The Powerful Practice of Pondering, Personalizing, & Practicing Scripture

Today I want to challenge you to not just read Scripture, but to meditate on it deeply, apply it to your own life, and put it into practice.

The Powerful Practice of Pondering, Personalizing, & Practicing Scripture

This week's devotions are written by my son, Bryant Forshee. Bryant has been the Junior High Pastor at Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, TX for the last seven years and has just accepted a new position as Lead Student Pastor for Cross Church at their Springdale, AR campus.

- Pastor Danny

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding; in all your ways know Him, and He will make your paths straight."

(Proverbs 3:5-6, CSB)

At the end of last year, I was listening to Pastor Jack Graham talk about how to celebrate Christmas all year. It was a great sermon, but during the sermon, he mentioned a specific book: Reclaiming the Lost Art of Biblical Meditation - Find True Peace in Jesus, by Robert Morgan. He recommended the book because it spoke on, well, Biblical Meditation. In my mind, this discipline seemed antiquated in some ways yet timeless in others, boring in some ways yet fascinating in others, and outdated in some ways yet still relevant overall, if perhaps in need of refreshment. There were a lot of different "hot and cold" reactions to this book, so I decided to buy it and dive into it!

I am SO thankful for that recommendation. Early in the book, Robert Morgan defines Biblical Meditation as "the powerful practice of pondering, personalizing, and practicing scripture." He also says on page 79 that, "Biblical meditation isn't just a matter of meditating on Scripture; it's meditating on the God of Scripture."

I love the first quote because, coming from a Southern Baptist Preacher's home, I have come to love alliteration. :) But in all seriousness, this first quote brings so much intentionality to meditation. I have often thought that meditation would be emptying my mind, yet through Morgan's writing, I realized it is FILLING my mind, WRAPPING my mind around, and USING my mind to think upon scripture. The second quote was so encouraging because we don't worship pages on a book, but Who all those pages are about: GOD! Sometimes I can get so wrapped up in memorizing scripture that I forget the message of the scripture! I want to get the vernacular down, but I miss the meaning. The second quote made me remember to understand and meditate on the verse that I am trying to memorize.

These are just two truth nuggets that I wanted to share with you today, and I want to challenge you to begin putting this discipline into practice in your own life. I QUICKLY realized that there was nothing antiquated, boring, or outdated about Biblical meditation and instead found it life-giving, mind-flourishing, and drawing me into worshiping God throughout my day more intentionally and in spaces that I hadn't before.

What about you? Why not try RIGHT NOW?! The verse for today's devo (shout out to my Mom, since this is her favorite verse) is one you are probably familiar with, but what if instead of reading the first four words and then quickly reciting the rest in your head, you instead stopped and meditated on this POWERFUL passage.

What if you stopped and pondered Proverbs 3:5-6.
What if you stopped and personalized Proverbs 3:5-6.
What if you stopped and practiced Proverbs 3:5-6.
What if you stopped and meditated on the God of Proverbs 3:5-6.

May we be people who are meditating on and constantly pondering the Scriptures and the God of the Scriptures.

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Podcast of the Week

Let's Talk Story, Pt. 3

Pastor Danny concludes his discussion of Paul's account of his testimony before a very hostile crowd, what we can learn from it, and how we can be bolder and better about sharing our own testimony with others.

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