Tag Archives: hiding God’s Word in your heart

October 14, 2025 · 5:58 AM

Alignment And Recalibration

In one of my previous jobs, I had to fly to Tennessee once a year for a week long class. About twenty or so of us in my position would go at a time. On day one, we would start by watching videos of a person training. We would take notes on what we saw. The highest ranking person would call on a few people for their notes. She would then share hers. The process would repeat all day. Then we would be assigned material to train each day. We would take notes on each other each day and compare. By Friday we were seeing the same things and taking similar notes. She was helping us to align with the company values and calibrating our work.

In 2 Samuel 11, David had quit doing what he was supposed to do. The chapter starts off by telling us when the kings went to war, David stayed home. It was while he was home that he saw Bathsheba bathing and brought her in. When she became pregnant, he brought her husband home from battle. When he wouldn’t go home to Bathsheba, David sent him back to war to have him killed. When God called David out on his sin, it was a call to repentance and recalibration. In Psalm 51:10, David wrote, “Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me” (NLT) David heard God’s voice and prayed this prayer so that he would align with God’s desires. I believe God answered his prayer.

Psalm 119:133 says, “Establish my footsteps in [the way of] Your word; Do not let any human weakness have power over me [causing me to be separated from You]” (AMP). This prayer is also a prayer of alignment and recalibration. When we come into alignment with God’s plan, He establishes our steps. When we seek His help in overcoming temptation, we are asking to have the Holy Spirit recalibrate our hearts so that we are aware of sins that are trying to entice us. Both of these prayers are good for us to pray. They give the Holy Spirit authority to point out things in our life that need correction. It encourages us to read God’s Word so we know what God’s standard of living is for us. He can give you a new heart and a right spirit too. Just ask Him.

Photo by Yogesh Pedamkar on Unsplash

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June 14, 2023 · 5:36 AM

Memorizing Scripture

One of the things I learned about myself early on was that I could memorize pretty easily. I could watch a movie once and pretty much be able to quote it. When my parents would send me to vacation Bible school, I found out they give prizes to kids for memorizing Scriptures. That was all the motivation I needed. Then when I got into junior high and high school, I was required to memorize entire chapters in the Bible. Since it was for a grade, it didn’t have the same motivating power, but I did it. One of my friends there didn’t just memorize chapters in the Bible, he memorized entire books in the Bible. I never got that far, but memorizing Scriptures all those years helped me to know God’s Word and to be able to recall it whenever I need it.

Right after Jesus was baptized, He was led into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit to fast for forty days. At the end of the fast, Satan came to tempt Him. Jesus responded to the first temptation by telling him that man doesn’t live by bread alone, but by the Word of God. The third one was always interesting to me because Satan used God’s Word against Jesus to try to get Him to sin. Jesus recognized it being out of context so He wasn’t able to fall for the temptation. He often pointed to the Scriptures throughout His ministry while teaching to help us understand it more and to show us that it needs to be foundational in our lives. He built His life on God’s Word and so must we.

Psalm 119:11 says, “I have hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you” (NLT). Just like Jesus used God’s Word to defeat the enemy, we can too, but we have to have it in our heart. It’s good to read God’s Word every day, but when we memorize it, something different happens. We plant it in our mind to stay. Our brain sees it as important. Studies show that we typically can only recall about 10% of what we read. That’s why reading alone isn’t enough. Memorizing Scripture isn’t just for kids. We as adults need to be doing it as well. It will take discipline and effort on your part, but the rewards outweigh that. Not only will it help you fight temptation and keep you from sinning, it will help your brain and change how you think.

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

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November 15, 2022 · 5:55 AM

Guarding Against Deception

In 2021 a series of videos were released on Tik Tok of Tom Cruise that went viral. He flashed his classic smile, walked around and talked with the camera that was recording him. Everything looked like him and sounded like him, but the things he was saying didn’t seem like things he would say. Even though that part felt off, people shared the videos with others believing it was him saying and doing those things. The image, the walk and the voice were all computer generated by artificial intelligence showing how technology can recreate anyone saying and doing things that your brain will believe. It’s called Deep Fake technology and can fool just about anyone. The people it didn’t fool were those who knew Tom Cruise wouldn’t say those things.

In the book of Nehemiah we read about the rebuilding of the wall in Jerusalem. The Jews were happy to get their security back, but people in the area were against the project. They did whatever they could to thwart the completion of the wall and intimidate the Jews. In chapter 6, one of the prominent workers was visited by Nehemiah in his home. He told Nehemiah that there was a plot to kill him that night and that he should hide out in the Temple. Nehemiah almost fell for it, but he realized that God had not spoken to this man. Nehemiah wasn’t a priest and it would have been a sin for him to go where they were sending him. He would have been tricked and discredited as a leader had he not known what the Law said. Shortly after refusing to go, the wall was finished.

2 Timothy was Paul’s last letter written in the Bible. In chapter 3, he was warning Timothy and us about deception in the last days. He said that evil people will deceive many. Then in verse 14 he said, “But you must remain faithful to the things you have been taught. You know they are true, for you know you can trust those who taught you” (NLT). We must know and trust what we have been taught from the Bible. Today’s world is trying to deceive us into thinking that God’s Word is incorrect, out of date or that it means something other than what we’ve been taught. We must remain faithful to what we have been taught though. Unless we know the truth of God’s Word and hide it in our heart, we will fall for the deceptions that will try to cause us to sin. God’s Word doesn’t change. We must stand on it, believe it and be unmovable no matter how convincing others may be.

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash

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February 22, 2022 · 5:53 AM

Living By God’s Code

When I was in my teens, I was introduced to what it meant to live by a code. I was taught that it was important to have a set of guiding principles by which to live your life. I didn’t know then how much they would shape my life and help me through making decisions. All these years later I still have the code memorized and think of the characteristics often. They are still the words I live by because they are so fundamental. These words apply to my mental, physical and spiritual life. They are: alert, clean, honest, courageous, loyal, courteous, obedient and spiritual. Each has its own saying that defines it and how I should live.

When the Israelites were freed from slavery in Egypt, they didn’t have a code to live by. After living in Egypt and slavery for so long, their guiding principles were what the Egyptians told them to do. So the first place God led them to was Mount Sinai to meet with them and to give them some principles to live by. Today, we call them the Ten Commandments. You can find them in Exodus 20. These commandments were a set of rules to live by to ensure that people did the right thing by God, themselves and others if only they would follow them. He further defined the Law through Leviticus, but these were the core ones to guide their lives.

Today, we have the entire Bible to show us how to live. Psalm 119:11 says, “I have hidden Your Word in my heart, that I might not sin against you” (NLT). The word “hidden” means to store up and treasure as your most valuable possession to the point that it governs your life. God’s Word is not just a mere set of morally good ideas and principles that we should just read. It’s inspired by God and is to be used for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16). It is what we need to treasure above all other things in our heart because of the eternal impacts it has on us. When we value it and place it in a position in our life to govern our decisions, we will live the way God called us to. It is our Code for living.

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

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