Reading, Memorizing, and Meditating on God’s Word
I am all about grace! I know that reading Scripture is not a requirement for assurance of my salvation; however, if we say we love Jesus, and desire to please Him, and yet, do not read God’s love letter to us, are we deceiving ourselves? I like checklists and just like anything else, my checklist can become my god. Or, as the apostle Paul says in Galatians 3:3, “Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?” I can become like the foolish Galatians: on the one hand, I receive Jesus by grace through faith, and on the other hand, I strive in the flesh to live out my faith, rather than trusting and obeying. This is especially true when it comes to spiritual disciplines. I know that I can crank out disciplines in the flesh, but is that pleasing to our heavenly Father? I think not. Our Christian experience is to be lived BY FAITH in God through the enabling power of the Holy Spirit. It is not about the outward; it is always about the heart.
This goes for our children as well. We want to capture those little hearts as we discipline and disciple. Addressing the heart issue behind the outward behavior is imperative; otherwise, as Wendy Speake comments in her book, “We are trying to get rid of a dandelion with a lawn mower.” We stop the behavior, but we have not dealt with the heart. The issue of the heart goes back to the Garden. We want our own way. This must be addressed in ourselves and in our children, and we need God’s wisdom to show us the root cause of disobedience.
Last week I wrote about Scripture memory as exercising our minds and nourishing our hearts. So how do we engage in the other spiritual disciplines of reading and meditating on God’s Word? We begin by confessing that we have fallen short. Repent of spending more time on our phones than in God’s Word. Confess our need to meditate on what is pure, true, lovely, noble, and right (Philippians 4:8). Our media- infested culture offers very little of what is worthy of our devotion. Yet, I can succumb. Pray that God would give us a deep yearning for His Word and the enabling power of His Spirit to memorize Scripture.
Pray that we would model a joy-filled life of obedience for our children to observe.
Hearing and Reading Scripture: Are you worshipping at a church that teaches the Bible from Genesis to Revelation and honors Scripture as the inspired, infallible Word of God? Do you read a daily passage at mealtime or a bedtime Bible story at night? If your children are young, I would expect it to be short.
Memorizing Scripture: Do you ever hear your children parrot your words? Imagine how it blesses the heart of God when we recite His Word back to Him in the form of memorized Scripture - praising His attributes, declaring His character qualities, and reminding Him of His promises. (We KNOW He does not need to be reminded, but I imagine He delights to know that WE KNOW, validating our trust in and knowledge of His rightful place of reverence and honor in our lives)!
Meditating on Scripture: I am not talking about New Age stuff; they have hijacked this term and now Christians are almost afraid to say the word. We are taking it back because it IS a Holy-Spirit-inspired discipline of dwelling our minds on Scripture. The great 19 th century preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon once said, “Some people like to read so many chapters every day. I would not dissuade them from that practice, but I would rather lay my soul a-soak in half a dozen verses all day than I would, as it were, rinse my hand in several chapters.” Regardless of your choice, will you a-soak in a couple verses or rinse in several chapters each day? I want to be saturated like a sponge with Scripture so when I am squeezed (irritated), life-giving words spill forth. Sticky notes and 3x5 cards were invented for this very purpose – empty objects to be filled with life-giving words, i.e., Scripture! May it be so.
If you would like to reach out to Jeannie, you may email her at jbrostrand@redeemerdayschool.org.