The Spiritual Fitness Manualናሙና

Meditating on the Word of God - Part I

Don Finto, The Caleb Company

We have lost the art and missed the blessing of meditation on the scriptures. We often live our lives in the midst of noise, crowds, and speed. Even in times when we are alone, we often tap into the airwaves that neither edify nor encourage. 

On a flight in the Northeast, I picked up an airline magazine with a lead article on Transcendental Meditation. As I began to peruse the article, I realized that I was reading about a counterfeit, and that if there is a counterfeit, there is also a real form of meditation. So I set out on a path to find and experience godly meditation. 

Here is what I found in the Bible: The Hebrew word for meditation means to mutter (speak to yourself), muse (reflect upon), prayer, imagine.

1. First try to quiet yourself. Find a place of solitude to read the Bible. God can speak to you through His word by spending time alone with Him.  

2. Read the Bible slowly so that each word penetrates you.

3. Talk with God as you read his Word.

When reading through the Gospels, I began to change the pronouns so that I was talking to Jesus, not just about Him. “As [you] were on your way, the crowds almost crushed [you]. And a woman… came up behind [you] and touched the edge of [your] cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped” (Luke 8:42-44). “When [you] had led them out to the vicinity of Bethany, [you] lifted up [your] hands and blessed them. While [you were] blessing them, [you] left them and [were] taken up into heaven (Luke 24:50-51).

4. Read the scripture prayerfully.

I would read about some miracle of the past, and paused to remember that, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.”