07/09/2026
"Bind them continually on your heart; tie them around your neck." Proverbs 6:21 (ESV)
There are some things you just don't leave the house without. Your phone. Your keys. Your wallet. Although, let's be honest, half the time you're carrying your phone while looking for your phone, your keys are in your pocket, and somehow you're still convinced someone broke into your house just to hide them from you. Human beings are remarkably intelligent creatures...right up until we're trying to remember where we put something five minutes ago.
God says there is something that should be even harder to forget.
"Bind them continually on your heart; tie them around your neck."
Continually.
Not just when life is falling apart. Not just when the doctor calls. Not just when your marriage is struggling, your finances are a mess, your prayers seem to be hitting the ceiling, or you're desperately flipping through your Bible hoping one verse jumps off the page and magically fixes everything. Continually.
Because here's the thing. Whatever you carry around long enough eventually starts shaping the way you see the world.
Carry around fear long enough, and every opportunity starts looking like a risk. Carry around bitterness, and eventually everyone owes you something. Carry around pride, and you'll always be right even when you're spectacularly wrong. Carry around the opinions of social media, and your worldview will probably change every Thursday depending on what's trending.
But carry around God's Word? That changes everything.
Notice that Solomon doesn't say to keep God's commands on your bookshelf where they look nice next to the family photos. He doesn't even say to keep them in your Bible. He says to bind them to your heart and tie them around your neck. In other words, make them part of who you are. Let them be so close to you that they follow you into every conversation, every decision, every temptation, every disappointment, every celebration, and every ordinary day that doesn't seem important at all.
Because you don't suddenly become spiritually strong the moment life gets difficult. You fall back on what you've been carrying all along.
That's why the verses you memorized when life was calm suddenly become the ones that hold you together when everything around you isn't. That's why reading your Bible isn't about checking off today's box on a reading plan. It's about letting God slowly reshape the way you think until His voice becomes more familiar than your own fears.
The world is tying plenty of things around our necks already. Labels. Politics. Success. Failure. Likes. Followers. Opinions from people we'll probably never meet. Every single day something is competing for that place closest to our hearts.
So maybe the question isn't whether you're carrying something.
The question is...what are you carrying?
Because whatever is tied closest to your heart will eventually determine the direction of your life.
So tie God's Word there instead.
One day your phone will quit working. Your wallet will wear out. Your keys will get lost again. Your accomplishments will fade. Your worries will prove they weren't worth worrying about in the first place.
But the Word of God will still be true.
And if that's what's been tied to your heart all along, you'll discover that when everything else in life can be shaken, the One holding your heart never will.
