Making time to meditate on God’s Word may feel impossible, but it can change everything! Sarah Geringer shares her story and some ideas about how to meditate on the Bible without feeling overwhelmed.
Are you too busy to meditate on God’s Word?
I’ll answer this for you…no, you aren’t.
That’s because this ancient spiritual discipline can transform your thought life in only a few minutes per day. How do I know this? I started doing this back in 2003, and nothing else has changed my life more.
The Practicality of Christian Meditation
When I started meditating on God’s Word, I didn’t realize that’s what I was doing.
I had taken on a New Year’s resolution to read the whole Bible for the first time in my life. But I wanted a Bible that would make this challenge easier to accomplish.
When I visited my local Christian bookstore, the clerk recommended the One Year Bible format. So I purchased it in December 2002, eager to get started.
The Bible she handed me had one verse in bold in each day’s reading. As I read the portions of the Old Testament, New Testament, Psalms and Proverbs while I ate breakfast, I took the verse in bold as my cue to deeply think on that verse throughout the day.
I wouldn’t have called that Christian meditation at the time. But that’s exactly what I was doing while I munched my cereal. I was mulling on the truths in that single verse of God’s Word.
To get the most out of the verse, I put it through three filters: What does this verse tell me about: 1) God? 2) Myself, and the way God wants me to live? 3) How I need to relate to others? Those three filters helped me squeeze the essence out of every verse in just a few minutes.
To get the most out of the verse, I put it through three filters: What does this verse tell me about: 1) God? 2) Myself, and the way God wants me to live? 3) How I need to relate to others? Those three filters helped me squeeze the essence out of… Click To TweetThe Power of Christian Meditation
Within just a few weeks, my inner world was changing. Though I had been a lifelong Christian, a Christian college graduate, and a weekly church attendee, it was the first time I had interacted one-on-one with my Bible and the Holy Spirit. This daily meeting, which only took as long as it did to eat breakfast, began turning my world upside down.
I started to truly grasp just how high, wide, deep, and long God’s love is for me, because his Word made that crystal clear. I also saw the many ways I wasn’t living according to his best purposes for me, especially in how I thought of and spoke to myself. Finally, I saw many ways I needed to grow in applying biblical concepts to my relationships with everybody.
The Bible says that God’s Word is living. It is dynamic and powerful, cutting right through to our hearts. That’s exactly what happened to me. When I started meditating on the Bible every day, God used the experience to expose all the hurts and hang-ups hidden in my heart. He did this at a strategic time, the year before I became a mother. I believe it was his divine plan to begin healing me from the inside out so I could live in service to others rather than for myself.
No pill, exercise program, book, class, or treatment had ever had such a powerful effect on me. Nothing I had turned to for comfort before satisfied me as much as those few minutes each morning, wondering what the Holy Spirit would reveal to me. The power of Christian meditation in just a few minutes per day cannot be overstated. It is life changing.
No pill, exercise program, book, class, or treatment had ever had such a powerful effect on me. Nothing I had turned to for comfort before satisfied me as much as those few minutes each morning, wondering what the Holy Spirit would reveal to me.… Click To TweetThe Lord used that year of meditation to spur me toward greater spiritual growth. Soon after I connected with a small group at church. A few years later, I began receiving five years of Christian therapy. My long healing journey began at my kitchen table with my One Year Bible open to whatever the Holy Spirit wanted to say to me that day. He’s waiting for you too, friend.
You Aren’t Too Busy to Meditate on God’s Word
I know you have a few minutes to meditate on God’s Word every day. Whether you are showering, brushing your teeth, commuting, enjoying a meal, or completing daily chores, you can meditate on a Bible verse at the same time. If you do this every day for 30 days, I personally guarantee God will work change in your life. His Word is that powerful –it creates abundant life wherever it is absorbed.
Why not take a few moments every day this week to meditate on a favorite scripture? You can pass it through the three filters I mention or come up with your own. Think about savoring every morsel of it, as with a bite of rich food. Make it part of you, letting it sink deep into your thought life. In just a few minutes per day, you will be transformed.
Sarah Geringer is a speaker, podcaster, artist and author of Transforming Your Thought Life: Christian Meditation in Focusand Transforming Your Thought Life for Teens: Renew Your Mind with God. She also has three self-published books.
She is on the devotional writing teams for Proverbs 31 Ministries, Hope-Full Living, Kingdom Edge Magazine and Woman 2 Woman Ministries. She has also written for A Wife Like Me and Devotable.
When she’s not reading over 100 books per year, Sarah enjoys painting, baking, gardening, and playing the flute. Her daily must-haves are hot tea, dark chocolate, and fresh flowers. She lives in southeast Missouri with her husband and three children. Sarah writes and speaks about finding peace in God’s Word at sarahgeringer.com.
Be sure to follow Sarah and check out her books on Christian Meditation for adults and teens!
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I love taking a slow sit with the same scripture over and over when I’m memorizing. A meditative approach draws me into a closer relationship with the Lord. I agree that we all have time to do it, if we’ll just make time.