2 Verses a Day
I would also encourage you towards the doctrine of memorizing large texts of scripture, books of the Bible because that will ground you in the truth and let you be established with this belt [of truth] girded around your waist. Think about it, what better way to prepare yourself for an in depth study of a book of the Bible, than to memorize the book before you study it. Maybe your small group is going to study of Philippians in the spring. Start memorizing Philippians. Imagine, you go to the study and you’re trying to figure out what this means but you’ve got in your mind the whole book to draw upon to inform your interpretation of this verse. Memorize as a pre-study tool as a way of studying.
Now that might sound difficult but it’s not as hard as it sounds. Shakespearean actors memorize many more lines for a performance of Hamlet than there are lines in most books of the Bible. You can do this. Did you know that if you memorize just two verses a day you’ll have the whole new testament memorized in ten years. [Crowd laughs] You can do that. I encourage you. 10 years is a very very short time. Peter just said I’ve been a pastor for 10 years. I was like huh? I can’t believe I’ve been doing this for 10 years. This is the heart of wisdom. You need to have a long term perspective on your life. Don’t you intend to still be fighting the good fight of the faith 10 years from now? Wouldn’t you like to have books of the bible dwelling richly in your heart 10 years from now? Set long term goals and discover the power of, to steal Eugene Peterson’s phrase, a long term obedience in the same direction.
- Pastor Michael Shea – OIL 2005 – First Morning Exposition “The Road to Wisdom”. (Emphasis mine)
This gets me every time. I do intend to be fighting the good fight 10 years from now. Two verses a day is not a lot. If I can memorize a song a week, I can memorize 10 verses a week. What makes it difficult is being faithful for the long haul. At various points I’ve committed to this. I’ve memorized Philippians Chapter 4, James 1-4, and Psalm 27 (don’t ask me to recite them tho). I’ve memorized a verse a day for a whole summer up to like 60 verses which are still in there some where messing with my NIV/KJV recitation of those verses. We do it for Helpers training. We do it for Missions Training. I knew a guy who memorized Romans 1-10 by his freshmen year and Roman’s is not an easy book to memorize.
Listening to this sermon and this section specifically always gets me pumped up to memorize verses. I remember Darlene Deibler Rose whose scripture memory allowed her to cling to Jesus in WWII concentration camps. (She’s the reason I memorized Ps. 27). Memorizing verses and I have an off and on relationship. I’ll do some in bursts, then forget about it. Then do some more and set it aside. I lack the long term obedience. I lack the perseverance over the long haul.
So here’s to two verses a day. There are 915 verses in Proverbs. 2 verses a day will take me 458 days or 1 year and 2 months. So, in Jonathan Edwards fashion:
Resolved to memorize two verses of Proverbs a day.