There are two kinds of people I believe when it comes to meditating on God's Word.
There are those who:
A. Struggle to meditate. Meaning they don't at all or seldom do. Or those who are not as faithful as they should be.
And then there are:
B. Those who do but who often get stuck in the rut of just doing them to check them off the list.
Both approaches are wrong. My guess is that most of you reading this want and desire to meditate and that you are either case (A), or you are like me and are case (B).
I remember in the beginning of my growing up years my father would challenge me to start having devotions. I would of course agree, and say “yeah I should” but it stopped there, it stopped at the acknowledgement of the need, never going on to the appropriation of that need. There was a disconnect betwixt my heart and my hands!
Until one day when I was eight years old while in the living room getting some help for my Sunday School lesson from Dad, he challenged me for the last time. For then I made the connection between my heart and my hands! The next day I purposed to do begin having my own personal time with God and from then on have been keeping that time. And at first I fell into that first category: sporadically doing them...missing here and there...not being very faithful.
But how thankful I am that God used my dad to challenge me when I was younger and also that I finally made the connection between heart and hands, because by the time I was thirteen I was doing them faithfully, never missing a day.
But you see then the other category...the other sinful attitude stepped in. The attacks of Satan don't leave entirely, they often just take another form! I may have overcome on the battle field of connecting heart with hands, but now I would fight on the battle field of motives!
Now I find myself not struggling to actually meditate...I find it becoming just something I "do" to check off the list. And this is where you would have found me the beginning of last week!
But fortunately God does not allow His children to live in sin long without bringing in conviction. Last week our campus wide study was on personal time with God. And through the dorm devotional I was reminded of some very important truths, that really struck home. Especially when the RA mentioned that if we were in either rut (A) or (B) that the thing we needed to do was to open up and honestly pray that God would instill in us a genuine desire for Him and His Word.
And the wonderful thing is that if we pray according to His will then He will answer!
And how He answered! I asked Him for forgiveness for getting stuck in the rut (b), and began to daily ask Him that He instill in me a genuine desire for His Word, and sure enough He rekindled the flames and set my heart afire once again.
Devotions this week have been thirst quenching, and I find myself as the deer that pants for the water on a hot summer day . Whoever knew that parched lips and a dry throat could actually be good? God truly is faithful in giving that kind of desire for His Word! Just ask!
Throughout His Word there are countless times that we are encouraged to meditate and study and live out the Word of God. But why would we do this?
Why meditate? Because God wants it! He longs for fellowship with His children!
I have a some questions, these are the questions that I have used on those whom I have challegened to begin meditating. And everytime I have used them the people always grow silent by the end, acknowledging that they need to pursue God!
How do you build relationships with other people?
The answer:
By spending time with people. By listening, and talking with them.
Our relationship to God is NO different!
We must talk to Him : Prayer
We must listen to Him: Meditating on His letter to us (Bible).
It would be absurd to think that just listening to someone throughout our lives would build a friendship. Can you imagine a friend that always said absolutely nothing to you? Let’s face it your probably would not be friends for long!
Yes there is a time for silence but not that much, not all the time, communication has to be two-way! Thus meditating on God’s Word is not enough, He longs to hear from us, we need top pray as well.
God wants us to mediditate because He longs for fellowship with the souls He created, the souls whom He gave everything to (esp. His own Son!).
It is good to medidtate so that we build our relationship with God, but also so that we set an example for others to follow, thus brining in more souls to fellowship with their Maker!
Jesus said that man cannot live by bread alone, but by every Word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. What is the “every Word” here? It is the Bible!
Thus I fear death by starvation! If you fear anything, fear not having a close knit relationship to God, for without it we cannot live! We were created in such a way that we need relationships, but especially our relationship with God. There will be days where you will have nothing and no one at all, except God, but that is ALL you will ever need!
Don’t choose to go it alone!
Having said all this you might be wondering what approach you should take to the Word of God?
