Why I’m Memorizing Isaiah 12 During Lent—And You Can, Too

Does Your Church Observe Lent?

I grew up in a very religious family. We were always in church. But I had never heard of Lent.

No church I’ve attended since has observed Lent either.

But that doesn’t discourage me from my own personal observation of the season.

Participating in Lent may or not be a requirement in your Christian tradition either.

But it can be an opportunity.

This year I’m going to re-memorize Isaiah 12 during the Lenten season with Do Not Depart.

What Is Lent?

The six week period of Lent, leading up to Easter, is traditionally viewed as a season of contemplation and preparation. It’s a period to prepare ourselves spiritually for the worldwide celebration of Jesus’s death and resurrection on Easter morning, key events in the Christian faith.

Lent is also a time when many Christians voluntarily give up one thing (meat, chocolate, alcohol, TV, social media, etc.) so they can concentrate on another thing (prayer, repentance, reflection, generosity, forgiveness, etc.).

When we memorize scripture, we’re giving up time, energy, and our own thoughts to concentrate on prayer, praise, and God’s thoughts. It’s an investment that returns to us ten-fold.

Memorize Isaiah 12 During Lent

On Ash Wednesday, February 17, we’ll begin reading and praying daily through Isaiah 12:1-6.

Then beginning Sunday, February 21, we’ll individually memorize one verse per week in Isaiah 12 (there are only 6 verses!). You can also look up the original Hebrew words; read commentaries; write the verse by hand; recite it aloud; anything that helps you roll around the words and praise in your heart and head again and again.

You won’t be alone in it. Almost 100 people have already signed up to memorize Isaiah 12 together as part of our Hide His Word community.

You’re invited to join, too. We’re a no-pressure group who has discovered great value in practicing the spiritual discipline of memorization. Our pace is slow but steady at one verse a week.

After six weeks, leading up to Easter morning, we’ll have memorized a chapter of the Bible.

But more importantly, we’ll have spent six weeks with God in an intentional, focused way, readying our hearts for Jesus’s escape from any tombs we’ve buried him in, walking into fresh, new life once again.

Is scripture memorization a requirement for believers? Certainly not.

But can it be beneficial? Most definitely.

Join us and find out. You’ll get resources to print and the link to connect you with our Facebook group.

Sign up here.

If you’d like more tools for how to memorize a chapter of the Bible (or individual verses), I compiled a series of 31 days on “Tools to Memorize a Bible Chapter” using Isaiah 12 as the sample chapter.

See the index here and get any memorization tools you need.

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