"I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you." Psalm 119:11
Does God want His Word to be in our hearts? YES!
"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things." Phillipians 4:8
Does God want His Word to be in our minds? YES!
" 'As for me, this is my covenant with them,' says the LORD. 'My Spirit, who is on you, and my words that I have put in your mouth will not depart from your mouth, or from the mouths of your children, or from the mouths of their descendants from this time on and forever,' says the LORD." Isaiah 59:21
Does God want His Word to be in our mouths? YES!
God NEVER wants His Word to depart from our mouths.
"Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful." Joshua 1:8
"Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful." Joshua 1:8
How can this happen? By meditating day and night. What is Biblical meditation?
I like the BBC Manual's definition:
"Biblical meditation is the act of centering your thoughts upon the Word of God and the God of the Word. The concept behind meditation is that of a cow chewing its cud. As a cow digests its food, it actually brings up the food it has eaten, and eats it again. In the same way, meditation means to digest the Word of God and then bring it up in order to chew on it again. The implication behind this word picture is that the Word of God is so full of spiritual nutrients and blessing, that one consumption would never exhaust the riches found even in one mouthful. Jeremiah said, 'Your words were found, and I did eat them. And your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart.' (Jeremiah 15:16 NKJV). God's Word is real 'soul food.' Meditation helps you to enjoy every bite.
Meditation is the 1st element of our new Bible Challenge. If you're still unsure about what this looks like, don't worry -- we're going to be learning effective ways to meditate on God's Word together as we go along.
Element # 2 of the new Bible Challenge will be memorization. Whoa! Wait a minute! Don't "x" out of this blog too quickly. I know memorization is a scary word to many but it can be done and we're going to help each other. You memorize countless things daily without realizing it -- names, dates, phone numbers, recipes, directions...the list goes on.
Oftentimes, a stumbling block to scripture memory is having the idea, "I want to memorize scripture" without a good goal. In the Bible Challenge, we will be memorizing ONE verse of scripture each week -- the same scripture we will be meditating on all week.
After spending so much time with one verse for a whole week, my hope is you will discover that you have it memorized!
In summary, the Bible Challenge 2012-2013 will consist of a 52-week challenge where you will be meditating on and memorizing one verse of scripture each week. At the end of the challenge, you will have saturated yourselves with these 52 verses, which in turn is going to positively affect your emotions, your will and your mind, bringing them captive to the obedience of Christ. You should be able to recall many, if not all, of the verses for personal meditation anytime/anywhere, whether you have your Bible in hand or not. You will be able to utilize these verses in your prayer life, which is very powerful, especially in times of spiritual warfare. And you will have scripture on the tip of your tongue, ready to minister to people you come into contact with. You will have the scripture in your mouth!
I hope this gives you an idea of the importance of meditation & memorization of God's Word and I hope you are excited about this new challenge and the fruit you can expect in your lives.
Please prayerfully consider taking this challenge with us!
I like the BBC Manual's definition:
"Biblical meditation is the act of centering your thoughts upon the Word of God and the God of the Word. The concept behind meditation is that of a cow chewing its cud. As a cow digests its food, it actually brings up the food it has eaten, and eats it again. In the same way, meditation means to digest the Word of God and then bring it up in order to chew on it again. The implication behind this word picture is that the Word of God is so full of spiritual nutrients and blessing, that one consumption would never exhaust the riches found even in one mouthful. Jeremiah said, 'Your words were found, and I did eat them. And your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart.' (Jeremiah 15:16 NKJV). God's Word is real 'soul food.' Meditation helps you to enjoy every bite.
Meditation is the 1st element of our new Bible Challenge. If you're still unsure about what this looks like, don't worry -- we're going to be learning effective ways to meditate on God's Word together as we go along.
Element # 2 of the new Bible Challenge will be memorization. Whoa! Wait a minute! Don't "x" out of this blog too quickly. I know memorization is a scary word to many but it can be done and we're going to help each other. You memorize countless things daily without realizing it -- names, dates, phone numbers, recipes, directions...the list goes on.
Oftentimes, a stumbling block to scripture memory is having the idea, "I want to memorize scripture" without a good goal. In the Bible Challenge, we will be memorizing ONE verse of scripture each week -- the same scripture we will be meditating on all week.
After spending so much time with one verse for a whole week, my hope is you will discover that you have it memorized!
In summary, the Bible Challenge 2012-2013 will consist of a 52-week challenge where you will be meditating on and memorizing one verse of scripture each week. At the end of the challenge, you will have saturated yourselves with these 52 verses, which in turn is going to positively affect your emotions, your will and your mind, bringing them captive to the obedience of Christ. You should be able to recall many, if not all, of the verses for personal meditation anytime/anywhere, whether you have your Bible in hand or not. You will be able to utilize these verses in your prayer life, which is very powerful, especially in times of spiritual warfare. And you will have scripture on the tip of your tongue, ready to minister to people you come into contact with. You will have the scripture in your mouth!
I hope this gives you an idea of the importance of meditation & memorization of God's Word and I hope you are excited about this new challenge and the fruit you can expect in your lives.
Please prayerfully consider taking this challenge with us!
I'm really excited about this challenge! I could use some motivation and direction to help me maintain a steady diet of "soul food" from the Word.
ReplyDeleteIs it okay for me to invite others to participate with us?
Yes! Please invite people! This challenge is open for anyone and everyone!
DeleteWhen does the new challenge start?
DeleteGood question! We are starting the challenge on July 1st! Please invite anyone you think might be interested.
Delete