Hiding God's Word in My Heart

This year I've committed to memorizing the book of Philippians. Yes, the entire book. I've never memorized a book of the Bible before. The longest I've ever memorized are a few Psalms: 1, 23, 51. So this has been really stretching my brain cells, for sure! But what insights it has afforded me so far!!
I woke up the other morning with a picture in my head - a dog digging a hole in the yard to bury a bone. He was moving a bunch of dirt out of the way to make a place for the bone. That made me realize that hiding God's word in my heart is a lot like the work that dog was doing - moving a lot of dirt out of the way to hide something precious. There is so much junk in my heart - sin, distraction, anxiety, laziness, etc, that gets in the way of the Word. But if the Word is precious to me, I'll happily do the work - if I had a tail, it would be wagging all the while! This shouldn't be drudgery or a distasteful chore, but a welcomed privilege. I need God's grace to enable me to be joyful and zealous over the opportunity to hide His Word in the soil of my heart. Unlike the bone, which can be retrieved once and then would need to be "re-hid", the Word can be retrieved, mulled over and enjoyed over and over again throughout my entire lifetime.
"I have stored up your Word in my heart, that I may not sin against You." Psalm 119:11

Happy New Year 2011

The year is two thousand eleven,
Filled with chances for us to be leaven;
So those on the earth
Might see Jesus’ great worth,
And find hope in the Treasure of Heaven.