"Permanent Residence"

By: Zach Wood

Psalm 119:9-11

How can a young man keep his way pure?  By living according to your word.  I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands.  I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.

 

 

Hide and seek seems to be one of the most favorite games for many children.  I loved playing it when I was a child and, today, still many children play the game.  There was just something about the thrill of hiding in a place where no one else was and waiting for someone to come and find me.  At times, I wondered if anyone would find me.  In the past couple of years, I've played a couple of games in which I've had to hide.  Memories came back to me as I tried to hold my breath and then breathe in and out very slowly in order to not give away any signs of movement to the "seeker".  When you hide somewhere, no one else can hide in that place.  You have taken up residence in the spot you pick.  You also hope that no one tried to hide anywhere close to you because that might make them find you. 

 

In the same way we like to hide and take up a place where no one else is. Christ yearns to take up residence in our hearts.  He longs for us to invite Him in so that He can have the place to Himself, where no one else is allowed to come in and invade.  When we have Him hidden in our hearts securely and we are reading His Word daily and growing, other things of this world cannot invade that space.  They may try, but Christ is already there and there's no more room.  However, sometimes, we choose to allow worldly things to crowd in where Christ is.  The more we do this, the less we hold onto Christ and we tend to push Him out of that cuddly space in our heart and He is no longer welcome.  This breaks His heart because He is no longer welcome in ours. 

 

Christ desires to dwell in our hearts so much that nothing of this world will come and invade His residence.  Do we allow Him to unpack His bags and stay, or do we treat Him as just an overnight guest who is welcome one day and kicked out the next?  We must make Him a permanent guest.  Christ will knock at the door of our hearts, but we have to be the ones to let Him in to take up residence once again and shoo the worldly things out.  We cannot keep Christ and sin in the same place.  Christ wants the ownership of our hearts and He is not up to sharing His space in our hearts with others. 

 

This past week, our church family spent a week of Family Camp at our church camp.  We had a wonderful time of fellowship, worship and spiritual renewal.  We found out that back in April, there was a music weekend where people could come and audition to be chosen for the live worship CD they made.  We bought the CD. My wife and I have enjoyed the beautiful praise music many times.  One of the songs talks about how we should keep the Word hidden in our hearts so that we will not sin against God.  I felt the need to write this devotional about keeping the Word hidden in our hearts.  We don't want the seeker of this world to come and invade the space Christ has taken up in our hearts.  Do we earnestly seek Him with all of our being?  Do we constantly strive to not stray from His commands?

 

If we are living according to His Word, Christ will have ownership and permanent residence in our hearts.