FROM HEAD TO HEART

My childhood piano teacher was a stickler for memorisation. Being able to play a piece without error was not enough. I had to play several pieces flawlessly by memory. Her reasoning was this: she didn’t want her students to say, when asked to play, “I’m sorry, I don’t have my music with me.”

As a child I also memorised Bible passages, including Psalm 119:11. Due to my limited understanding I believed that simple memorisation would mean I lived a good life. I worked hard at memorising verses and I even won an award for it.

Although memorising the Bible is a good habit to develop, it’s not the act of memorising that keeps us from living selfishly. As I learned soon after my winning efforts, having the words of the Bible in my head made little difference to my behaviour. In fact, instead of beating sin, knowledge alone made me feel guilty.

Eventually I realised that the Bible had to spread through my whole being. I needed to hide God’s words “in my heart”, the way a musician does a piece of music. I had to live the Bible as well as I could quote it. As the Bible spreads from our heads to our hearts, sin loses its power over us.

To pray about . . .

Dear God, may Your words become so much a part of me that following You comes naturally and happily from my heart. Change me and mould me into Your image.

LET GOD’S WORD FILL YOUR MEMORY, RULE
YOUR HEART AND GUIDE YOUR LIFE.

YouTh Edition – Our Daily Bread Ministries