“Make God’s Word Your Hidden Treasure”

gods word our hidden treasure
 
by Dona Hake
 
 
 
When things are precious and valuable to us we keep them in special places. Things that mean something to us should never be left in unsafe places. If we are not careful we could suffer consequences of great loss. When you come to value  something as precious, you begin to appreciate it more and more.   You also think about how you can not live without it.
 
 
 
 
Today I will be sharing with you about hiding and protecting  the Word of God within your heart. Many times the things that happen in our everyday experiences help us see things more clearly, and I love to parallel such experiences as I share His Word. Today I will share a little experience with you in which I was negligent in going the extra mile to protect something valuable to me. As a photographer I have different lenses for my camera. I have favorite lenses  for my camera too, and there is one in particular that rarely comes off of my camera body. If I switch up a lens for a particular reason I have a special way of doing so, and I am meticulous about doing it as well. I always keep my camera on the kitchen table and extra lens so it is right at an arm’s length for me.  So one day I came to realize that the dining room table is not the safest place to sit it!
 
 
 
 
 
I will never forget the day I learned a good lesson about not being careful enough to guard that which is not only special to me but very expensive.   I was watching my Granddaughters, and the youngest was really going through the exploration mode.   Actually she is still very much that way, but I can remember how her little eyes would study things, and her little hands moved along with her mind, and would take things apart, etc…     I had totally forgotten to move my favorite lens to a higher place or should I say a safe place.   She was not yet walking but she was well able to climb, and do some pretty interesting maneuvers with her little body. I turned my back for a minute, and there she was sitting on top of my dining room table like a little center piece!!!   She sat there contently playing with my favorite lens.  She popped off the protective lens cap, and then unscrewed the bottom protective cap.  I still take a deep breath when I think of that moment.  
 
 
 
 
I can laugh now but in that moment I saw all kinds of scenarios in my mind. The interesting thing was because of how she observed me with my lens, she  gently removed the lens cap, and examined it. I quietly and slowly walked over and took it from her. The whole time I was walking toward her I was scolding myself for not being more careful with such a thing of great value. To say the least I could have suffered loss that day, and it would have been my own fault because I was not keeping the lens in the safest place.
 
 

I would like to take that little life experience of mine, and bring it over into what I am sharing with you today. Many times we hear God’s Word, and we know in our hearts that it is needful for our growth, yet we are not careful to respect it enough to first of all receive as ours to grow by.  We can go to church, and hear the Word, and walk away exclaiming what a good Word it was  yet not take hold of it as our very own and hide it within us. In Psalm 119:11 it says:
 
 
 
“Thy word have I hid in mine heart,
that I might not sin against thee.”
 
 

Another translation says that “I have laid up your Word…” The Hebrew translation of the the word hid is to reserve or protect. We need to understand that reading our Bibles or going to church is a good thing, and it is needful but it is vitally important that we are acting on what we do with the Word that we read or hear.    
You see when we hide God’s Word in us, and meditate upon it that Word becomes part of us, and it rises up within us in those times that our minds and thoughts are screaming at us to give up.
 
 

Proverbs 4:23
“Keep thy heart with all diligence; for
out of it are the issues of life.”
 
 

Another translation of the the word hide in Psalm 119:11 is to hoard. That word could give you a bad picture in light of a certain TV program that strikes some of us as terrible and unbelievable. Yet when I think of that word in light of God’s Word I think of the individual that refuses to let go of anything they have received while hearing God’s Word. They take it all in, and they are determine that there is a place for it, and it will be used some day.   Meantime, it grows deeper and stronger within the heart that hoards His Word.  You see in this life, and all the circumstances it presents brings us need of God’s life giving promises. Today I encourage you to be diligent to hide His Word deep within your heart,and protect it diligently.