I will share with you the way that I meditate. The possibilities are endless, and this is just one, and it is not the one
Before doing the study, I had been just reading here and there for my devos, just trying to find a principle of the Bible to apply to my life that day. This study however taught that I should not look for the principles but the PERSON of the Bible, and by looking/searching for the PERSON I would become more like Him thus the principles would folloI am currently in the Psalms for my devos (have been for more than a two years now...wait it has been that long since freshmen year?? Where has the time gone! haha! lol) Anyways I started two years ago, and it is very slow going! I mean aft...er all I have been at it for two years and I am only in ps. 92!! You might be thinking WHY? Is not the point to get through the psalms??? Well it is slower for me because I was convicted through a Bible study that I did freshmen year, that I had been approaching the Bible all wrong!
Before doing the study, I had been just reading here and there for my devos, just trying to find a principle of the Bible to apply to my life that day. This study however taught that I should not look for the principles but the PERSON of the Bible, and by looking/searching for the PERSON I would become more like Him thus the principles would follow!
And what a study it has been! I began in the psalms writing down every single thing about God that I learned in every verse, every sentence, and then writing down how that applys that to my life. So many thigns have been learned, and there is so much more to God than what I knew coming into this, and I have not even scratched the surface!
"How great are your works, O LORD, how profound your thoughts! "- Psalm 92: 5
You see His works are great, and His thoughts deep, and one of the ways to know and see these things ( His works..His thoughts) is through scripture! Just when I think to myself "Ah-ha! I know everything there is to know about God" ( Though I would never say this out loud)
Just when I think this, God demonstrates the truth of His Word in that "Pride goes before a fall" and He teaches/reveals something new to me about Himself...I get blown away by it..and realize that I am only scratching the surface!!
I do not want to be a foolish man...senseless man for Psalm 92:6 says that I am foolish if I do not understand God's works and thoughts!
"The senseless man does not know, fools do not understand, "- Psalm 92:5
I don't want to be this! I want to be seeking after God, getting to know Him personally by looking for Him in His Word! I want to understand how He thinks ( or at least as much as I can for I know I could never attain full knowledge of Him at least not in my temporary home :earth) but are you not glad that He left us His Word, so we can know Him and that He left us His Spirit for apart from Him we could never understand a single thing in the Bible! Oh the joys that I have that I take for granted and never fully take advantage of!!
"How great are your works, O LORD, And now I get to the title of this blog! If you are not looking for God chances are it will be very easy for you to “not find Him.” Because you can easily dismiss His work for Coincidence! But remember coincidence is simply God’s way of remaining annonymous! That is what I have been learning this week!
This week God has been connecting the dots as it were! He has been convicting me about a particular sin in my life. But the amazing thing and the thing that warms my heart is the many different ways He has done this, whether from the gentle rebuke and teachings of a certain special someone (Thomas), or His Word!
In fact God spoke through Thomas one evening this week, and the very next day my devotions were about the EXACT same thing! That is not a coinkydink ( Bethy’s way of saying coincidence). It is a reoccuring theme and it is God’s way of getting my attention!
So I would encourage you to build your relationship with God, He longs for people who are devoted to Him ! Hear from Him, let Him speak: meditate on God’s Word, overcome the battle with Satan whether on the battlefeild (A) not doing them or seldom doing them or (B) doing them but with the wrong motive (just to get them done). Then in turn talk back to Him through prayer! I personally keep a notebook of prayer requests but as with meditation there are many approaches to it! If you need suggestions or helps with either don’t hesitate to reach out, your relationship with God must be right, for only then will all other relationships be right!
Then also look for God at work! He is at work like and He wants us to look for Him, don’t be foolish! "How great are your works, O LORD,
"How great are your works, O LORD, how profound your thoughts! The senseless man does not know, fools do not understand, "- Psalm 92:4-5
Finally I would love you hear from you, about your struggle with devotion to God, and your delights! I love to hear from others about what God is teaching them! So why not open up and share! From the heart of this wanderer to yours
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