The Secret to Knowledge

How do we know God? Yesterday we found that it starts with guarding our lives according the Word of God. Psalm 119:9 gives us a question, “How,” and then an answer, “By,” but this morning I want to move to the secret,

“With my whole heart I seek you.”

Halfhearted commitment, halfhearted belief, halfhearted anything accomplishes nothing. The secret to purity is to commit yourself wholeheartedly to the things of God. Anything less than that isn’t Christianity. But notice the sequence…we don’t start by trying to keep all the outward rules…we start by guarding our lives inwardlyand that inward commitment will lead to outward obedience.

We must form good habits, we must form positive disciplines, and we must center our lives around those things. Last week I said, no one accidently obeys—if you fail to plan you plan to fail and the same is true spiritually. We must discipline ourselves to wholeheartedly seek God…that means everything is included…

we watch what we watch,

we limit what we listen to,

we simply learn to turn off the world,

open up the Word,

and pour the Word into our lives.

You can’t expect to wholeheartedly seek God and the things of the world at the same time. Something has to give and far too many times we give away the spiritual and pursue the world and in doing so we seek God halfheartedly instead of wholeheartedly.

He seeks God with a whole heart because he does not want to wander from God’s commandments. He wants to be pure and holy so he sets his life toward that goal.

The question and answer, the secret, and then the means, “I have stored up your word in my heart.” Boice said here we find:

the best thing—God’s Word,

the best place—our heart,

and the best purpose—so that I won’t sin.

The means of sinless-ness is fueling the Spirit of God within us with the Word of God. You cannot walk in holiness and purity apart from the Word of God. To hide God’s Word in your heart is to treat it like a treasure…you guard it, you hold it, and you bury it deep inside and you enjoy it. Listen, this is nothing short of memorization. When we value God’s Word we pour it into our lives. I think this is one of the reason he spoke to young men in verse 9—young men and women memorize easier, but none of us are exempt.

How much of the Word of God is hidden in your heart? If you suddenly found yourself without your Bible and had no access—how much of it could you recall? Not memorizing the Word is sin…it leads to other sin. Maybe that’s why find so few sold out, wholehearted followers of Jesus—we are too lazy to hide God’s Word in our hearts.

Last week Kim and I enjoyed a week driving and walking around Yosemite. One of my favorite places is Glacier Point. There on that point I noticed sheer rock, but flowing over it was the source of life for everything below. Sometimes I find the Word of God just flowing into my soul and at other times I find my life hard and barren, but at that time I find the Word of yesterday flowing into my hardship today. Pour into the Word and let it pour into you.