I was reading through Psalm 119 for my devotions tonight, focusing on verses 9-16.
Vs. 9 reads "How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word.
Vs. 11 reads "I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you."
I was struck by two things in these verses. The first was in verse 9, the word guarding. My first thoughts were 'to be able to guard my soul, I must meditate on the Word.' I then began to think of two very different styles of guarding.
First, there's the reactive guarding. Take your house for example. To be reactively guarding your house, would be to wait until someone breaks into your house and you react accordingly to protect, or guard, your house. This may work from time to time, but it leaves you very vulnerable to attacks from the enemy.
Contrast that with the active protection. This looks like possibly putting in an alarm system, or making sure all windows and doors are appropriately secured. Before the attack comes, you have already prepared by reinforcing the weak areas.
How do you guard your soul? Are you reactive, or proactive? Do you wait for the attack, and then hope to defend it? Or do you sure up your weak areas proactively by informing yourself of truth?
The second thing that caught my attention is Vs. 11, specifically 'store up your word in my heart.' My first thoughts were I memorize scripture, how do i still sin against you? (besides the fact that I'm in the process of being sanctified) I hearkened back to a definition of the word heart from an earlier post: Websters 5th definition reads as follows: one's innermost character, feelings, or inclinations. Thus, to store the word in my heart, I must constantly inform my feelings and inclinations of the Truth. As shifting as my emotions are, I must proactively inform my feelings of the truth. Its not a once a week or day thing. To store the word in your heart is a moment by moment process. Its an active pursuit, not reactive.
Lets sum it all up: To guard our hearts we must be proactive. To store the word in our heart we must be active. Passivity isn't an option on the table. We must actively pursue Christ and his word!!!
