Meditate on God’s Word
As we’ve considered the different ways for you to grow in your relationship with God by hearing, reading, studying, and memorizing His Word, we’ve actually also been meditating on His truth, which is the focus of this lesson.
Meditating involves taking a prayerful, serious approach to reflecting on a specific verse or passage. As you’ve learned how to listen and read and study and memorize, you’ve also been meditating. But in this lesson we’re going to specifically focus on mediation as its own discipline. There really is no better way to grow in your relationship with Christ than to meditate on God’s promises throughout the day. Whenever something stressful happens (and it will), you can think about a verse that applies to your situation. Meditating means you are giving extended, careful thought to God’s Word with the intent of conforming your life to His will. Meditating on God’s Word will result in knowing Him intimately and being obedient to Him in everything.
Use these two questions right now as you consider Philippians 4:6-7: “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus” (NLT).
What is the meaning of this passage based on its context (look it up!)
A:___________________________________________________
How can this passage affect my life?
A:___________________________________________________
Power Over Bondage
In 1977, New York City was in turmoil because a troubled twenty-four-year-old man, David Berkowitz, who the media labeled, “Son of Sam”, went on a killing spree. His target was young women, and before he was finally caught, five young women and one man were dead.
During his time in prison he was approached by a young prisoner named Ricky Lopez. Ricky told David that regardless of what he had done, Jesus loved him and died for him.
Ricky gave David a Bible. As David Berkowitz read the Bible, God’s power began breaking him of his bondage to sin. In time, the Word of God brought him to a point of complete repentance—and the “Son of Sam” surrendered his life completely to Christ. Today, as he continue to serve his life sentence, David Berkowitz is the Chaplain’s Assistant at Sullivan Correctional Facility. (Read this, and other stories of God’s transforming power, in Fresh Power, by Jim Cymbala.)
David Berkowitz was transformed because he replaced man’s viewpoint with God’s viewpoint. And, he believed God’s viewpoint! He meditated on God’s truth!
Psalm 1:1-3 says, “Oh, the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or stand around with sinners, or join in with mockers. But they delight in the law of the Lord, meditating on it day and night. They are like trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit each season. Their leaves never wither, and they prosper in all they do” (NLT).
Make sure your roots are deeply planted in God’s Word … just like a tree that survivesand grows and bears fruit, because its roots tap deep into the soil below.
What are you presently doing to help your roots grow deep into God’s Word?
A:___________________________________________________
In Psalm 119:97-105, what promises are made to the person who continually meditates?
Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long.
Your commands are always with me and make me wiser than my enemies.
I have more insight than all my teachers, for I meditate on your statutes.
I have more understanding than the elders, for I obey your precepts.
I have kept my feetfrom every evil path so that I might obey your word.
I have not departed from your laws, for you yourself have taughtme.
How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honeyto my mouth!
I gain understandingfrom your precepts; therefore I hate every wrong path. (NIV)
Promises:
A:___________________________________________________
Luke 6:45 says, “A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. What you say flows from what is in your heart” (NLT).
What important lesson does this verse communicate about our meditation on God’s Word?
A:___________________________________________________
1. What is the meaning of this verse or passage based on its context?
2. How can/should this verse or passage affect my life?
What do you most often meditate on?
A:___________________________________________________
What do you need to do in order to make meditation of God’s Word a priority in your life?
A:___________________________________________________
It is enormously important to think rightly and to have God’s perspective and discernment about everything, including money, Jesus, sin, marriage, sex, divorce, obedience, kids, work, honesty, trouble, myself, the future, and a host of other things. Think like Jesus thinks, have His mindset. Meditation on God’s Word will help you to do that. But …. it will take planning and time. If you don’t plan it, it won’t happen.
J. I. Packer in Knowing God said: “Meditation is the activity of calling to mind, thinking over, dwelling on, and applying to oneself the various things that one knows about the works, ways, purposes, and the promises of God. Its effect is to humble us as we contemplate God’s greatness and our own littleness—to encourage and reassure us as we contemplate the unsearchable riches of God as displayed in the Lord Jesus Christ.”
So meditate, but don’t meditate on your problems, your irritations, your hurts, and/or your enemies.Rather, meditate on the truth of Scripture! The purpose is of meditation is life change.
You want to experience God! Meditate until you not only understand it, but can’t wait to apply it!
Application:
What in this lesson on meditation is most meaningful to you?
A:___________________________________________________
Choose a verse or passage of scripture to meditate on … and then do it!