Hide God’s Word In Your Heart, Not Your Head

Nigel Richards of New Zealand is an excellent Scrabble player. He’s so good he enters tournaments and competes with the best of the best. He recently won the French-language Scrabble tournament in Louvain, Belgium. That’s a rather impressive win in any language, but there’s something unique about Nigel’s win. He doesn’t speak a word of French.

What Nigel is really good at is memorization. So good he has also won Scrabble tournaments in other languages. How does he do it? He memorizes Scrabble dictionaries. He’s able to then recall thousands of French words, accurately spelled, but unable to use them in a sentence or give you their definitions.

Impressive? I suppose. But reality is, Nigel has a head filled with words that are of no value to him outside of a Scrabble game. That’s not what the French language is for. What good is being able to speak words that have no meaning?

Biblical language never had this intended purpose either. Memorizing Bible verses can be fitting, and has its’ place. Yet, this was never the intention of its’ authors as they were inspired to write the sacred text.  Being able to recall what the Bible says in our heads without it truly penetrating our hearts isn’t what God has in mind. The Psalmist declared it like this;

“I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.” Psalm 119:11

If I can recall what the Bible says, but it doesn’t transform my life, I’m not really any different than a man who memorizes words in a language he doesn’t speak.

“Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.” Psalm 119:105

Let’s not be people who simply know what the Bible says. Let’s be people who hide it in our hearts, and let it light our paths.

Following the Son,

James A Williams