Psalm 1:2 says,

“But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he mediates day and night.” (Ps.1:2)

A couple of years ago, I watched the movie Eat, Pray, Love. The movie is about a lady trying to find herself. In the process, she travels to India. While it’s a bit cliche, it’s what everyone who’s trying to find themselves do. While in India, she encounters a guy who tells her about one of his recent meditation experiences. One day, in particular, he had gone on the roof to meditate. As he was meditating, he was able to clear his mind in a way he hadn’t been able to do before. As a result, the universe came rushing in and provided him the insight he was seeking. While that’s an Eastern and secular idea of meditation, that’s not what the Bible is encouraging.

Biblical Meditation

Meditating in a biblical sense is much different than what’s commonly practiced in Eastern Religions, and even in our secular culture. God doesn’t want you to hum in a monotone tone, with your legs crossed in an effort to completely clear your mind so that the universe can come rushing in. Instead, God’s encouraging you to do the exact opposite, to fill your mind with Scripture, to turn it over and over in your head in an effort to understand it and apply it to your life.

An Everyday Practice

Meditation is something we should practice each day after we get done reading the Bible, which means we aren’t to close the book, check the box on our reading plan, and never think about what we read again. Instead, we are to meditate on that day’s reading throughout the day.

I find the best way to begin meditating on a text is either to memorize it, put it in my own words, write a journal entry, or a blog post. Once I do one of those, I’m better able to think about, to meditate on, what I read for the remainder of the day.

Why Meditate?

You might be wondering: Why do I need to do this? Isn’t reading God’s Word enough? Yes, reading God’s Word is a good practice. But the reason we are to take this extra step is so that we can come to a better understanding of how the Bible applies to our life. In order to do that, we need to think deeply about Scripture.

Question for Reflection

1. Do you take the time to meditate on God’s Word?

Resources

Image

Post adapted from my sermon: What should we do with the Bible?