Last week our emphasis was on Christmas as a time for godward rejoicing. This week our attention focuses on Mary following the actual birth of Jesus when shepherds visited the stable and viewed the infant Jesus for themselves.
During that visit the shepherds related the things told to them by the heralding angel while they were still tending their flocks. These were the things that caused Mary and Joseph to marvel.
Luke 2:19 records simply, “Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart.” From Mary’s example, we might deduce for ourselves that our Christmas season is also a good time for inward pondering.
Meditation modeled
We probably think of inward pondering as meditation. In the Bible, meditation is both commanded by God and modeled by godly persons. Pondering was a discipline the Lord urged upon Joshua when the time came for him to succeed Moses as Israel’s leader, saying, “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it …” (Josh. 1:8).
Similarly, the blessed person is one described in Psalm 1 as one who does not walk in the ways of the ungodly, but “his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night” (v. 2). That psalm goes on to enumerate the results of such meditation as stability, fruitfulness, perseverance and prosperity.
We ponder the truths and spiritual realities taught in the Bible in order to achieve understanding and application, as well as to inform and enrich our praying. When schedules are tight, taking the time necessary to ponder God’s word without hurry or distraction can be a major challenge.
Unhurried time
Unhurried time is necessary for filling our minds with God and things praiseworthy and virtuous, things that are true, noble, just, pure, lovely and of good report (Phil. 4:8).
We must take the matter of pondering God’s word a step further by noting that we meditate on the truths of the Bible in order to flesh them out in practical Christian living. The truth read and even memorized becomes the truth applied through its serious and persistent pondering.
As a practical discipline, our meditation on Scripture should yield some specific way in which we should respond to the passage. The end result is to become better doers of the Word.
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