Before you click that “unsubscribe” button, let me assure you that this blog will not entail serenading yourself with candles, instrumental music, all while sitting on the ground with your legs crossed. Meditation is another word for the word ponder. It is to give your mind to something. Bible meditation is, in my opinion, the long-lost art of Bible study. I would argue that meditating on God’s Word is one of the great ways that God teaches us truths by His Spirit that make a lasting and real impact on our lives.
Psalm 1:2 – “But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.”
A Question
What do you think about? Throughout your day, what are the things that come to your mind? There are two ways of thinking. There is passive thinking, and there is proactive thinking. Passive thinking is allowing thoughts to permeate your mind and mulling on anything and everything that you come across. This is dangerous for many reasons and would need another blog post, or series, to address. Then, there is proactive thinking. This is thinking with purpose. Read Philippians 4:6-9 carefully. God gives us a formula for what we do with the stresses and anxieties of life. You come to God burdened and you leave with a life that pleases God.
A Quandary
Every Bible student will find themselves in a pickle. They’ll read a passage and think,
“Does that say what I think it’s saying?”, “Am I understanding this correctly? Because that’s sounds opposite to what I’ve heard to be true.”, or “I have no idea what God means by that”.
Let me give you a personal example – when my wife and I were teenagers that had a liking for each other, I learned what her life verse was. Not everyone has a life verse, or a favorite verse, but hers was Psalm 37:4. It says, “Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.” My honest thought was, “That seems like a selfish verse”. I knew I was wrong, but that was my initial response. So, I meditated on that verse for a long time. The more I thought about it, the more it made sense. I saw the divine order to the verse. When we delight in God first, it is then that He will give us our desires. Why? Because your desires change when you delight in God. You learn to love what He loves. I guess that means that God probably isn’t answering my prayer for a strawberry red Ferrari…or a private jet.
A Quest
There are two great examples I’ve heard on meditation that illustration this truth. The first is the cow chewing on its cud. Cows have four stomachs, and food is processed differently through each stomach. However, the food returns to the cow’s mouth in between each stomach, the cow chews on it some more, and then it passes to the stomach. Gross, I know. But something amazing happens in that process. The cow is extracting and breaking down everything that food has to offer. This is what Bible meditation should look like.
The other example is that of a tea bag. If you just dip a tea bag in water, that water doesn’t taste very different. However, if you leave that tea bag in the water for a length of time, that water will continue to change and absorb the contents of the tea bag. Too many Christians take a “dip” into God’s Word in the morning and then don’t take time to think on God’s Word throughout the day. Is there any wonder as to why we don’t understand and learn God’s Word.
A Quorum
Ok, Pastor Becker, so if I just think long enough and hard enough, I’m going to understand the Bible more? Well, not exactly. Meditation is not just about thinking hard and long. It is about giving it to God in prayer and asking the Holy Spirit to teach you God’s truths as you chew on them.
John 16:13 says of the Holy Spirit –
“Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth:”
How do these preachers get these truths out of the Bible when you hear them? This is the secret. It isn’t the commentaries they read, the sermons they steal (I mean, study), or the books they study. Real Bible students allow God to teach them His Word through the mind and into the heart.
Closing thoughts…
It has been said, “You are not what you think you are, but what you think, you are.” Think about that. What do you think about? When did you give a truth to God and ask Him to teach it to you as you prayed and contemplated that thought? It seems that every year God teaches me some truth. I learn a lot during this time, but there is usually a big truth that I keep thinking back to that I’m praying that God will teach me.
Bible meditation is what makes God’s Word real to you. You’ll see God teach you throughout your day and in situations you’ll face.