Mensa Otabil - God's Word In Your Heart
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Welcome to day number nine of our 40 days of power. As you know, this week we are looking at guidance on how to be led by the Lord. I trust that you’re getting to know the voice of God, listening to Him, and following His lead. We look at Psalm 119, verses 10 and 11: «With my whole heart I have sought You; O let me not wander from Your commandments. Your word I have hidden in my heart that I might not sin against You.»
God’s word in our hearts allows us, or enables us, to discern God’s will. It is natural; when we know what people want, we can please them. It works in a relationship, in a marriage relationship, and in every relationship. Similarly, it works in our relationship with God. When we know what God wants through His word, we can please Him and do His will. Thepassage we read tells us two main things we have to do. The first is that we must seek God with our whole heart. That means we must make a determined, passionate commitment to know what God wants us to do. It also means that when we know what God wants us to do, we must act accordingly.
So, the first thing is seeking the Lord with all your heart. The second thing that the psalmist tells us to do is to hide God’s word in our hearts. The Hebrew word that is translated as «hide» means to store up, to hoard, or to lay up. It is similar to a person building an investment that he will cash out of. God’s word must be an investment in our hearts; we must invest His word in our hearts and store it there so that when we need to do God’s will, what we have invested in our hearts will come out.
So, how do we store God’s word in our hearts? How do we hide His word in our hearts? How do we invest God’s word in us? Three ways: First, we must read the Scriptures. That’s the first step to hiding God’s word in our hearts. We must spend time reading the Bible. It’s okay to read one verse for a devotional or hear a pastor preach a quote from a verse and explain it, but that’s not enough. We must read volumes of the Bible; we must read lots of the word of God and imbibe it.
So, read the Bible and read a lot of it; that’s the first step. Second, don’t just read the Bible; you must know the Scriptures. You must understand what it means. If we want to hide God’s word in our hearts, we must grasp its meaning. If we only read without understanding, we become mindless Christian fanatics, quoting the Bible arbitrarily to support anything, whether it is right or wrong. As you know, you can misuse the Bible to justify anything. However, when we know what the Scripture means, it means that we have rightly interpreted it. So, read it and know it.
The third thing is to memorize the Scripture. Memorizing means the word of God must be in our memory. Normally, you don’t take time to just memorize for recitation, but the more you engage with the word of God, the more you memorize it. If you read it frequently, it will stick in your mind. Remember when Satan wanted to take Jesus out of the will of the Father? Jesus had to release what he had memorized, and he quoted the Scripture. He didn’t quote book, chapter, and verse; he just quoted the word. You don’t need to know book, chapter, and verse; you just need to know the word and speak it out of your mouth. It is the word of God spoken from your mouth that helps us resist every work of the enemy.
So, hide the word of God in your heart and use it for your guidance. Let us pray. Say with me: Heavenly Father, You have shown Your will in Your word. Help me to store Your word in my heart. In Jesus' name, amen.