Warm Yourself at the Fire of Meditation

Why do we often leave our time of Bible reading just as spiritually dull as when we first sat down? I suppose there are several possible answers to that question.* For now, I want to consider one such reason. Thomas Watson captured it well when he wrote, "The reason we come away so cold from reading the word is, because we do not warm ourselves at the fire of meditation” (Quoted by Don Whitney in Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life, 49). Let me define meditation and then come back to consider Watson's point.

What is meditation? I found Don Whitney's definition helpful. Meditation is "deep thinking on truths and spiritual realities revealed in Scripture for the purposes of understanding, application, and prayer” (Whitney, 48).  Meditation is not an emptying of the mind but a filling of it with God's thoughts which we find in his Word. And this takes mental effort. We must think deeply about what we read. The goal of all this is being made happy in the Lord as we know more of him and his ways and apply what we read. We don't want to be those who simply glance into the mirror of God's truth and walk away. Instead, we want to stare into it intently and deal with the problems it reveals in us (James 1:22-25).

Watson's illustration of warming ourselves at the fire of meditation is thus an apt illustration. If I read the Bible, I might just walk past what it says. Like a person walking past a blazing fireplace in the winter, I feel the warmth, but I am not warmed by it. I am not defrosted. Meditation is sitting in front of the fireplace on a freezing morning and letting the warmth of God's word penetrate the whole body. It works the warmth of the word into the bones.

So, if you find yourself leaving your Bible reading with a spiritual dullness, perhaps the solution is making time to meditate on the Word. Maybe you add 10 minutes to your morning devotional time to do this. If you can't prioritize an extra 10 minutes, perhaps you substitute 10 minutes of your reading the Bible for 10 minutes of meditating.

The point is, we need to not only read the Bible but to enjoy the sweetness of God's word. We want to say with the happy Psalmist, "How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!" (Ps 119:103). And this will only happen as we meditate on Scripture. "Reading Scripture is like collecting pollen. Meditating on it is like making honey" (Bruce Waltke quoted by Kelly Kapic in A Little Book for New Theologians, p 118). To elaborate on this illustration, Thomas Brooks wrote, "It’s not the bee’s touching of the flower which gathers honey—but her abiding for a time upon the flower, which draws out the sweet. It’s not he who reads most—but he who meditates most, who will prove the choicest, sweetest, wisest, and strongest Christian." If we don't make time to meditate, then we won't leave refreshed.

I'll plan to post some suggested methods of meditation (all borrowed of course) to help you get some ideas of how to meditate effectively. So, be on the lookout for that.


*Other reasons for leaving our time of reading the Bible with a spiritual dullness could include things like: Not being a child of God, being physically exhausted, not being a good reader, walking in unrepentant sin, etc..