Day Two Hundred Eighty-Eight “Child’s Play”
An amazing thing happens when God’s Word is embedded in our hearts and minds, the Holy Spirit has a deep well of rich resources from which to draw when needed. That fact was refreshed in my mind after receiving a message from a dear friend. On a recent skiing trip, her son found himself atop a ski lift and a bit apprehensive due to being suspended so high above the ground. In the quietness of the moment, he recalled a verse that we sang together in a preschool class when he was but a tot. “What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.” Simple verse, profound message. The Holy Spirit recovered that verse from his memory files and used it to accomplish what God’s Word alone can do, bring comfort and peace to a troubled soul. A young lad learned a valuable lesson that day: filling his mind with Scripture is quite an asset during a scary scenario.
Under God’s divine inspiration, some passages of Scripture were penned in acrostic form, with most of those passages found in the Book of Psalms. Acrostic psalms employ successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet as the initial letter of each verse, the first word of the first verse, Adeph, the second, Bet, and so on. Why would God inspire the psalmist to use such a method? One could argue that it added beauty to the passage, much like rhyme does for our poetry, or possibly that God was covering the subject matter completely, from A to Z. But consider the likelihood that this form of writing was a mnemonic device designed to assist the youngest in learning the psalms. Using these acrostics, even a child could trace and remember David’s sequence of thought, have access to the written Word from memory, recall that “the LORD is good…they that seek (Him) shall not want of any good thing…the LORD is nigh unto them…(and He will) save such as be of a contrite heart.” In times of distress, they could be reminded that “blessed is the man that trusteth in him.” God’s Word could always be nigh to them, ready to encourage, to strengthen, and to renew them, even though they did not have a hard copy of that Word as we do.
“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly” and in the lives of your children. Take His words and “Bind them continually upon thy heart,” and then find a way to infuse those Words into your children. Find a method that works for your family: sing those verses to simple tunes you make up, recite them in the car, place them on an index card on the refrigerator, or come up with your own creative memory aids. Make that well of God’s Word deep and wide for your children, and they will draw from it often.
Psalm 119:11 Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.
Lord, help us to hide Your Word in our heart and have it readily available in times of temptation, trial, and testing.
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