Topic: To Gain Insight into God’s Word, Learn to Meditate on It [RICK WARREN Devotional 22 April 2020]
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To Gain Insight into God’s Word, Learn to Meditate on It
“Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; 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.”
Joshua 1:8 (NIV)There are so many things you can do to unlock the gifts the Bible offers. You can read Scripture, study it, and memorize it. But you should also meditate on it.
Second Timothy 2:7 says, “Reflect on what I am saying, for the Lord will give you insight into all this” (NIV).
When you reflect on the Bible—when you meditate on it—God gives you more insight into his Word.
What does it mean to meditate? It simply means to think seriously about something. It means you engage your mind.
Wondering how to meditate? If you know how to worry, you know how to meditate. Worry is simply negative meditation. When you worry, you take a negative thought and go over and over it in your mind. And the more you worry, the bigger your thought gets.
In meditation, you do the same thing with Scripture: You go over and over a passage of the Bible in your mind. But unlike with worry, meditating on Scripture produces positive results.
One of the ways you can meditate on Scripture is by doing what I call “pronouncing” it. Say a Bible verse aloud over and over again. Each time you say it, emphasize a different word.
Take Philippians 4:13, for example: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (NKJV). The first time you say the verse, emphasize I. The next time emphasize can. And so on, until you emphasize the last word of the verse.
Each time you say the verse, its meaning will be nuanced in a different way.
Another tool for meditating is a reflection bridge. Beneath every story in the Bible is a timeless principle, and the reflection bridge helps you find it. First, you read the story and ask what it meant when it first happened. Then you ask what timeless principle it’s teaching. Then you personalize it by asking what it means to you today.
The Bible promises tremendous blessings if you spend time meditating on it: “Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; 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” (Joshua 1:8 NIV).
Take the time now to develop the habit of meditating on God’s Word, and you’ll reap the benefits for the rest of your life.
- How are worry and meditating on Scripture similar? What positive results come from meditating on God’s Word?
- Choose one Scripture verse and practice “pronouncing” it, saying it aloud several times and emphasizing a different word each time. What does God teach you through meditating on a Scripture verse in that way?
- Choose a story from the Bible. Use the “reflection bridge” process described in today’s Daily Hope to meditate on that passage. Write down your insights, or share them with a friend.