A while back I was getting off the interstate and a car was getting on but coming up the exit ramp. Sometimes those things are confusing. I blowed my horn to alert her but she ignored it. Then a huge truck got off and started blowing its horn. She realized then what she was doing. Sometimes when driving you just get in the wrong lane. It’s the same with the Bible. Some people don’t study it deep enough. Too often it is just read shallowly. Many fail to pay attention to the signs.
We have to take time for God’s word and then rightly divide it. It’s not what “I” get out of a portion but what God wants me to get out of it. We can’t comprehend it all. I’ve been reading it a lot of years and I still can’t say I have a full understanding. I can’t say I’ve read every verse. However, when you read something once and then come back across it, sometimes it just “rings your bell.” That’s what this scripture did for me earlier this week.
I need to meditate on the scripture. That means to think long and deep on it. The focus is on God and his Word. We have to get deeper and deeper each time. Never be satisfied with where you are.
I Timothy 4:13 Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. 14 Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery. 15 Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all. 16 Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.
We should never question if we need to open the Bible. We need the Word more than anything. It directs our praying. You can meditate on what you read the day before or that night when you are lying in bed. Even when we don’t have a lot of time to read, there is always time to meditate on it. When I do that at night it helps me go to sleep, the opposite of worry which keeps me awake.
Meditation goes way back to the Old Testament times. Buddha and the Hindus didn’t coin that. They meditate on nature or nothing at all. Their goal is to eventually be nothing. When we meditate we have something to meditate on. Many are taught to meditate on themselves. That’s what happened to Adam and Eve. The only safe meditation is on the Word of God. It’s the Bible, the Book. All other books fall way behind this one. Look what John said in four short books. We learn so much from them.
The Bible is to be studied from a personal perspective not objectively. It was given to the world through Jesus Christ. What we read is for us. You can read a newspaper and see how slanted and biased it is. Not so with the Bible. It’s the same for everyone, like it or not. It’s personal from God to you and me. Jesus didn’t die objectively with no personal interest in what he was doing. What good would it have been? When we read it we can feel his pain, hear his moans as he was dying. Then we can sense the joy of the resurrection. You can’t be objective. It’s personal! And it’s that way because Jesus took it that way. It’s all mine but it’s all yours. How? Only God can make that so. The Word of God endures forever and it’s for us all.
When we’re no longer able to see we can still meditate on what we have in our heart. That’s why it’s important not to neglect it now. The time will come when we can’t read. Pray. Study. Meditate. Do it now. Look again at what verses 15-16 say. Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all. Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee. If the time comes that we can’t see or comprehend things as we do now, we’ll wish we had taken the time now. My brother can’t see to read now because of his stoke. That showed me a lesson. I need to meditate and study more now because I don’t know what will happen in the future.
Take time for the Word of God. Take time for prayer. It will keep you living right. It helps us see the pitfalls of the devil. You won’t get on the exit ramp instead of the entrance!
Adwolfe Freewill Baptist Church 