Praying To Treasure God's Word and Let It Transform Our Daily Living

Somewhere in some landfill in Southern Ontario there is a chart that has my name and a gold sticker on it for memorizing this particular verse in Sunday School.  Along with flannel graph stories, little activity sheet to colour or cut up and paste, Sunday School lessons always included a memory verse.  For years, each week we received a little Sunday School paper that had pictures and stories and the verse for the week. Somewhere near the beginning of the Sunday School hour the next week was time for each person to quote the verse including chapter and verse where it was found in the Bible.

I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against You.  Psalm 119:11

Sometimes there was even a little chorus to go along with the verse to help with the memory and for this verse from Psalm 119 I have one of those little diddies going around in my head. It’s using the old King James version words – because there weren’t modern translations available at that point. 

Thy word have I hid in my heart

That I might not sin against Thee

That I might not sin

That I might not sin

Thy word have I hid in my heart.

Another version of this verse says it this way:

I have treasured Your word in my heart so that I may not sin against You.  Psalm 119:11

How serious are we about not sinning?  We are so grateful that God has made provision for us, knowing that we would fail over and over again.  How precious are these familiar words:

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.  1 John 1:9

We take time each day to think about and pray about a little snippet from God’s word because we believe The Bible speaks truth – truth that protects us and shows us a good way forward.  It’s one thing to know something is true and it’s another thing to treasure something.  How am I taking care of the precious words of life God is making available to me every day?  We keep treasured things close.  We put them in safe places  We hold them carefully. 

In the case of God’s word, not only do we get to appreciate something costly, something beautiful, something personal, but we get the benefit of having these treasure keep us from stumbling around in sin, harming ourselves and others in the process.  Today we pray to treasure God’s word.

Heavenly Father, we are so grateful for Your generosity in giving us precious promises and directions that are so valuable.  We confess that we don’t appreciate the value of Your words to us sometimes.  We choose to live in rebellion and simply cast those words off, or we treat them in some kind of casual way that has no impact, really, on our emotions, our thinking, or our behaving.  Forgive us Lord. 

Open our eyes to see the wonderful truths in Your instructions and fill us with humility and courage to put them into practice each day in each situation.  We don’t have to sin.  You have filled us with Your Spirit so we can walk in truth but we know that we do have an enemy who is just looking to trip us up.  He doesn’t care how he gets us to stumble.  Just not knowing the right thing is good enough for the evil one to use against us.  So, help us today Lord to take time to get Your word into us and allow it to change us.  As the old Anglican prayer reminds us we agree in praying:

Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that by patience and the comfort of your Holy Word we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen

Well, these are very simple basic truths, taught to wee children in Sunday School but still necessary for us, particularly during these seemingly endless days of pandemic challenges and restrictions.  What can we each do today to treasure God’s word and hide it in our heart?

Have a great day doing so.