All exposure to the Word of God should be followed by absorption of the Word of God. We profit most from our hearing, reading, studying, or memorizing of Scripture when we meditate on some aspect of the text we’ve encountered. Otherwise, most of the water of the Word will run off the mind and heart like a hard rain on hard ground.
Moreover, the goal of both our exposure to and absorption of Scripture should be our application of Scripture. God commanded Joshua to meditate “day and night” on the law of God left to him by Moses, so that Joshua would “do according to all that is written in it” (Joshua 1:8, emphasis added).
Similarly, in the New Testament we find: “One who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does” (James 1:25, NASB). The blessing of God in this passage is not promised to those who merely look at—that is, read—God’s Word, but to the “one who looks intently,” who meditates on what they read. The blessing does not come, however, until this meditation matures into application. Or as James puts it, after the meditator becomes “an effectual doer.” For it is only in the doing (applying) of Scripture that we become more like Christ and bring the most glory to God.
Of course, the Lord doesn’t call us to be just doers of the Word of God in general. He wants us to apply every individual part of it. So one simple way of combining our responsibility both to meditate on and apply the Bible is this: When you encounter Scripture, search for at least one application of it. Say to yourself, I won’t close my Bible until I can prayerfully think of at least one way to apply what I’ve read. Such mental scouring of the Scripture for an application is meditation, or at least one form of it.
So as you reflect on the text, do you perceive something God would have you . . .
- Stop?
- Start?
- Believe?
- Confess?
- Pray about?
- Thank Him for?
- Communicate to someone?
We cannot expect the Bible to advance our transformation without meditation and application.
