We talked about meditation in leadership development class a while back, and I’ve been meaning to post about it for some time. It came to mind this past week while I was reading Donald Whitney’s Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life. Meditation is extremely important but often forgotten and sometimes misunderstood.

Mr. Whitney devotes an entire chapter to the topic of meditation, explaining the importance of soaking ourselves in Scripture, since we are being bombarded with so much data and input from other sources: “…the average weekday edition of The New York Times contains more information than Jonathan Edwards would have encountered in his entire 18th-century lifetime.” (p. 50)

Mr. Whitney defines meditation as “deep thinking on the truths and realities revealed in Scripture for the purposes of understanding, application, and prayer.” (p. 48)

He proposes a simple method for considering a given verse slowly, carefully, and thoughtfully. He explains that a meditation on John 11:25 might look like this:

“I am the resurrection and the life…”
“I am the resurrection and the life…”
“I am the resurrection and the life…”
“I am the resurrection and the life…” And so on… (p. 53)

The idea is to carefully consider what each of the words in a verse mean, even the little ones.

It also helps to remember that the entire Bible is one story, leading up to or pointing back towards Jesus and his work on the Cross. I try to use Mark Mullery’s two questions for my meditations to help me remember this:

“How does this verse show man’s disposition to require a Savior?”
“How does this verse show God’s disposition to provide a Savior?”

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