The Forgotten Practice of Meditation

The Bible doesn’t just call us to read God’s Word; it calls us to meditate on it. Joshua was told, “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night” (Joshua 1:8). Psalm 1 blesses the man who “delights in the law of the Lord and meditates on it day and night.”

Meditation means turning something over and over in your mind, the way a cow chews its cud. A cow doesn’t swallow grass just once and move on. It chews, swallows, brings it back up, and chews again—over and over—until the food is broken down and can truly nourish the body. That’s what happens when we take Scripture into our minds and hearts. We go back to it, repeat it, pray it, emphasize different words, and let it work on us. Slowly, it becomes part of us. Truth is digested into the soul.

Here’s the sobering reality: meditation works both ways. Just as ruminating on God’s Word builds faith, peace, and strength, ruminating on fear or rejection drains us. Worry is negative meditation. We “chew the cud” of our problems—replaying conversations, imagining worst-case scenarios—until anxiety grows. Jesus was clear in Matthew 6: worry doesn’t add to our lives; it only takes away.

If worry is rehearsing lies, then meditation is rehearsing truth. Instead of ruminating on, “I’ll never make it through this,”we chew on, “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” Instead of replaying rejection, we turn over the words, “Nothing can separate me from the love of God in Christ Jesus.” That’s the kind of nourishment that builds strength and peace from the inside out.

Like the cow in the field, we thrive not by rushing through, but by chewing long and slow. Let the Word sit with you. Bring it back up. Work it over in prayer. That’s how it becomes life to your soul.