How do you choose what Bible passages to memorize?

I go with the flow, as far as the church program is concerned, as a baseline.

The church has a memory program called the Fighter Verses. And I want to be a good example, and so I memorize those.

They're not always the most special to me, but they are short, usually, and so why not memorize them? They're God's word.

So I'm working on those. We just finished Psalm 118:5-8:

Out of my distress I called on the LORD;
the LORD answered me and set me free.
The LORD is on my side; I will not fear.
What can man do to me?
The LORD is on my side as my helper;
I shall look in triumph on those who hate me.
It is better to take refuge in the LORD
than to trust in man.

So that's my pattern. I let that dictate what I worked on last week.

For myself, I want, mainly, really helpful, encouraging, extended passages. We're talking Romans 8, Romans 5, Matthew 6:1-25.

In other words, my main reason for memorizing Scripture is not to teach anybody anything but to fight unbelief in my life. To fight discouragement in my life. To handle the sorrows that come across my life.

The devil is constantly shooting at me to be discouraged about myself, my family, my church, and the world. And the only way I know to fight back is with truths from God that counter that.

So I'm looking for extended passages of Scripture.

This morning I really felt personally given a gift. I was in 2 Kings just reading the Bible, and it said that God wouldn't destroy Jehoram's Judah, even though he sinned, because of David. Which brought to my mind Isaiah 55:1-3 which says,

Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters ... and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David.

So that's mine! If I come to the waters, drink from the waters, he's going to make that covenant with me. And it kept him from destroying a sinful Judah.

And that brought to my mind Jeremiah 32, which is the new covenant.

I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me.

And I think Jeremiah 32:40 is as good as it gets. "I will not turn away from doing you good." Really? As I do these recordings this morning, God will not turn away from doing good to me? If I could believe that, all of my anxieties would go away.

That's what I'm looking for. I'm looking for anxiety-relieving passages of Scripture.