being a hectic week, I tried to meditate on what it meant attain wisdom (the focal point of Proverbs 4). There were many points this week where I felt like giving up, but the song God I Look To You by Bethel kept ringing in my ear. The lyrics “God I look to you, I won’t be overwhelmed / You’re where my help comes from” and “Give me wisdom, you know just what to do” stuck with me. I felt like God revealed Himself through the Word, that I should ask Him for wisdom like how a child would and to have the faith that He will bring me through my circumstances.

Chynne: My first thought after seeing the length of the passage was that I would not be able to complete the challenge.

When I first read the passage, I didn’t think much about it. However, whilst doing my daily devotional a few days later, God spoke to me. The devotional shared a story of a family that was lost; the father finally decided to get directions from someone to get to their destination. Despite receiving directions, the father ignored them and continued going about his own way — how silly! Likewise, God has given us directions or instructions through the Word but yet we choose to do things otherwise at times. I found this chapter really interesting because it was essentially a list of instructions to guide us through life!

End of week 2: I was rather disappointed because I only managed to memorise half of the passage.

Week 3 – James 1
Gabriella: James is actually one of my favourite books; I was quite keen on memorising it! But because I’m both a visual and audio learner, I play the online audio bible every once in a while. And similar to learning the lyrics of a song because you play It repeatedly, this method really helped me to memorise the Word better!

Chynne: Similar to the previous week, I only managed to memorise about less than half of the entire passage. I think it was really a result of poor time management and I am guilty of prioritising my time for school work and activities over reading His word.

FINAL THOUGHTS
Gabriella: After these 3 weeks, my perspective of the word has changed! Meditating on a verse/verses for a consecutive number of days helped me to dig deeper in the Word. Also, I realised that in doing so, I tended to carry out the Word in my actions — not intentionally, but it became a natural thing!

Chynne: At the end of the challenge, I began to see reading the Bible in a different light. Previously, I would read the Bible for the sake of it when time permits. But the past three weeks of reading the Bible more intentionally and consistently have compelled me to delve deeper in His word!