Am I Ready to Recite?

Publicly reciting Scripture before an audience is a very different experience than reciting Scripture to yourself as you practice in your home. Instead of remembering information, you are sharing it, hoping that every person in the audience is listening and being impacted. Now every recitation, no matter how unprofessional or filled with stumbles, is a blessing to the audience. But, when we take time to prepare ourselves to effectively minister the passage to our listeners, we can increase the blessing that they receive from the message within the words. To effectively minister a passage, we need to do more than initial memorization, diving deeper into the role of the speaker of the text. To be ready to recite for an audience, you need to practice your recitation as well as your memorization. But how do you know when you are truly ready?

Are you ready as soon as you can recite word for word? Are you ready if you can make it through the passage with no less than three mistakes? What is the rule for audience-ready recitation? Well, just as in all other areas of Scripture memorization and recitation, there is no rule for everyone to follow. Instead, I would like to offer some questions you can ask yourself. Depending on your answers, you can decide if you are ready to recite or if you need to spend some more time in preparation. Please note that a state of readiness will change from day to day. If you are ready to recite today, but you have a formal recitation of the same passage next month, you will need to continue practicing and dwelling in the passage to stay ready.

Here are some questions to ask yourself to help you decide if you are ready to recite:

1. Am I confident in the words of the passage?

2. Can I visualize the pathway of the concepts?

3. Do I understand the passage?

4. Can I speak the passage as if it were my own words?

5. Am I able to stay present?

6. Is my heart listening to the Holy Spirit?

7. Am I confident in the words of the passage?
   When you practice a recitation at home, your brain only needs to process the words themselves. When you recite in front of others, your brain is processing so much more than just the words. Every face in the audience can be a distraction as you wonder what everyone is thinking about as they listen. With so much more to process, your brain can have more trouble recalling the words during a recitation than during your practices. You want to make sure you are fully confident in the words of the passage and their accuracy so you won’t be constantly second-guessing yourself during the recitation. To check on your confidence in the words, you can try reciting in a different setting than your private practices that mimics the actual event you are preparing for. For example, you can recite to a friend in person or over the phone. In this scenario, your brain will get to process the desire to speak well and reach the person with the message and the curiosity of how the person is responding internally. You can also try reciting while performing another task like driving a car or washing dishes. By practicing your passage in this way, you can check on your confidence in the words and also give your brain a chance to practice the multi-tasking it will be doing during your formal recitation.

8. Can I visualize the pathway of the concepts?
   This may sound a little ‘out there,’ but the question simply asks if you know the structure and flow of your passage well. It’s like being aware of the route between your house and your work. If you find yourself zoning out on the drive and then suddenly you zone back in, you know exactly where you are on the route because of the landmarks around you. You aren’t feeling lost at all, you know exactly where you should take your next turn. Can you visualize in your mind what each paragraph talks about and how it connects to the next parageaph? Zoning out can happen a lot when reciting a memorized work because it’s so familiar to you, just like the route from home to work. If you are able to visualize the pathway of the concepts, you can keep yourself on track during your recitation because you know the ‘landmarks’ of the concepts as they build on each other.
   You can check on your ability to visualize the concepts of your passage by saying out loud an oral summary of the passage. This is also a great way to practice your ability to visualize the pathway of the concepts. For example, here is a summation of Hebrews chapter one I am typing off the top of my head while functioning on coffee and desperately in need of a nap: “Hebrews chapter one begins with an introduction about Christ and states that He is better than angels. It contrasts Christ and angels, God never claims an angel as a Son. Instead, God commands the angels to worship the Son. Then it shares praise that the Father gives to the Son, quoting from the Old Testament. It concludes with one more quote as evidence that Christ is better than angels.” I might struggle at this exact minute to recite the passage word for word, but I am confident I know the concepts well because I am still able to picture what is happening in the chapter.

9. Do I understand the passage?
   This is a basic question but it’s easy to skip once we’ve memorized a passage. It has become familiar to us and we might feel like we understand the whole and the parts simply because it is familiar. But do you truly understand what each part of the passage is teaching? Not only is it difficult to remember the words of a verse you don’t understand, but it is also difficult to recite a verse you don’t understand in a way that will help others understand it. You can’t give understanding where you don’t have any. But how can you check on your understanding? After all, it’s easy to think we have the right understanding of a verse without realizing we are missing something. Consider looking up your passage in different commentaries or listening to several sermons online that teach about your text. These other perspectives can help you decide if you have a good grasp of the layers of teaching that are in your passage. Blueletterbible.com is a wonderful resource for this purpose.

