Day Fourteen "Treasuring God's Word"

“Your word I have treasured in my heart that I may not sin against You.”

[Ps. 119:11]

As you start this day I wonder how deeply you treasure God’s Word. Do you long to get up and read it, study it, meditate on it? I just put down a book I am reading on personal revival. I completed the chapter about loving God’s word. In the book I read about a man who had committed to read the Bible through five times in one year! When the author told this story he commented about the countenance, the passion, and love for God he saw in his friend. He wondered if his friend being so committed and disciplined to read scripture had anything to do with his revived state.

The Bible is meat and potatoes for us. God uses His word to comfort, convict, challenge, and create a deeper love for Him. What does it mean to treasure God’s word in our hearts? The word “treasure” means to protect, lay up, hoard and to esteem. Do you protect your time in reading scripture? It is a battle. Dozens of things compete for our time in reading and meditating on the Bible. You must protect this time and esteem your time in God’s book. It is one thing to read it in your head but a completely different thing to let it sink into your soul.

This morning I read in the book of Job. God used a scripture in Job to speak to my heart many years ago. I made a note of that experience along with a date next to that scripture. As I read it again this morning I can see what God did. That scripture sank into my soul.

The benefit of devoting yourself to reading and studying scripture is found at the end of Psalm 119:11. When we treasure and hide God’s word in our heart it helps us in our fight not to sin against God. Knowing the Bible is indispensable in our fight against sin. How did Jesus combat Satan when He was tempted? He quoted scripture to him.

I urge you to begin storing up, or hoarding scriptures in your heart and mind to help you remain strong in the midst of temptation. This is something I am trying to help our church with. Each week we put a challenge scripture in our bulletin for memorization. If we are faithful to do this, at the end of a year we could have fifty-two scriptures memorized. At the end of two years that number would jump to 104. The following year it would climb to 156. After four years the number would increase to 208. That is only taking one scripture a week to memorize. I know that is not too difficult for most people. It does take time but the rewards in our striving after holiness and against sin are well worth the price to pay.

I hope you will stop today and check your attitude about the word of God. Do you find reading it boring? I ask you if you are reading it to get to know God and His heart? You will not experience revival if you do not make reading and memorizing scripture a regular part of your spiritual disciplines.

Steps to Revival

1. Ask the Lord to develop in you an insatiable craving for reading scripture.

2. How will you go about adding scripture memory to your life? Why not choose one for today and begin working on it?

3. Set aside a scheduled time to read scripture and fight for that time with all you have.

4. Choose a systematic plan for reading the Bible. You can use a devotional guide such as this one where a scripture is chosen for you each day. You can choose to pick a book of the Bible and work your way through it daily. You might choose to start in Genesis and work your way through Revelation. Choose the one you get the most of out.