Bread for the Journey

Meditate 

“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)

We worked through a series of lessons with our small group recently...all about getting into the Bible and having God's Word transform our lives.  What really struck home with me was the session about meditating on God's Word.  How do we meditate?  Did you know that a synonym for meditation is rumination?  I happen to know that term quite well, being familiar with life on a dairy farm. Rumination is what a cow does when she chews her cud. The dairy cows love to line up at their 'buffet table' and dig in.  But that's not the end of the story.  Then they go lie down...bring up the partially digested grass and chew on it some more.  And then they chew on it some more.  For about eight hours. Now that is a lot of chewing.

Biblical meditation is kind of like that.  It is digesting God's Word by thinking it over...again and again. It is the process of getting every ounce of spiritual nutrition out of the Scriptures. God wants us to chew on it, digest it, and then chew on it some more.

So what does that mean to me?  Read the Bible.  Think about what I am reading.  Think about it again and again throughout the day. Hide it in my heart! The more I read God’s Word and digest it thoroughly and completely...the greater my chances are of obeying and applying it to my life.

For the Bible to be more than 'a textbook'....we must first read it. Then think on it. And think some more. Meditate.