What Are You Hiding?

I have hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.

Usually when we hide something, we are hiding something negative, like a bad habit or an addiction. Or maybe you’ve purchased too many shoes and have them hidden in your closet! (LOL)

But here in Psalm 119, the psalmist is hiding something good: God’s Word. He has hidden it in his heart to help him resist sin and live in obedience to the Lord.

We hide His Word in our hearts by reading it, meditating on it—taking time to think about what it means—and putting it into practice.

How do we know what’s hidden in our hearts? Well, usually when a stressful situation comes along, we find out what’s in our hearts by what comes out of our mouths. There’s another Scripture that says, “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh” (Matthew 12:34, KJV, excerpt). When you’re in a long line-up, when your flight is delayed, or when somebody says something nasty to you, you find out what’s hidden in your heart by how you react—by what comes spilling out.

My encouragement for you today is to have your heart aligned with the heart of God. You need to have His Word hidden in your heart. When Jesus faced very difficult situations—people mocked Him, people spit on Him—how did He respond to these things? He said, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34, NLT, excerpt).

Let’s follow the example of Jesus. Let’s speak His Word and have His Word hidden in our hearts, so that when we face difficult times, what comes spilling out is the love of God.

God bless you today.

Reflection

Choose a Scripture, or bring to mind one you already know. Take time to think about what it means. How can you take its truth to heart and put it into practice when you face temptation or a difficult situation?

Prayer

Lord, help us to hide Your Word in our hearts. Help us to understand it and put it into practice, so that we can overcome temptation and sin in our lives. Teach us to follow the example of Jesus, responding to difficult situations with Your love and forgiveness. May what comes spilling out of our hearts reflect You. Amen.