80 "Your Word have I hid in my heart!"
"
The tables of the old covenant were laid up in the ark, and hidden in the holy place.
The contents of the new covenant should be laid up in the believer’s heart. By close, daily, prayerful meditation, we should seek to understand, enjoy, and lay up God’s holy Word in our hearts.
God’s Word is . . .
the manna we are to gather for our daily food,
the light in which we are to walk, and
the rule by which we are to work.
Let us lay up the gracious doctrines—which are the ground of our confidence!
Let us lay up the exceeding great and precious promises—which are inexhaustible sources of comfort!
Let us lay up the kind and holy precepts—which are unerring guides!
If God’s Word is hidden in the heart—then no one can deprive us of this precious treasure; nor shall we have it to seek—when we want it to enjoy. But in order to this, we must . . .
know its value,
prize its contents,
search its pages,
ponder it in our minds, and
feed upon it as our daily food.
Except we hide it in our hearts—we shall not be sanctified by it, nor will it be written out in our lives. From the heart it flows—into the life.
May it be our daily prayer, that God would put His laws into our minds, and write them upon our hearts—that we may be the epistles of Christ, known and read by all men!