Memorize Matthew 17:20

“You don’t have enough faith,” Jesus told them. “I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move. Nothing would be impossible.”

Matthew 17:20, New Living Translation

43 words · a five-day project, a phrase or two at a time · Share as an image

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The five steps

1. Meet the verse. Hear it read aloud, then echo it phrase by phrase, with a small hand motion for each phrase.
2. Fill the gaps. About a third of the words become blanks. Say it out loud, supplying them; peek if you need to, trying is the point.
3. Half hidden. Most of the words are gone now. Say it once more at bedtime; sleep locks it in overnight.
4. First letters. Every word reduced to its first letter. Recite it with only those to guide you.
5. All by yourself. Nothing but the reference. One confident recite, then it goes into your Verse Book to come back for review.

Each step makes a fine "tonight's step" spread over five days, and nothing is locked: the numbered dots jump anywhere. How to memorize Bible verses walks through the whole method.

Why it works

Three of the most replicated findings in learning science: retrieval practice (pulling a word from memory strengthens it more than rereading it), spacing (short tries on separate days beat one long one), and sleep (a verse said at bedtime is consolidated overnight). The blanks grow in stages so that every try is hard enough to count and never so hard that you give up.

Matthew 17:20 in context

Jesus is transfigured before Peter, James, and John as Moses and Elijah appear. Returning from the mountain, he heals a boy, again predicts his death, and addresses the temple tax.

Read Matthew 17:20 in its chapter · Matthew 17, in the New Living Translation.

Verses that keep it company

• Proverbs 3:5-6Bible verses about faith
• Mark 9:24Bible verses about faith
• Mark 11:22Bible verses about faith
• Romans 1:17Bible verses about faith
• Romans 4:20-21Bible verses about faith
• Romans 10:17Bible verses about faith

Matthew 17:20 is on Bible verses about faith.

In other translations

BSB · Berean Standard BibleKJV · King James VersionNET · New English TranslationWEB · World English BibleESV · English Standard VersionASV · American Standard (1901)YLT · Young's Literal Translation

The reference is the same in every one; the path lets you switch mid-way, and pasting any wording you like works too.