Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Join Wayne Burger each week as he explores various topics and scriptures and challenges listeners to meditate on God's Word more deeply.
Reading the Bible, studying the Bible, and meditating on the Bible are three different activities.
A lot of times we hear people being encouraged to read through the Bible. A lot of times we encourage folks to study the Bible. In fact, we often encourage them, buy a study Bible that will help you do that study.
And then we come to the idea of meditating on the Bible. Reading the Bible really is just an activity of arriving at a meaning from a print. It involves word recognition, and then it involves comprehension.
I know what that word is. I comprehend what it means, so therefore I understand what I've read. Study is a little deeper.
You may get out some books and research some words, look for definitions, study a little deeper on some things. That's study. Now, meditating on the Word is sort of a combination.
It's as you read a passage. Maybe you have studied that passage some. Now then, you are ready to meditate on it.
Meditation is really looking at a text and applying it to self and saying, how does that apply to me? What can I do with that? What is the message here for me? As we think about our lives that are so busy, sometimes it's hard to set aside time to read or study, and especially to meditate. And so we have to kind of make ourselves get in that mode. We have to kind of develop a habit of doing that.
Since we live in such a hectic life, let's intentionally make a vow to ourselves, I'm going to start reading and studying the Bible and meditating on that I might grow spiritually. As we stop and think about how to do that, we need to do it individually. It's easy for us, because we live in the information age, to just take what somebody says, or we read what they say, or we listen to a podcast, or we gather information, I mean, we just follow what they say.
We may be getting good information. We may not be. It may work out to be the blind leading the blind, and that's not a good way to live.
So as we learn to meditate, we'll begin to learn to think for ourselves. For many years, I published a paper called Meditating on the Word. Now then, with the help of friends who have the know-how, we're going to put this into a podcast by this title, Meditating on the Word.
And I hope to speak to you about various topics in the Bible and just present some information for you to think about and meditate upon. I do encourage you to set aside time to develop the habit of meditating. As we begin with this first podcast, I want us to think about what does it mean to meditate? How does one meditate? Well, you've read a passage, maybe a verse or two, it may be several verses.
What do you do with those verses? Well, you read them, you look at them, you kind of analyze them. You look to see if there's some contrast going on. You make sure that you understand each of the words.
You make sure that you know the context in which it's written. And then you begin to say, okay, let me think a little deeper and make an application of this. Here are a couple of rules.
First, don't ask, what does this passage mean to me? That's not the question we ought to ask the Bible. You see, what that says is, I will determine what it means. No, all written material, the writer determines what it means.
And so it is with God. God wrote the Bible. And so it doesn't matter what this passage means to me or you.
What matters is, what does it mean to God? What did God mean when He said and wrote that passage? That's the first rule. A second rule is, let's ask the text some questions. Do we know to whom this is written? Do we know who the writer is? What is this context about? Are there facts in the text I should believe? Are there commands in the text that I should obey? Are there promises in the text that would motivate me to be a better person? So that's the way you might start to meditate.
Literally, for a while, ask yourselves these questions. And pretty soon after you've done it a while, it'll just come naturally. You will ask, what does this passage say? What is God saying here? You'll ask those questions about the writer and the context and commands and promises.
And then after we decide what meditating is and how one does it, the next question is, where am I going to do it? The easy answer is wherever you want to. But I would suggest that you find a place that is most comfortable for you and that you can do it in that place all the time. That way, you're going to be developing a habit.
It is interesting, we have a number of people in the Scriptures that are spoken of as meditating. I don't know if they did this regularly or not, but Isaac, it says in Genesis 24, 63, Isaac went out to meditate in the field for the evening. Here was a man coming close to dark.
He decided to go out in the field and meditate. The background of that is interesting and may be something that he's meditating on. He knows that his father has sent a servant some distance away from their ancient homeland to find him a wife.
Maybe he's meditating about wonder what she will look like, wonder what kind of personality she will have, what we can accomplish together. In our day and age, when marriages fall apart so readily, it would be a great idea for males and females to meditate on the marriage that's coming up. But his place was in the field and it was at the evening time.
Maybe evening suits you, maybe morning. Another interesting example is David. David said in Psalm 63, 6, when I remember you on my bed, I meditate on you in the night watches.
David said, when I go to bed, I think about you. I meditate on you. There are some people who like to go to bed and read for a while before they go to sleep.
Maybe that's what you'd like to do. Maybe that would be the time when you could begin to meditate. You read a passage and you begin to think about it.
You understand it and you meditate and think about how does that apply to me. And so maybe evening time. David also in another place said, my eyes anticipate the night watch, that I may meditate on your word.
David there says, I look forward to it. I anticipate the night when I can meditate on you. That's what I would like for each of us to develop.
