One of the greatest tools you could have for developing a life of prayer is the practice of meditating on the Word of God. Meditating is different from simply reading or hearing a verse. When you simply read or hear a verse, you may think, “Oh, cool, that’s a good verse,” and you may be able to pull it out later to use in an argument (maybe), but it’s not going to necessarily stick with you or change you in any way. We’re after getting into the Word in a way that it becomes a part of you.

Think of a sponge, like you have by your kitchen sink. When I hear or read a verse once, I’m like a sponge that gets a little bit of water splashed on it. I may become slightly “damp” with the Word, but it still hasn’t soaked into me and changed me. A slightly damp sponge isn’t much use to anyone.

The only way to really get the Word into me is for me to get myself into the Word. I have to immerse myself in it, like a sponge plunged into a sink full of water until it’s thoroughly soaking wet.

This is what we mean when we talk about meditation in the Word. We want to soak ourselves in the Word until it becomes part of us. My high school pastor used to call this “marinating,” like a piece of meat soaking in a dressing to absorb all the flavor. We want to marinate in and soak in all the flavor of God’s Word.

Here’s the definition of meditation I want to offer you:

Meditation is soaking ourselves in the Word

through conversation with the Holy Spirit

so that we know and love God more.

The biggest place we see meditation in the Bible is in the life of David. This “man after God’s own heart” (1 Samuel 13:14, Acts 13:22) was a man obsessed with meditating on the Word. His writings are soaked with a love for and delight in God’s law. Psalm 119, the longest chapter in Scripture, is all about this.

“Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day.”
(Psalm 119:97)

What was David’s secret? What fascinated him about the law of the Lord so much that he meditated on it day and night? I believe the secret is his prayer in Psalm 119:18:

“Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.”
(Psalm 119:18)

David had a yearning to know God and be near to Him. You may be familiar with Psalm 27:4, which was David’s declaration of his “one thing” desire for the presence of God in His house. I believe that one of the secrets to David maintaining the fervor of a “one thing” lifestyle was Psalm 119:18 — He regularly asked God to reveal to him the beautiful mysteries of His heart in His Word.

When we open up a dialogue with God over his Word, He really will show us things that we never could have come to on our own. This is what meditation is.

As a friend of God, you have the enormous privilege of getting to read the Bible with the Holy Spirit at your side, whispering in your ear. You can ask him, “What did You mean when You wrote this? What does this say about who You are or who I am? How can this be true if that is also true?” and He can actually tell you. In fact, revealing Jesus in the Word is one of the Holy Spirit’s primary job descriptions.

“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”
(John 14:26)

He does this in the most remarkable way. 1 Corinthians 2:11-12 describes it like this:

“These things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God… “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.”
(1 Corinthians 2:10-12, 16)

In other words, only you really know what you’re thinking at any given time, because only you live inside of your own brain. The same way, only the Spirit of God can know the thoughts of God… but God put His Spirit inside of you. We have the mind of Christ. The Holy Spirit searches the deep things of God, and then He reveals them to us. It’s His favorite thing to do.

Meditation is simply about talking to the Holy Spirit who lives inside us about His Word. He loves to talk, especially about the Bible! Again, meditation is soaking ourselves in the Word through conversation with the Holy Spirit so that we may know and love God more.

In future posts I will illustrate some practical meditation tools, but you can do this very simply even today. Take a short piece of Scripture and roll it around in your mind. Let it soak into you. Talk to the Holy Spirit about it. When I meditate on a verse, sometimes I’ll draw it, sometimes I’ll paraphrase it, sometimes I’ll sing it, and sometimes I’ll just think and journal and pray through it.

The point of getting the Word into you is to encounter God. It’s far beyond learning doctrine or fulfilling a duty. When we meditate on these holy, ancient words, we get to encounter the living Spirit who inspired them. The Bible is a guaranteed gateway into the genuine heart of God, and meditation is the key.

Do you meditate on Bible verses? What tools work for you? Tell me in the comments!