Before I entered the ministry, I worked for many years as a parole officer for the state of Georgia. I have frequently joked that being a parole officer prepared me for pastoral ministry (haha). People nearly always chuckle at that remark, but the more I’ve reflected on those earlier years, the more I believe my tongue-in-cheek statement has proven true. Being immersed in what I would later understand as “the doctrine of depravity” on full display prepared me for future ministry challenges.
But there is another way those earlier years were helpful: I had begun memorizing scripture during my lunch hour. God used a conference speaker to awaken my desire for the Word, and over the next couple of years, the Lord enabled me to commit to memory over 300 verses of scripture. That season blessed my soul as I grew in my Christian faith. I later discovered how God would use those scriptures as a foundation for future ministry and seminary studies. While I no longer follow as strict a plan as in those earlier years, I still believe in the value of scripture memorization and recommend the discipline for all Christians, especially pastors. Here are three reasons why:
1) Memorizing Scripture Can Strengthen Your Preaching
While preaching styles and convictions vary, any preacher may improve by ongoing scripture memorization and meditation. For example, I prefer expositional verse-by-verse teaching through passages of scripture. Thus, I’ll have one primary text I’m preaching, the “preaching passage,” but I will usually include parallel or relevant scriptures that supplement the text. The Holy Spirit frequently brings memorized scriptures to mind to aid my preparation and strengthen my preaching. Often in sermon delivery, a memorized verse suddenly comes to mind and leaps up from within the storehouse of scripture in the heart to join with other thoughts and ideas of the message.
2) Memorizing Scripture Can Supplement Your Pastoring
Just as in preaching, pastors who regularly memorize and meditate upon scripture find the Spirit frequently bringing particular verses to mind helpful to pastoral care and counseling. For example, verses recently recited in one’s quiet time become useful later while praying during a hospital visit. While counseling church members, memorized scriptures that speak to the issues at hand may also come to mind.
3) Memorizing Scripture Can Safeguard Your Purity
In that wonderfully poetic psalm on the Word, the Psalmist joyfully declares to God, “Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You” (Psalm 119:11). Memorizing scripture is no guarantee we will never stumble in the faith, but it certainly will help us stay on the right path. Perhaps greater than any other temptation, pastors seem especially vulnerable to the pitfalls of personal purity. Regularly memorizing and meditating upon scripture fosters healthy thinking (Philippians 4:8) and arms us with crucial weaponry to withstand the Enemy’s attacks (Ephesians 6:11-17).
“How sweet are Your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! Through Your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way.”
(Psalm 119:103-104)
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