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| Section: Basic Christian Living:
courses for new Christians |
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Growing in God |
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4. Extracting the Juice: |
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Bible Meditation |
Joshua
1:8
'Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate
on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything
written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.'
Meditating the Christian
way
These days meditation is the
'in' thing. Buddhists do it; Hindus do it; devotees of yoga and
Transcendental Meditation do it. It's an exploration of the 'inner
self'. Generally, it involves the repetitive chanting of a mantra
and letting the mind go blank. But this is not Christian, and
it's something you should never do. To let your mind go blank
is to invite the enemy to use it as a litter bin. Christian meditation
is altogether different. It doesn't home in on yourself but on
the Lord. Far from letting the mind go blank, it
focuses the
mind on Scripture, the Word of God.
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There are various ways to read
the Bible, of course. For example, you can read a whole book
like Isaiah from start to finish and try to get the overall message
of it. Or you can take a topic like 'prayer' and gather
together from various parts of the Bible some passages that deal
with it.
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In meditation,
however, you zoom in on a particular phrase, verse or short
passage of Scripture and concentrate on extracting as much meaning
and blessing from it as you can.
Ruminating
It's like a cow chewing the
cud or ruminating—recirculating the same material over and
over again to extract all the nourishment. According to the dictionary,
'ruminate' can be an activity of people as well as of cows. Then
it means 'to revolve, to turn over and over in the mind, to meditate
deeply upon, to consider with a view to subsequent action.'
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When meditating
you inevitably end up in prayer as the truth of God's Word grips
your heart. This is a powerful way of feeding your mind with
wholesome material and building up your spirit in God's presence.
Three steps
in meditation
Bible meditation involves three
stages:
1. Grasping
the meaning
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First, you
need to understand the passage you're meditating on. This
begins with a mental grasp of its basic meaning. But it's more
than that; it's a spiritual understanding, something that
comes as the Holy Spirit opens up its meaning to your spirit.
Take the following verse as an example:
1 John
3:1
'How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we
should be called children of God! And that is what we are!'
One person, on reading this,
says, 'According to this verse I have received the Father's love
and I am a child of God'. But another, who has begun to meditate
on it, whispers, perhaps with tears, 'Oh, thank you, Father!
I'm just so blessed that you loved a useless person like me.
And to think that you actually made me your child and brought
me into your family…Thank you, thank you, Lord!'
Psalm
119:125
'I am your servant; give me discernment that I may understand
your statutes.'
2. Getting
the benefit
The truth of God's Word is
spiritual food. It feeds your spirit just as natural food
feeds your body.
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The
natural food you eat actually becomes part of you. Your body
assimilates it and uses it to build blood cells, tissue and bone.
Some people have a deficient system; they take in food and drink
but, because their system doesn't assimilate it, they don't grow
and develop normally. In the same way, your spiritual digestive
system needs to assimilate the truth of God's Word so
that you can get the benefit from it and grow:
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Psalm
63:5
'My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods.'
Colossians
3:16
'Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.'
Properly digested, the fruit
of your meditation will nourish your faith. You'll know your
spirit is getting the benefit by the fact that you are steadily
growing in your love for the Lord and your understanding of his
ways.
3. Living
it out
God's Word isn't just to be
read, understood and assimilated; it's to be obeyed. You
are to meditate on it with a view to obeying it:
Joshua
1:8 'Do
not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate
on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do
everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.'
King David, for example, kept
quiet about something he should have confessed to God, but as
he meditated the fire of conviction began to burn:
Psalm
39:3
'My heart grew hot within me, and as I meditated, the fire burned.'
Later, he sorted it all out
with the Lord, as the psalm goes on to say. You, too, will sometimes
find the fires of conviction burning as you meditate. Be sure
to turn the conviction into action, and be blessed.
Talking
to yourself
Some say talking to yourself
is the first sign of madness, but it isn't necessarily so! King
David did it regularly. In Psalm 42:5, for instance, where he
talks to his 'soul', he's really talking to himself.
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Meditation, too, can involve
talking to yourself. Notice the verse at the start of this lesson,
where God says to Joshua, 'Do not let this Book of the Law depart
from your mouth.' In fact, the two main Hebrew words for
'meditate' can also mean 'mutter or talk to yourself'. It's helpful
to talk over to yourself the insights from Scripture that the
Lord gives you as you spend time in his presence.
Meditating and speaking go
naturally together:
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Psalm
19:14
'May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my
heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.'
This is part of the digestive
process. As you assimilate God's truth you'll find it often spilling
over into spoken words of praise, prayer or confession.
A practical
exercise
Below is the text of Psalm
1.
We'll spend about 15 minutes
individually meditating on this lovely psalm, then we'll pool
the insights God has given us. Use the space at the side to jot
down your thoughts.
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Psalm
1
1 Blessed is the man who does not walk in
the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners
or sit in the seat of mockers.
2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
3 He is like a tree planted by streams of
water,
which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither.
Whatever he does prospers.
4 Not so the wicked! They are like chaff
that the wind blows away.
5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in
the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.
6 For the LORD watches over the way of
the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. |
Your Insights |
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