October 27 – Wisdom Through Meditation (Psalm 119:145-152)

“My eyes stay open through the watches of the night, that I may meditate on your promises.”(Psalm 119:148)

IN WORD:
Our receiving God’s wisdom begins with prayer, but it does not end there. He has a method in His transformation process, and it requires our full cooperation. We are not passive recipients of His mind; we are active in our pursuit. He offers it, but we must want it. And there is more to wanting than just asking.
We can learn the Word of God through study. But it does not become a part of us until we meditate on it. Lacking that step, we become knowledgeable without becoming wise. There is a profound difference between knowing about God’s will and His ways and actually knowing God’s will and His ways. One leads to an illusion that we’re spiritual when we’re not. The other leads to life.
Churches are full of people who hear the Word of God preached on Sunday and then have forgotten it on Monday. There are many tools to incorporate God’s truths into our lives, but the first, after prayer, is to meditate on it. What does that mean? It means to chew on it, think of what God does with it and why it came from His mouth, how we’ve failed it in our past, and how it might be applied in our everyday lives. The Word of God is not given simply to be admired; it is given to be learned. It is not spoken to make us smart; it is spoken to change us and conform us to the bright image of the living God.

IN DEED:
At all costs, do not passively let the Word of God go in one ear and out the other. Do not read it so casually that it is forgotten the next day or the next hour. There’s power in it! It is a gift that will craft us into the person God wants us to be, the person we were designed to be from the very beginning. That molding process is the greatest earthly fulfillment we can ever experience. And God first begins to answer our prayers for that when we meditate on His truth. Let it soak in, completely and deeply. Let it do its powerful work.

“Meditation is allowing the Holy Spirit to take the written word and apply it as the living word to the inner being.”
-Campbell McAlpine-