An attitude that says, I'm looking forward to meditating on God's word. Whether that's morning, noon, evening, whenever it is and wherever you like for it to be. I would like for us to develop that kind of attitude that says, I can't wait to get down, sit down or lie down and read and meditate on the word of God.
That will help us in a tremendous way. One more passage that talks about meditating that we want to look at is God, the Lord spoke to Joshua. As Joshua is now taking over leadership of the children of Israel.
Moses has died. Moses has led them for 40 years. He's been a great leader.
And now then here's this man who's been Moses servant stepping into Moses shoes. You know, that might have been quite daunting. Here he is stepping in, fulfilling what Moses had done for 40 years and he's going into the land to conquer it in war.
It could have been a very scary moment. But God wanted to encourage him. And one of the things that God said to him was, 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 success. Joshua 1 and verse 8. Think about what God told Joshua. You've got a great challenge in front of you.
And he goes on in that context and says, as I was with Moses, I'll be with you. Trying to give Joshua comfort and confidence because he's facing a major challenge. But part of what God tells Joshua that will help him, you take this word of the law and you meditate on it day and night.
Now, of course, Joshua had other things to think about. But generally speaking, he said, I want you thinking about the word of God. We need that kind of attitude about the word of God.
The word of God ought not just be a book on the shelf. It ought to be part of our heart and mind. And we ought to meditate on it, think about it day and night.
And what we're talking about in terms of learning to begin to do that, is trying to find a time and a place where you and I will spend privately and meditate and think about a passage of Scripture. You know, God told him on this occasion. He said, if you do that, you will prosper and you will have success.
Now, God, of course, was encouraging Joshua to be a faithful leader of the people, to conquer this heathen country. You'll be successful in that and you will prosper. Well, our meditation today should not be concerned with our monetary wealth and our success in life.
But we ought to translate those ideas into spiritual principles. We ought to be concerned about our spiritual success and our spiritual prosperity. In other words, it ought to help us become more godly, help us to become more as what God wants to do, help us to fulfill what God wants us to fulfill, help us to become the man and the woman that God wants.
Meditation can help you do that. And it is true, and in a broad sense, we need to have that kind of Word of God in our minds and our hearts, day in and day out, daylight and dark. But a starting point of that is, let's find some particular time when we can sit down and that we can meditate quietly on a passage of Scripture.
And as we said, as we look at that passage, we're going to ask, what does it say? What does it mean? And how does it apply? Those are three great questions to help us to understand the Word of God. As we read a passage, we need to be able to look up and say, here's what it says. Then we need to be able to say, do I know what it means? When I figure out that's the meaning of it, now then the most important question, how does it apply? That's where meditation will come in.
Meditating on the Word of God will help us figure out what it says and how it applies. And then we get up and we go put it into practice. It is true, we live in a very busy, hectic, chaotic world.
We have lots of obligations, day and night, hours and hours on the job, obligations with the family, obligations with our children. And so taking time to reflect, taking time to review and meditate, takes determination that says, I'm going to do that. Somewhere, I came across this statement that I believe helps us see what life is like and how meditation can help us.
It says, in the midst of our chaotic lives of activities, demands, and responsibilities, it is possible to retreat, reflect, and read, and by so doing, to feed the inner man, to grow in our spiritual lives while remaining intensely involved in a very needy world. You see, these moments of meditation can serve to give us inner strength. We need that refuge from the chaotic world in which we live.
It gives us time to settle down, to calm our mind, to fill our hearts, to be renewed in determination. And as we read and study and think about and meditate on that word, it'll enable us to be a better servant as we go out into that world, to be a leader spiritually in the lives of folks who are in such turmoil around us. And so as I close this first lesson, I would like to encourage each of us to find that time, even if it's just a few minutes a day, to meditate on God's word.
I'm glad to be able to put these lessons that I've written for so many years into a podcast that might help many as you develop the attitude of meditating on the word. And so my challenge to you is not only to just listen to this podcast, but also to find that time and make that time to meditate on the word. And you might want to, in the process, to listen to other podcasts that we have put together that might help you in your spiritual life.
Thanks for joining us this week and spending time in God's word. Special thanks to Mac Graham, John Kachelman, and Lightway Media for recording, producing, and making this podcast possible. If you're ever in the Littleton, New Hampshire area, we'd love to have you join us for worship and Bible study on Sunday afternoons at four at the Senior Center.
You're always welcome. For more information about this podcast, visit lightwaymedia.com slash meditating on the word and find the link there to email me to subscribe to my free weekly newsletter with more information you can use in your personal Bible study. Be sure to like, subscribe, and follow us on your favorite podcast app so that you never miss an episode.
And if today's message encouraged you, share it with someone else and consider leaving a review. It helps others find us too. Until next week, keep meditating on the word.