Meditation...Isn’t that kind of New Age-y?

If you’re like me then you might have shied away from meditating on Scripture for two reasons.

1) The “new age” movement has made it rather weird and off putting (in my opinion any way)

2) You don’t know what it means to meditate on Scripture - you don't understand it or know how to do it!

Contrary to the New Age movement where meditating means to completely empty your mind... meditation, for the believer, means to fill our mind with God’s Word...to concentrate on it and think deeply about it.

Meditate on God’s Word continually

All throughout the Bible we are told to meditate on Scripture. Take Joshua 1:8 for example... I personalized the verse so that it spoke directly to my heart and mind.

God’s Word shall not depart out of my mouth, I will meditate on it day and night, that I may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then I shall make my way prosperous, and then I shall deal wisely and have good success.

So how do we meditate on God’s Word?

Here are a few simple steps to help you get started:

1. Choose a verse like the one above or phrase that has caught at your heart or you’d like to understand better

2. Read the surrounding verses so that you catch the general context of your chosen verse

3. If you’re reading on your phone take a screen shot of this verse...or you can write it out on a 3x5 card

4. Read the verse over several times, out loud is even better. If memorization comes easily to you—memorize the verse, if not just keep repeating it over and over again—you’d be surprised...you may just end up memorizing it by accident.

5. Think about each of the individual words in the verse. Here’s a great free Bible app to get your started with digging into the meaning of the individual words in the verse https://www.blueletterbible.org/products.cfm They also offer a free app for your phone – just type Blue Letter Bible in your app store to find it

6. Spend time thinking about the verse you've chosen. I like to write out my thoughts because it helps me process through them better.

7. Ask yourself some questions about the verse...

a. What is God saying to you?

b. Does it tell you something about God, about yourself, about how to live?

c. How will you respond to what you’ve learned?

d. Do you need to renew your mind?

e. Do you need to change something you’re doing? Stop doing something?

Take time to pray about what you’ve learned and ask the Holy Spirit to bring it back to your mind throughout the day when you have a moment to ponder the verse and what you’ve learned about it.

Here are a few images to help you find your way around the desktop version of the Blue Letter Bible...

Go to the link (#5)⬆. Pick a verse⬇ and add it to the highlighted area, then click here ⬇

That will open up ⬇ this screen. Click any number to open up the concordance meaning of the word.

Here are a few scriptures to help you get started...just in case you’re like me and you’re mind goes blank when you’ve been given something new to try😊

📋 Joshua 1:8

📋 Isaiah 40:31

📋 Romans 5:8

📋 1 Corinthians 13

📋 Philippians 4:6-7

📋 Mark 11:22-24

📋 Hebrew 4:16

📋 Hebrews 10:23

📋 Romans 8:31, 38, 39

I’d love 💞 to hear about your experience with meditating on God’s Word. Have you done it before? Do you enjoy it? Did you find it difficult to do?