Meditation is commended and commanded in the Bible, yet in the frenetic pace of the 21st century, it is being increasingly neglected.

Can you recall any passages of Scripture that speak of meditation?

Joshua 1:8; Psalm 1:1-3; 63:6, 77:6, 119:148, 143:5; Phil 4:8; I Tim 4:15

What is meditation?

Meditation is the careful intake of and reflective thought on the Word of God.

What does meditation entail?

• Meditation requires reading to observe.
• Meditation requires reflection on the meaning of the passage.
• To meditate is to take the time to understand.

Once you have observed what the Bible says, you have to reflect on what it means. This requires an attitude of diligent searching.

Meditation requires submission to God’s will with a desire to apply His Word.

Many of us have developed lazy reading habits. Today, because we process so much information, we are used to scanning pages quickly. This tends to make us unobservant of details. Meditation requires we read carefully, with attention to detail. One of the best ways to encourage careful, observant reading is to frequently ask questions of the text.

What are some of the questions we should ask when we are reading?

• Who is saying this?
• Who is it said to?
• What is being said?
• When and where was it said?
• Why was it said?
• How was it said? That is, what words were used? What word pictures? What is the tone of the passage? Is anything emphasised or repeated?

Proverbs 2:1-7; 4:5-7, 13; 5:1-2, 6:20-23; 7:1-5

Interpretation is where we take our observations and combine them into one big question: what does this mean? Everything is in God’s Word for a reason. What is God saying in this passage?

Here we must pray and ask God to open our eyes and to give us understanding regarding our observations.

James 1:19-25; John 7:17, Col 1:9-10

The purpose of meditating on God’s Word is not to amuse yourself or to clear your conscience. It is to engage the mind of Christ and be transformed by it. To meditate Biblically is to wrestle with a text until you understand not only what it means, but how it applies to your life.

Again, there are questions you can ask of a text to help you apply it.

Introduction

Application

Private Worship: Meditation

Loving God

Memory Verse

Psalm 1:2