I Have Stored Up Your Word

I will tell of Your name to my brothers.

In the midst of the congregation I will praise You.

You who fear the LORD, praise Him!

All you offspring of Jacob, glorify Him.

and stand in awe of Him, all you offspring of Israel!

For He has not despised or abhorred the afflictions of the afflicted, 

and He has not hidden His face from Him,

but has heard when he cried to Him.

From You comes my praise in the great congregation;

my vows I will perform before those who fear Him.

The afflicted shall et and be satisfied;

those who seek Him shall praise the LORD!

May your hearts live forever!

But as for me it is good to be near God.

I have made the LORD God my refuge that I may tell of all Your works.

Psalm 22:22-26;  73:28

You may remember that for the last few years I have tried to memorize the Psalm of my year. So at 19yrs old I worked on Psalm 19, 20yrs Psalm 20 and so on.  I just completed another year and another passage.   I am not as diligent in my memorization as I should be. I started really well last February then left off until August then fell of and picked back up again to finish out the chapter in January.  Obviously that is a character issue I must work on. 

If you have worked to memorize something then you know that it is much easier to learn something that you place value in. In fact, that is part of the learning ladder. If you do not value what you are being taught then you do not truly learn.  Sometimes though, we memorize out of sheer discipline.  When I began this chapter it started out as discipline. I could see its prophetic picture but was having trouble bringing in to life.

I have stored up Your word in my heart, that I might not sin against You.

Psalm 119:11

God is faithful. The more I memorized and sought to meditate upon the words I was storing up, the more they seemed to connect with my reality so to speak.   Even tonight, as I was crying out to Him because my heart is heavy I was reminded of the above (way above at the beginning) passages.  They describe how I want to respond to these "light momentary afflictions" heavy on the "light".   It is amazing how the Holy Spirit brings to mind the words of the Father to comfort and guide our hearts! Those times are such an encouragement to my heart to continue doing what I have been commanded to do.

I challenge you to store up for use God's word that it would be available for encouragement as the Holy Spirit brings it to mind.  Be transformed by the renewing of your mind lest you have in you an evil heart of unbelief.