Editor's note: Enjoy today's devotion from Meditating God’s Way by Robert Morgan.
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The joy of the Lord is your strength. — Nehemiah 8:10
Left unchecked, discouragement and fatigue will make you feel drained and empty. But when you find yourself in that situation, there’s a way out. It’s with good reason that Jesus said,
Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. — Matthew 4:4
God’s Word gives us the strength and spiritual nourishment we need to keep going and meditating on Scripture is an effective way to confront discouragement. There is a little booklet by the Navigators that set me on the path of meditation decades ago. The writer suggested that our meditating on Scripture is similar to a cow chewing its cud.
Meditation is pondering various thoughts by mulling them over in the mind and heart.
It is the processing of mental food. We might call it “thought digestion.” Chewing upon a thought deliberately and thoroughly, thus providing a vital link between theory and action. What metabolism is to the physical body of a cow, meditation is to your mental and spiritual life.1
In much the same way as our bodies crave physical food, our spirits crave spiritual food. Biblical meditation enables us to begin consuming and digesting the thoughts of the Bible.
- The prophet Jeremiah said, “Your words were found, and I ate them, and Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart” (Jeremiah 15:16 NKJV).
- Job said, “I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my daily bread” (Job 23:12).
- The Psalmist said, “How sweet are your words to my taste” (Psalm 119:103).
Reading and hearing the Bible is like eating it—it enters into our bodies, our spirits. When we meditate on what we’ve read and heard, we’re chewing and digesting the material until it’s assimilated into our systems, disseminated throughout our personalities, and actually becomes us. And in the process our vitality returns. There’s a beautiful example of this in the Scriptures.
In Luke 24, Jesus joined two of His disciples as they trekked from Jerusalem to Emmaus. It was the afternoon of the first Easter, and the two were perplexed by the brutal death of their Messiah and the puzzling rumors of His resurrection. They heard footsteps behind them, and a mysterious Stranger drew near and engaged them in conversation. He listened to their queries and began telling them what they yearned to know.
And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning Himself. — Luke 24:27
After arriving at their home and breaking bread with them, Jesus vanished from sight. But later, as the two disciples discussed their never-to-be-forgotten walk, they said,
Were not our hearts burning within us while He talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us? — verse 32
Verse 45 goes on to say that Jesus “opened their minds so they could understand the Scripture.”
Notice how Jesus opened the Scriptures to their minds and He opened their minds to the Scriptures. What Jesus did for them, the Holy Spirit does for us. The apostle Paul said,
We have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. — 1 Corinthians 2:12 NKJV
Bible study was never meant to be merely academic. It’s relational. Transformational. It’s not simply studying a book; it’s fellowshipping with a Friend. As you fellowship with Christ, you’ll find yourself strengthened, renewed, energized, and empowered—like someone switched a light on.
Watch the Video
1. The Navigators, A Primer on Meditation (The Navigators, n.d.), 3.
Excerpted with permission from Meditating God’s Way by Robert Morgan, copyright Robert J. Morgan.
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Your Turn
As we study the Bible, we meditate on the words, chew on them, and digest them, the Holy Spirit speaks to us and changes us from the inside out. Fatigue and discouragement ease and settle in the hands of the Lord. Get into the Word today and find relief! ~ Devotionals Daily