In my walk as a Christian I have found no spiritual discipline more helpful than the combining of Word + Prayer in the practice of Biblical Meditation. Think of it like chewing gum, but as you chew more and more flavor is released, rather than it going dead and flat! Just reading the Bible is like popping a tea bag in water and taking it out again versus let it steep and brew and then drink it! The results are vastly different.
Joshua 1:8 “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.”
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In Donald Whitney’s book, Spiritual Disciplines For The Christian Life, he advocates 17 different ways to meditate on Scripture. This is not exhaustive, nor do you need to do them all, but we are all wired differently and so the variety may serve you. Here are most of them:
Emphasize Different Words in the Text: e.g. take John 11:25 and slowly work your way through each word ““I am the resurrection and the life.”
Rewrite the Text in Your Own Words
Formulate a Principle from the Text—What Does It Teach?
Think of an Illustration of the Text—What Picture Explains It?: E.g for Romans 6:12-14 you may want to picture a soldier on a long mission with orders from his General to complete the tasks.
Look for Applications of the Text: How am I meant to respond to this text?
Ask How the Text Points
to the Law or the Gospel
Ask How the Text Points to Something About Jesus
Ask What Question Is Answered
or What Problem Is Solved by the Text. E.g. Take Romans 3:21-26 as the answer, what is the question that made Paul right that answer?
Pray Through the Text: I love doing this with the Psalms. I often put my prayer list and a Psalm together and pray for whoever I am praying for with the words in that Psalm.
Memorize the Text: memorization is not meditation, but it can easily help it. As you memorize, ponder the wonders, chew on them, pray through them, and then use the memorized words as a prayer. E.g. I pray through Romans 5:1-2 every day. I say Romans 5:1 aloud “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith we have peace with God” and I re-preach the gospel to myself and try to rejoice in the goodness of God again to me. Then verse 2 says, “through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand…” and I remind myself, I don’t have the power to live for Jesus in myself, but I have full access to the throne of grace to ask for this power. So I then go through my main life roles: Christian, Husband, Father, Pastor; I run through the demands and duties for each of those roles in a process something like this: “Lord, I am a follower of Christ, you have called me to deny myself and take up my cross today, in my flesh I don’t want to nor can I do that, but I stand in your grace, and so I ask, please give me the power and grace to do this for your glory…” and then I move on to my calling as a husband to love my wife, etc etc.
Create an Artistic Expression of the Text: I never do this…but go for your life!
Set and Discover a Minimum Number of Insights from the Text: i.e. determine that you will read Romans 6:1-10 and find 10 insights, then another 10, then another 10 and keep going til you run out! Here’s a great story on putting this practice to work: “I’ve had at least four friends confirm a legendary assignment each experienced in a seminary class on Bible study methods taught at Dallas Theological Seminary by professor Howard Hendricks. He would tell his students to come back to the next class with at least twenty-five observations on Acts 1:8. Having done so, they would be required in the next class to return with twenty-five more observations on that verse. Finally, they were given the assignment to make as many observations as they could beyond the original fifty. Most were thinking they had almost exhausted Acts 1:8 by that point, until Hendricks exhorted the class with, “Oh, by the way, the all-time record is over six hundred.” Whitney, Donald S.. Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life (p. 66). The Navigators. Kindle Edition.
Ask the Philippians 4:8 Questions of the Text
What is true about this, or what truth does it exemplify?
What is honorable about this?
What is just or right about this?
What is pure about this, or how does it exemplify purity?
What is lovely about this?
What is commendable about this?
What is excellent about this (that is, excels others of this kind)?
What is praiseworthy about this?
14. Finally, if you read multiple chapters a day, look for a thread or common idea that runs between them all.
I hope this help and bless you! Let me know what fresh insights and experiences you have!
