The Word In My Heart

Psalms 119:11

Thy word have I hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against thee.

We all know this verse and would agree that it is true. We also understand that it is important to have the Word of God memorized so that we can quote it, so that we can remember it when we don’t have our Bibles close to us, and so that we can use it as a basis for praying and getting our needs met.I can remember as a young person in church being told of a missionary who was taken prisoner by hostile a government who opposed Christianity and the preaching of the Bible. He had his Bible taken from him and was put in solitary confinement for years. As the story goes, this man had memorized lots of the Bible and he said that it was this that kept him going while in the prison. They could take the Word from his hand, but not from his heart.Of course, this was told to us to emphasize the importance of memorizing scripture. Well, to me it was a good story and I was glad for the missionary, but I really didn’t see that ever happening to me or to any one else that I knew. Therefore, I really wasn’t convinced of the real importance of hiding the Word in my heart.

I will not argue the fact that all of these are true and applicable, but I think that it goes much further than that. I believe that there is another meaning, another reason that we should have the Word hidden in our hearts. The Bible says first of all that faith comes by hearing the Word of God. Secondly, it says that that which is not of faith is sin. Do you see the importance now of having the Word hidden in our hearts? The Word hidden in our hearts will produce faith in our lives and faith in our lives pleases God. The just shall live by faith.