How to Meditate on Scripture

Often before a trip, I’ll wake up in the middle of the night with my mind buzzing. I remember all I have to do and have a hard time getting back to sleep. That happened last night, so I got up and had my quiet time. I was having a hard time focusing so I decided to do some Scripture meditation. It wasn’t long before God’s peace washed over me and I felt better about the day. On today’s podcast and blog post, I’d like to talk about how to meditate on Scripture. What is Scripture Meditation? According to Google, the definition of meditate is to think deeply or focus one’s mind for a period of time. So when we meditate on Scripture, we’re not just reading through it. We’re taking time to really think deeply about it. And the deeper we think, the more it seeps into our bones so God can use it to change us. This morning is a good example. I began my quiet time stressed with all I had to do today. But by the end, I was completely relaxed and feeling peaceful about my day. That wouldn’t have happened with a quick read of a short devotional or a passage of Scripture. I needed to deeply interact with God and the Bible in order for it to change me. And thankfully God gave me the perfect Bible passage this morning in my regular reading to give me the help I needed today. What’s the Difference between Meditating on Scripture and Bible Study? Bible study is all about getting to know and understand God’s Word. That’s a good thing. But Scripture meditation carries it a step further as it’s about soaking in God’s Word and applying it to our lives, allowing it to shape us and change us. BillyGraham.org puts it this way: “When we meditate on the Word of God, we seek to make personal application of the Scriptures to our own lives and circumstances. This results in more than the intake of information; it transforms by leading to the formation of the individual into Christlikeness.” Below this paragraph, you’ll see an example of a Scripture meditation I did on Luke 8:4-15. You can see what I wrote in my journal, but I also spent time thinking about what I was seeing in the Word and talking to God about it. The little box on the left about halfway down the page was where I applied the passage to my own life, which led to some good prayer time with God and insights I could apply to my life. How Do You Meditate on Scripture? There is no written procedure in the Bible for meditating on Scripture, and I’m guessing you already have your own way of doing it. But I thought I would include a few tips here in case you haven’t tried it before. * Find a quiet comfortable place. You can meditate on Scripture anywhere, but it helps to have someplace you can completely focus on the Bible passage. * Choose a small portion of Scripture. This could be anywhere from one verse to three or four verses to a very short chapter of the Bible. If I’m meditating on Scripture for my quiet time, I’ll choose a longer passage than if I’m meditating on Scripture to break a habit. * Consider diagramming the Bible verse. I often do this in my journal. I’ll look at the verse and start drawing it out in my journal. This helps me make sense of it and see the connections between the different parts of the verse. You can see an example of this in my previous journal image and also later in this post. * Think about the imagery of the verse. If the verse describes God or someone else doing something, imagine what that would have looked like. For example, Zephaniah 3...