Practical Ways of Meditating on God's Word
10/05/2007
To meditate on God's word means to think about it, ponder it, roll it over in your mind, and try to apply it to every area of your life. But what does this look like practically? Here are a few practical ways to meditate on God's word.
- Write as you read. Writing out my thoughts as I read my Bible has probably been the best thing I've ever done when it comes to meditating on the word of God. It forces me to carefully think through each verse, keeps me from being distracted as I read, and helps me clearly articulate my thoughts. When I get distracted, I can simply look at the last thing I wrote and pick up my train of thought where I left off. Here's some practical advice: get a journal and pen that makes it fun to write. Don't use a twenty cent Bic pen and sheet of construction paper. Go get yourself a Moleskine journal and a nice pen, it'll be worth it.
- Pray as you read. Praying through God's word has also been extremely helpful for me. The Holy Spirit speaks to me as I'm reading scripture, and prayer is the only fitting response. For example, recently I read Colossians 1:13-14, which says, "He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins." As I read these verses, my heart was filled with gratefulness to God for delivering me from darkness, leading me to pray prayers of grateful adoration. I didn't wait until after I was done reading to lift my voice in gratitude. I prayed as soon as I became aware of God speaking to me.
- Memorize scripture. This is the area I've struggled the most in recent years. It feels really difficult, and even boring at times to memorize scripture. But in His kindness, God has recently shown me the need to memorize scripture, to store it away in my heart. So for the past month or so, I've started every devotional time by taking a few minutes to memorize a scripture, with the goal of memorizing one verse a week. What's been the effect of this? I now have the sweet truth of God stored away in my heart, ready for quick access in my time of need. When I'm weary, I remember that I can do all things through Christ. When I'm tempted to be proud, I remember that God is drawn to the humble. The Holy Spirit uses these verses to speak to me and convict me. Now I'm seeking to take these verses that I've memorized and meditate on them at the mundane points of the day, like when I'm falling asleep, or in the shower, or driving to work. I want to store God's word in my heart.
2 comments:
Christopher
said...
October 14, 2007 at 7:57 PM
Christopher,
That's incredible! I'm still working on trying to be faithful to memorize a couple of verses a week, and you're memorizing whole books!
Stephen
Stephen Altrogge
said...
October 15, 2007 at 8:33 AM
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My wife and I have taken to memorizing whole books of Scripture together. We are currently doing Ephesians, which we will be her third book and my fifth book when we are finished.