ODB: untended places
September 10, 2009
READ: Psalm 119:9-16
Your Word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You. —Psalm 119:11
Our family had just arrived at the lake cottage we had rented for a week of much-anticipated vacation when my wife discovered the unmistakable evidence of spiders and mice in the house. It wasn’t that we had never encountered such things, but that we had expected the cottage to be cleaned and prepared for our stay there. Instead, the counters, cabinets, and beds were littered with the residue of infestation, requiring much cleaning before we settled in. It wasn’t a bad house; it had just been left untended.
We might be guilty of dealing with our hearts the way that cottage was managed. Our “untended places” can become breeding grounds for infestations of wrong thinking, poor attitudes, or sinful behavior—creating problems that require significant attention to correct. The wise path is to recognize our need to tend our hearts by staying in God’s Word and embracing its truths.
In Psalm 119:11, King David recognized the danger of not building our lives on the Scriptures. He said, “Your Word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You.”
With a focus on the Word, we can build strong spiritual lives that will help us avoid the dangers that inevitably grow in untended places. — Bill Crowder
To grow spiritually strong, read the Word.
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Loading ...ODJ: meditate
I will meditate continually on Your decrees (v.117).
READ: Psalm 119:9-18
We African Christians in general love the Bible. We love to own a Bible. We enjoy listening to preaching based on the Bible. We love to read tracts and booklets about the Bible. Sometimes we check out the Bible to pray a certain psalm or read a few verses that have been indicated to us in the course of a lesson, homily, or discussion. But few of us ever read the Bible on a regular basis as a Christian devotion. Why?” So asks Nigerian-born priest Ernest Munachi Ezeogu.
Rev. Munachi’s question is worth posing to Christians, not just in Africa, but around the world. Why don’t believers spend more time engaging their minds in meditation on God’s Word?
Bible scholar Matthew Henry said it’s through meditation on God’s Word that we are most profoundly comforted in affliction and enriched in our souls. “It may be truly said of our Lord Jesus Christ,” Henry wrote, “that His words are words of goodness and grace.”
Today, reflect on the following verses that reiterate the riches to be found as you dive into the depths of God’s Word:
• “Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate
on it day and night so you will be sure to obey
everything written in it. Only then will you prosper
and succeed in all you do” (Joshua 1:8).
• “O God, we meditate on Your unfailing love as we
worship in Your Temple” (Psalm 48:9).
• “Even princes sit and speak against me, but I will meditate on Your decrees”
(Psalm 119:23).
• “I honor and love Your commands. I meditate on Your decrees” (Psalm 119:48).
• “I meditate on Your age-old regulations; O Lord, they comfort me” (Psalm 119:52).
• “Sustain me, and I will be rescued; then I will meditate continually on Your
decrees” (Psalm 119:117). —Roxanne Robbins
What verse or passage of Scripture will you meditate on today? What happens when you fill your mind with God’s Word?
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