Tuesday, August 13, 2024

Listen to the Word

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)

Meditating sounds like something complicated or confusing or weird. We have all kinds of wrong ideas associated with the word – we envision a monk in a monastery, or some flake sitting on a hillside in the lotus position saying “ohhhmmm” and becoming one with the grass or reconnecting with his inner infant or something.

But meditating on Scripture is not complicated or confusing or weird. It is simply filling your mind with Scripture, paying sustained attention to the Bible. You may think you don’t know how to meditate, but if you know how to worry, you know how to mediate. To worry is to take a negative thought and marinate in it, turning it over and over in your mind. To meditate on Scripture is to turn it over and over in your mind, savoring it, pondering it, working on it and letting it work on you. Scripture meditation is something you can do – something you must do.

Live the Word

Choose a short verse of Scripture (Psalm 23:1 or Philippians 4:13 would do nicely) and spend a few moments pondering what it means, and what it means to you.