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When the Word Works

Weekly Devotional for Preachers
When the Word Works
Image: Cyndi Monaghan / Getty

My Dear Shepherds,

When I was a kid in VBS we’d stand and pledge allegiance to the Bible. We also memorized this verse this way,

Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee. (Ps. 119:11 KJV)

I never forgot it. As children, that verse was assigned to us more as an admonition in hopes that one day it would become our testimony. And now it has.

God’s Word hidden away, stored up, treasured, in our hearts. At first, we picked up the Scripture in fragments, not so much a treasure to us as ore yet to be refined. I began as a little child, learning Bible stories, memorizing John 3:16 and Ephesians 4:32, “Be ye kind one to one another ...” (a Sunday School peace-keeping measure, I suspect). At my mother’s insistence, I packed away Luke 2:1-20, Psalms 23 and 100, and John 3:1-16.

Later, in a Bible Instruction Class (catechism), I first glimpsed the glint of gold in basic Christian doctrines. In college and seminary, I learned to study the Bible and then, eventually, to teach. The first class I taught was for a young adult group where I took up the passages in Jeremiah we’d worked on in Hebrew exegesis class. I jumped in at the deep end of the pool!

In time I became a pastor and, for decades now, I have opened the Bible to God’s people almost every week. I always get to bank in my own vault what I teach them. Very few other Christians can store up God’s Word as we do. Besides, since God himself assigned and equipped us to be Wordworkers we really don’t have much choice in the matter! A happy duty, to be sure.

The psalmist also wrote, “With my lips I recount all the laws that come from your mouth” (v. 13). We may not get to them all, but week after week, year after year, we take one text after another, preaching through Genesis, Joshua, John, and James, teaching things like basic discipleship, stewardship, or principles of prayer.

We befriend our biblical ancestors, peer into ancient words, track cross-references across hundreds of pages, and weave together tapestries of truth. In the middle of a counseling session, the Word whispers wisdom, brought out of storage by the Spirit of God. Our prayers take on the overtones of Scripture.

We have asked along with the psalmist, “Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law” (v. 18). The wonders never run out. In seminary a professor stunned me when he showed us the ingenious way Mark teaches us about seeing in 8:1-33. How did I not know till I was 68 that there is a “gospel of Ezekiel” (chapters 34-37)!? And the stories! Jacob wrestling with the angel, the fiery furnace, the prodigal son, the Cross, and the Resurrection. Do you remember when you first swam into the deep, bracing waters of Romans? And what about the eye-popping wonders of Revelation!

But all that is not the best part, nor the most important. The greatest gift is how God’s Word, treasured up in our hearts, changes us so “that I might not sin against you.” We so often celebrate having our sins forgiven, that we overlook the wonder of being so Scripture sculpted that, from time to time at least, we do not sin against God at all! Isn’t it a wonder that in these last few days or hours, in the face of certain temptations, you didn’t sin. The Word worked. And you did not forget God’s wondrous law.

Be ye glad!

Lee Eclov recently retired after 40 years of local pastoral ministry and now focuses on ministry among pastors. He writes a weekly devotional for preachers on Preaching Today.

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