Brian H. Cosby, excerpt from “Reading the Bible for Transformation” article in The CSB Study Bible
When we talk about “meditation,” we are not talking about the Eastern religious practice of crossing your legs, saying “Om,” and emptying your mind. Far from it. Biblical meditation seeks to fill the mind with the truth, meaning, and application of the biblical text. In so doing, the Spirit of God aligns our minds with the mind of Christ so that we might be transformed into his likeness.
Psalm 1 speaks of a man whose “delight is in the Lord’s instruction, and he meditates on it day and night” (v. 2). How often should we meditate on God’s Word? At all times. It should fill our minds in both morning and evening. Moreover, we are admonished to teach the Scriptures to our children “when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up” (Dt 6:7). Teaching and articulating the truth of the Word takes a certain measure of knowing the Word. And knowing the Word takes a certain measure of meditating on the Word.
But Psalm 1 also shows us the effects of meditation: the fruit of transformation. “He is like a tree planted beside flowing streams that bears its fruit in its season and whose leaf does not wither” (v. 3). Meditating on God’s Word bears the fruit of a healthy and fruit-filled faith, which brings delight and godly perspective to your life and to the lives of those around you.
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