After spending time outdoors in the dead of winter, it’s good to get inside and thaw out beside a fireplace. But imagine if your child entered the house with numb face and fingers, and he simply walked past the crackling fire and then stood on the other side of the room complaining of being cold. You’d probably tell him that he didn’t stand by the fire long enough to thaw out.
For some of us, that’s like our time with God’s word. We don’t sit with it long enough to let it warm our hearts. As the Puritan Pastor, Thomas Watson, said, “The reason we come away so cold from reading the word is because we do not warm ourselves at the fire of meditation.”
How do you meditate on God’s word?
First: Reread it. After you’ve read a passage of scripture, reread it again right away. You’ll be surprised at what you missed the first time.
Second: Rewrite it. Write out the verses longhand. In Deuteronomy 17:18, each Israelite king was to “write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law.” In our distracted age, physically copying out a passage of scripture makes you slow down enough to start noticing things.
Third: Restate it. This is useful for short passages or single verses. Emphasize a single word each time you restate it. Try it right now with Psalm 63:3. “Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you.” Restate that verse several times and emphasize a different word each time: Because. Your. Love. Is. Better. Than. Life. My. Lips. Will. Glorify. You.
Fourth: Recite it. Memorize a verse or two from the passage you’re studying.
This Sunday we’ll talk about why we should meditate on Scripture, how to do it, and what we can expect from it. It’s part of our new campaign called, “Forty Days of Prayer.” Do you have a prayer request we can pray about during these 40 Days? Turn it in at www.hillcrest.church/prayer.
--Tom
Sign up here to receive Tom Goodman’s weekly devotional in your email inbox. Tom serves as pastor at Hillcrest Church in Austin, Texas. His sermons are available on YouTube and the HillcrestToGo Podcast and you can find him on Facebook and Twitter.