God's Word

  All right, so this still isn't the main post that I wanted to do, but its been a while so I wanted to post something. This is actually something I had been thinking about around a month and a half ago. I mentioned it a little bit in previous blogs. What is the difference between studying, reading, and meditating on the Bible, and do the differences matter? Are all three essential to a relationship with God?

First of all lets focus on something easy – reading. Reading is easy. We can all read; you and I are doing it now. But when it comes to the Bible most people (myself included) say that they don't read it enough or at all. I don't think that I have ever met someone who honestly said “I read my Bible enough everyday. I am in full devotion with God through His word.” Why is this? If God has given us the instructions to life in paper format, why are we constantly begging God to show us what to do in life? I feel like God is sometimes standing right in front of us just pointing at the Bible shouting “READ!” Other times I view Him as more laid back simply sighing with a point “It's right there . . . still.” I have no reasonable answer except that we are lazy and want more immediate results. Think about it. In this day and age anything we want to know is at a click of a button. Between Google and Wikipedia I do not think there is anything useful that we cannot learn in a matter of hours, minutes, seconds even! I don't even need a computer sometimes. I can text message 'Google' with “weather 12846” and get my local weather for 3 days in a split second. As a matter of fact, we can even find the Bible online (which is an amazing resource, and if you haven't used an online Bible to search for things you had better keep reading to my part about studying). Aside from wanting immediate results and not wanting to spend the time reading we also lack discipline. Reading God's word is more than just reading it to find what we want. God doesn't want us to just pick up the Bible and find immediate answers. He wants our time. Taking time to actually just read the Bible allows us to spend time in the presence of God. Perhaps this is even more important than finding our answers. I think the real important factor is that we somehow force ourselves to make a habit to read everyday – I'll let you know when I succeed at this myself. But I think that the three most important things of reading the Bible are consistency, learning/listening, and time spent with God.

  Next I'll talk about study. Some of you may be thinking is there really a difference between studying, reading, and meditating? Well, there is whether you've known it or not. The really close confusing ones for me were reading and meditating I think. Anyway, I would have to say that for me studying the Bible is my strong point. I love getting wrapped up in a single topic of the Bible. Something will get my attention and I'll have to search all over for it. I have an NIV study Bible. It's the most amazing Bible I have ever owned. I'm almost positive there is more non Bible than there is bible. Then, using online Bibles I can search for keywords and look up different translations. If you have never studied a topic using the Bible I suggest you try. It so cool to see how much time you can really spend when you get hooked on studying a topic in God's word. Be careful not to spread yourself too thin though. You don't want to become overwhelmed with topics and lose a focus. The book I read suggested that if you are already in a study group, its not a bad idea to focus on what you are studying there, digging deeper outside the group as opposed to searching for something completely different. Studying consists of focused passages,Biblical exploration and connection, whereas reading is more about time spent in God's word.

  Finally on to meditating. This was the newest and perhaps most interesting concept to me. Apparently, people are often turned off to the concept of meditation due to it's misrepresented mystical feel. People occasionally feel like meditating is a dark or pagan thing. This isn't the case as Psalms contains multiple references to meditation. Scripture tells us that there is nothing to fear as long as God and his word is the focus. Meditating on God does not consist of Yoga and breathing. As a matter of fact, it is defined as “continuous and profound contemplation or musing on a subject or series of subjects of a deep or abstruse nature.” It's simply a series of thoughts deeply focused on God's word. Dallas Willard described it as: 

“We not only read, hear, and inquire, but we meditate on what comes before us; that is, we withdraw into silence where we can powerfully and steadily focus upon it. In this way, its meaning can emerge for us and from us as God works in the depths of our heart, mind and soul.”

It's not like I have never meditated before, it's just not something I have ever thought about consciously doing and adding to my spiritual life.  I remember one time specifically that my girlfriend and I took a few aways to be alone and just focus on God.  For me this meant that I locked myself in my closet (I put my desk in there) and spent some time in the complete silent dark.  I read some of God's word.  Prayed a lot.  Wrote a lot about my thoughts.  Read Ecclesiastes.  Then ended it all with some worship music. (I prefer Steve Fee and Chris Tomlin).  This really was an enlightening experience and one that I would certainly not mid revisiting or making into a habit.  Mike Hurt says:

 “Without meditating on the Word of God, my reading would become a contest in speed, and my study would become a purely intellectual exercise. Meditation forces me to slow down and to chew on ever morsel from the text.”  

Wow. That's a cool way to look at it. I can definitely see how in my life (where my best attribute was study) studying can become purely intellectual. I also know that if I did have a reading schedule, like I did when I read the one year Bible in a year, it almost became more of a task. I lost my desire to really read God's word and instead was doing it to get it done. This is important to remember. Never should any of these things be done because we have to. We can't let them become a chore that we do just because we know we should. Perhaps it may start as a chore, but I believe that it should soon become something that we desire and cause us to wonder how we ever lived any other way. We should read to know God's word, study to understand it, and meditate to ingest and apply. These three things will certainly help us to find God's will in our life.

Well, I know where I need to go and I know where I need to start. My challenge for you is to figure out where you are. What are you doing best and what are you doing worst? What can you do to change the way you deal with God's Word? My even bigger more important challenge, is for you to pray for me in getting started and stay on track. :)

Your friend, brother, and companion in Christ,

-Zachary Haas

P.S. I have no idea if/when you are supposed to capitalize Word when referring to God's word? If someone lets me know if there is a proper way then I can edit the post and fix it all :)