“IN MY HEART!”

 Psalms 119:9-11                      (ESV)

“9 How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to YOUR WORD. 

10 With my whole heart I seek YOU; let me not wander from YOUR commandments! 

11 I have stored up YOUR WORD “IN MY HEART”, that I might not sin against YOU.”

One of the first memory verses taught to me was Psalms 119:11.  The KJV version says “Thy word have I “hid” in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.”  But in my opinion, having THY WORD “hid” in my doesn’t get the message across that having YOUR WORD “stored” in our heads?  When HIS WORD is hid, that might give the impression that we have no intention of anyone finding it!  When it is stored, it says that we are going to use it at a later time, FOR HIS GLORY!  When YOUR WORD is “stored” in our HEARTS, it will make its way out of us, ESPECIALLY when our “word recall” fails our minds!  

As most are aware, the Brain Hemorrhage of 2007 happened in the WORD RECALL portion of my brain, leaving me with the problem of finding the exact words that I am searching for occasionally.  A Speech Pathologist suggested that I begin writing a daily journal which led to me writing my personal devotional almost every morning.  Although it may take only a few minutes to read the four or five paragraphs, it sometimes takes me 60-90 minutes to write them by the time I get through searching for just the CORRECT words to use!

One thing that has become remarkably clear in my life is having HIS WORD “IN MY HEART” is much more beneficial than just having HIS WORD in my memory banks.  Scripture memorization is an important asset for any Believer, but having GOD ALMIGHTY transform your life with the precepts of HIS WORD cannot be rivaled.  HIS WORD is POWERFUL (Hebrews 4:12), but simply reading, and not applying it, will not attain the results that GOD alone can!  

Allowing time to germinate the seeds of HIS WORD in our lives and mature in my heart has been the greatest gift.  Planted seeds do not produce fruits overnight!  They MUST be allowed UNINTERRUPTED TIME in the ground to achieve the desired results. “That I might not sin against YOU” is the desired result, but the PEACE of fellowship with THE FATHER is immeasurable.  We need to have HIS WORD in our heads, but having HIS WORD “IN OUR HEARTS” is where it does the most to grow us, and GLORIFY HIM!