Storage Issues

“My son, if you accept my words

and store up my commands within you…” (Prov 2: 1)

When the pandemic (COVID-19) hit Western Australia in 2020, one of the first things to hit the news was that supermarkets were being stripped of household essentials, particularly toilet rolls. I believe there were similar reports across the world.

People were filling their trolleys, purchasing items that they thought they might run out of if the Government imposed a lockdown. Normally sane citizens started panic-buying, fearing their leaders would force them to stay at home without adequate food and supplies. Distributors couldn’t keep up with the increased demand and so, shops suddenly found themselves with empty shelves.

Human beings have been storing things since time began, and often for good reason. Joseph helped Pharoah save a nation from potential starvation by storing grain prior to a country-wide famine. In our modern age, businesses, banks and governments, and an immeasurable number of everyday phone and computer owners demand storage for information, photos, videos and much more.

We are creatures that need to keep things safe for future use.

The writer of Proverbs 2 (Solomon) is keen to advise his son (and anyone else who will listen) on matters of wisdom and understanding. He implores us to take ownership of the responsibility of gaining Godly insight. We must take initiative. We are to turn our ears to wisdom and apply our hearts to understanding (v 2). We must call out, cry out in prayer for insight and understanding, searching for it as if it were hidden treasure, holding on to the promise that the Lord gives freely (v 3 – 4, 6).

But we needn’t look far for it if we have understood the principle of storage for future use. Solomon instructs his son to store up his commands – “within you”, in his memory, in his heart. We, in the church age, can infer that the Lord is instructing us to store up His commands in our minds and hearts.

There is no point in searching for wisdom within us if nothing has been stored there.

I am constantly being tempted to increase my phone’s storage, ‘in the clouds’. Just under 4 billion users of the internet are regularly encouraged to buy more room for data for pictures, blogs, word documents, music and movies. If our storage capacity is not enough, your credit card details will sort it out.

How big is your capacity for the Lord’s commands?

Do the Scriptures even feature in your busy mind?

If we need wisdom to make the right choices, the sort God would be pleased to bless, then we must have a reservoir at hand (or in mind and heart) to draw from.

So, perhaps consider these questions today: Are you storing God’s Word for future use? How might you increase your capacity for storage?

In the same chapter of Proverbs, we learn that the Lord is also in the business of storing: “For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. He holds success in store for the upright…” (Prov 2: 6 – 7a)

The Lord stores up success for us. The word can also mean sound wisdom and victory, but I like the idea that God has good things stored up and ready to go. God is so keen for us to find wisdom and success in our lives that they are already held in storage for us.

He just requires the same for us: to hold things in storage – His Word, His promises, His stories. To keep drinking them in, praying for greater and greater capacity to absorb, understand and remember them. And if there is anything we don’t yet understand, to still treat it as treasure, until the day it turns into wisdom.

If you have enjoyed this 4-min devotion, then check out Ps Terry’s Bite-Size Devotions For The Busy Christian, available  at Kharis Publishing and Leadership Books. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Terry Nightingale is a pastor serving in the southern suburbs of Perth, Western Australia, having previously worked in Christian education both in the UK and Perth. He graduated from Vose Seminary with a Masters in Divinity in 2016. He loves sharing the Gospel and teaching the Word of God.

Terry and Sue arrived in Australia in 2003 from the UK for a 1-year adventure. They never returned! The beaches, the sun and God’s call upon their lives persuaded them to settle in the land ‘down-under’. Today they have two grown-up children both married, with four grandchildren and counting.

Terry writes a popular weekly blog at terrynightingale.com called ‘4-minute Devotions’, short Bible -centred messages for the busy Christian on the go. He also writes Christian worship music and plays the guitar.

Looking Back To Move Forward is his first non-fiction book for Christian leaders – in fact for anyone who occasionally faces discouragement or setbacks. His second book, based on his blog, is entitled Bite-Size Devotions For The Busy Christian.