This verse is where the title of this blog came from...in many translations it reads, "I have hidden Your word in my heart so that I may not sin against You.
Matthew Henry, a Biblical scholar of the early 1700s states, "God's word is treasure worth laying up, and there is no laying it up safe but in our hearts."
Where do you store your dearest treasures? In a vault, in a safety deposit box, under your bed? Are any of those places absolutely safe? I think there have been movies made about every one of these places being invaded by thieves...I mean James Bond has been successful at breaking in any where he has needed to, hasn't he?
When you stop and think about it, the only absolutely safe place we can store anything is in our hearts. Photo albums may fade, but our memories of special times are always with us. Marriage certificates may become lost, wedding dresses tattered and torn, but our love for our mates is always within us The tangibles are always able to be taken from us...even our most precious Bible, with all of our notes and pages that have been dog-eared and verses highlighted, can become lost. But what we have stored in our hearts is ours to keep. No one can take it from us unless we allow that to happen. We will need to treat these words like the treasures they are and diligently work at safeguarding them so that they will never leave us.
So both translations can merge together and become very meaningful to me...we are hiding these words because they are our treasures. We are treasuring these words because they are so precious to us, they bring life, joy and peace to our hearts.
Jesus said, "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also," (Matthew 6:21). If we are truly treasuring God's Word, and maintaining that treasure in our heart, is there any doubt where our passion will be directed?
I think American Christians have become very complacent about the treasure that we have in God's Word. But ask a persecuted Christian in China, Sudan, or many other areas of the world where outright persecution of the Christian faith is occurring how they view the Word of God, and I think you would find a much different level of passion exhibited toward it.
God's Word is our most precious treasure. We must view it as such and honor it by housing it in the safehouse of our hearts. We should be studying and absorbing it every day, and as we do we should be lifting up in prayer our Christian brothers and sisters around the world who are suffering and dying in order to do the very thing that we take for granted.
Lord, help me to realize that I have a treasure at my fingertips. As my hands turn the pages of Your Word, let them simultaneously be lifted in praise to You for this wondeful gift. Let me store Your treasures in my heart, and let those treasures direct my steps in the direction that You have laid out for me. Thank You, my Father, especially for the gift of Jesus, and for the gift of Your everlasting Word. Amen.
Matthew Henry, a Biblical scholar of the early 1700s states, "God's word is treasure worth laying up, and there is no laying it up safe but in our hearts."
Where do you store your dearest treasures? In a vault, in a safety deposit box, under your bed? Are any of those places absolutely safe? I think there have been movies made about every one of these places being invaded by thieves...I mean James Bond has been successful at breaking in any where he has needed to, hasn't he?
When you stop and think about it, the only absolutely safe place we can store anything is in our hearts. Photo albums may fade, but our memories of special times are always with us. Marriage certificates may become lost, wedding dresses tattered and torn, but our love for our mates is always within us The tangibles are always able to be taken from us...even our most precious Bible, with all of our notes and pages that have been dog-eared and verses highlighted, can become lost. But what we have stored in our hearts is ours to keep. No one can take it from us unless we allow that to happen. We will need to treat these words like the treasures they are and diligently work at safeguarding them so that they will never leave us.
So both translations can merge together and become very meaningful to me...we are hiding these words because they are our treasures. We are treasuring these words because they are so precious to us, they bring life, joy and peace to our hearts.
Jesus said, "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also," (Matthew 6:21). If we are truly treasuring God's Word, and maintaining that treasure in our heart, is there any doubt where our passion will be directed?
I think American Christians have become very complacent about the treasure that we have in God's Word. But ask a persecuted Christian in China, Sudan, or many other areas of the world where outright persecution of the Christian faith is occurring how they view the Word of God, and I think you would find a much different level of passion exhibited toward it.
God's Word is our most precious treasure. We must view it as such and honor it by housing it in the safehouse of our hearts. We should be studying and absorbing it every day, and as we do we should be lifting up in prayer our Christian brothers and sisters around the world who are suffering and dying in order to do the very thing that we take for granted.
Lord, help me to realize that I have a treasure at my fingertips. As my hands turn the pages of Your Word, let them simultaneously be lifted in praise to You for this wondeful gift. Let me store Your treasures in my heart, and let those treasures direct my steps in the direction that You have laid out for me. Thank You, my Father, especially for the gift of Jesus, and for the gift of Your everlasting Word. Amen.
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