10. Can I speak this as if it were my own words?
    Speaking the Scriptures as if they were your own words will make your recitation more powerful and impactful to the listener and even to yourself. This greater impact on both you and the audience is a result of the extra time necessary to develop a personal connection and understanding of the words to speak them as your own. Not only that, but the audience is impacted more greatly because you are not speaking the Scripture and inviting them to listen, but rather, you are speaking the Scripture to them. Here is a mental image for you to illustrate the difference: If you listen to an audiobook, you can zone out or pause, fast forward or rewind. It’s up to you if you listen or not. But if someone is talking to you, you pay attention as a requirement for the communication you are having, and the words they say personally affect you.

    In order to recite Scripture to an audience and not just in front of an audience, you need to be able to speak your passage as your own words. How do you know if you are speaking Scripture as if it were your own words? When your recitation changes based on your audience: not in wording, but in inflection, emphasis, tone, etc. Just as your speaking patterns change depending on who you are talking to in your daily life, your speech patterns when reciting Scripture should also change. To check on this quality or to practice it, you can recite to different kinds of audiences or people before your more formal recitation date. Ask a male friend to listen, then ask a female friend. Ask to recite to a child or a teenager. Have a few friends over for dinner and recite there. In each recitation, focus on speaking the words in a way that reaches your specific audience. You may find yourself placing emphasis in different places or using hand motions more or less. When your formal recitation comes along, you might hear feedback like, “It sounded like the passage was speaking directly to me!”

11. Am I able to stay present?
    Oh yes, it is so easy to zone out as we recite, as we have already discussed. Being confident in the words and the pathway of the concepts help us stay present, and speaking the Scripture as our own words requires it. Staying present in your recitation means you are staying with the words and their meaning as you say them. You might find yourself tempted to wonder about what came before and if you were accurate or not. You might find yourself wondering how things will go over the next few verses. It’s important to stay in the moment so you can continue to recite the words on purpose, not just because they are supposed to come next. You can check on your ability to stay present in your practices on your own or with your test audiences. Just keep pulling your brain back to the moment, to the message you are sharing as you go along.

12. Am I listening to the Holy Spirit?
    It is one of the Holy Spirit’s jobs to illuminate the Scriptures for our understanding. As we read or listen to the Scriptures, He moves with the words to affect us; to teach us, convict us, guide us, bring us to praise, etc. When we recite Scripture for others, we cannot do so effectively without the work of the Holy Spirit. He can work with dry recitations, and He can apply Scriptures that aren’t spoken on purpose, but there is a much greater opportunity for Him to work if you recite with His leading. This is also a wonderful blessing to experience for yourself, to know that you are now breathing out the Words of God that He breathed out in the first place. When you recite while relying on the Holy Spirit, He is breathing through you (2 Timothy 3:16-17).

    What does this all mean? Well, it does not mean we will suddenly be able to recite perfectly. We are still broken but redeemed vessels, being sanctified but not yet glorified. We are still going to make mistakes. But it does mean that the Holy Spirit can help us to speak more powerfully, more beautifully, and more impactfully than we could on our own.

    How do you listen to Him while you recite? You listen to Him during your practices, slowing down the fast pace we often set when we are trying to just get done, and dwell in the Scripture with Him. Speak slowly in practice and think through the truths you are listening to. Pray before and during for the Holy Spirit to teach you. See your times of practice as a time to commune with God, to speak His Words and listen to the way He wishes to teach you with them at that moment. When you recite before your formal audience, pray before you get up there that the Holy Spirit would fill you especially for the ministry of this passage for this audience, for these few minutes. Then, you listen to Him in the same way you’ve been practicing listening to Him. Recite the words on purpose as He guides your heart for His purpose.

I trust that these questions will help you think through the major question of, “Am I ready to recite?” The way you answer them will help you find what you need to focus on before the event of your recitation. Remember that it’s okay to recite even when you don’t feel fully ‘ready.’ Every recitation is a blessing! I’ve recited many times at varying degrees of readiness and it is always a blessing to me and the listeners. However, the most powerful and precious times of recitation have always been the ones where I could answer each of these questions positively. May God be glorified and your listeners edified as you seek to serve Him by sharing His recited Word.

~Rachel Eernisse, Scripture Speaker