Bible Meditation
Joshua 1:8 This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.
When we speak of Bible meditation, or meditating in the Bible, we are simply talking about reflecting upon what we are reading in the word of God. Meditate means to think about, to ponder, to muse, to reflect upon something. And as such, it is not a strange thing at all. In fact, all of us have practiced meditation all our lives, whenever we have been interested in something we wanted to know more about, whenever we spent a lot of time thinking about something in particular.
Meditation is merely a process of thinking about something, turning over every stone, so to speak, asking all the questions we can think of, and pursuing answers to those questions, the process of which produces not only conclusions but also more questions to answer.
A Journey of Discovery
And that being the case, meditation in the word of God is a journey by which we uncover truth, a little here and a little there, until we gain a deeper understanding of what we are studying. And it’s a journey that takes place in the reflective and meditative part of our mental processes, which makes it quite different than just reading the Bible.
Mental versus Spiritual
Reading is a mental process by which we assimilate words on a page and process them into the thoughts that were being set forth by those words. If the words are in a language not known by us, we may not be able to understand the thought beings conveyed by the words. But if they are in a language we understand, we can draw out the thoughts, the point being that reading is primarily a mental process.
But meditation takes place in the reflective and intuitive part of our thinking process as we ponder a thing, as we turn thoughts over in our mind deliberately considering and examining that which we are meditating upon. We ask ourselves questions and look up definitions of words and make conclusions about things. We just go wherever the thoughts take us in our journey of discovery, a process of the heart, or spirit, of a person.
The Spirit Searches all Things
1 Corinthians 2:9 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
1 Corinthians 2:10 But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.
Jesus said that the Spirit of Truth, when He is come, shall guide you into all the truth. The Spirit of God has been sent to us to lead us into understanding of spiritual things, to nurture us, to teach us, to reveal the word of God to us, and He is able to do that as we spend time pondering God's word in that reflective state of mind we adapt while meditating.
It says that the Spirit searches all things, yea, the deep things of God. Well, He certainly doesn’t do that for His own benefit, because He already knows the deep things of God. He searches them for us as we, who are spiritually alive in Christ, search and ponder the word of God.
The Knowledge of God
1 Peter 2:2 As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby.
What is it that believers grow in? They grow in the knowledge of God. They start out knowing nothing, like an infant who can only digest milk, or the milk of the word, but then grows little by little until they are grown up to a full age.
Hebrews 5:13 For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe.
Hebrews 5:14 But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
How do we gain the knowledge of God? How do we grow up in spiritual things? We do so through meditation in the word of God, allowing the Spirit of God within us to enlighten the spirit of our mind and give us understanding of the deep things of God. It may not happen overnight, but neither do babies become adults in a day. But over time, a little here and a little there, as we pursue the journey, we grow up into Him in all things.
Enjoy the Journey
Proverbs 8:34 Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors.
Proverbs 8:35 For whoso findeth me findeth life, and shall obtain favour of the LORD.
As we go to His word looking for His truth on a daily basis, as we spend time every day hearing and pondering His word, the Bible promises that we sill find life, and we will obtain the favor of the Lord, which blesses us and surrounds us as with a shield.