Friday June 17, 2011

Psalm 119:11;   Proverbs 4:23

Psalm 119 starts (after a declaration of the blessed man and the unblessed state of the writer) in vs 9 with a question that every person, especially every teenage male, should ask - How can a young man keep his way pure? If the Psalmist lived 2,000 years this side of the cross he would ask, ‘How can a young man keep his life away from the pornography on the internet and TV? How can a young man keep his friends from leading him down the trail of bad language, negative attitudes and disrespect for everyone but his closest mates? How can a young man avoid drugs, alcohol and the negatives so prevalent in the world?’

Of course the questions apply to old men, to young women and to older women as well. The Psalmist is simply pouring out his heart to the Lord.

But never the less, the answer is as simple as it is complex. By living according to your Word. Look at vs 9 again.

There are two things you and I can be doing to help us live according to the injunction in vs 9. Firstly we can store up or hide God’s Word away in our heart. This is not a hiding away to remove something but a hiding away to protect it, to guard it and to give it the room to grow and mature and develop.  It’s the way that a Formula One driver might hide away his new fuel additive  formula that will give him an extra 20% power on race day. He wants nothing to corrupt it, steal it or make it unusable. When we hide God’s Word away in our heart we are hiding it there to stop it being stolen away (by the evil one, by  friends, by the excitement and attraction of the world and so on), corrupted or being made unusable. To hide away God’s Word in your heart you need to find several relevant verses (aim for a dozen or about 20) and memorise them bit by bit. You need to dwell on these verses regularly and meditate upon them. Think about what they mean in your life. How will these verses change your head (the way you think about something), your heart (the way you feel about something) and your hands (the way you do things)?

Secondly we are told in Proverbs 4:23 to guard our heart. But notice the intensity of the exhortation! Above all else, above anything else we might do, we are to guard our heart. There is nothing as important as guarding your heart.

The heart is the real centre of a person. It is the real me. It is that part that exists without any pretence or pretending or parading. TV, videos, music, computers and computer games, other people, magazines and books all change or affect our heart. When we guard our heart we make sure that none of these things have a negative or detrimental effect on our heart.  By guarding our heart we are making sure that nothing contrary to God’s will, and hence His Word, is able to enter our heart. That means I have to guard what I see, what I watch, what listen to, what I read, who I talk to, how I talk and so on.  Being a Christian really is more like being a soldier than a multi millionaire. Nobody said it was going to be easy!!

We are also told why we are to guard our heart but more on that tomorrow.

Prayer:-

V Pray that God will grow the faith of every believer gathered in your congregation.

V Pray that the whole day will be a faith filled day where God works powerfully among you all.