A Daily Devotional with David Olatona — THE SECRET OF A VICTORIOUS LIFE
Main Text
Joshua 1:1-9
Watchword
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. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.
Joshua 1:8 NKJV
Let us consider the command to meditate upon the law. If we wish the Spirit to guide us into fuller obedience, we must accept God’s counsel to Joshua. God instructed him that the secret to keeping the law was to meditate upon it. Like memorization, meditation is an obligation that every Christian recognizes, but few fulfill. Only by meditation can we properly apply God’s Word. We may be reading the Bible daily, but if we are merely skimming over the surface, we will never see its relevance to our own lives. (Psalms 119:11)
You may be saying “but I don’t know how to meditate. “There is nothing mystical or magical about meditation. If you know how to worry, then you know how to meditate. Worry is when you take an idea or a suggestion and continue to think on it over and over, and it will usually start to affect you negatively. When you take a truth from Scripture and think on it over and over, we call that meditation. Meditation just means you focus your attention over and over on the Word of God and the benefits will be a blessing (Psalms 1:1-3).
Meditation resembles study. It is essential to gaining a thorough knowledge of God’s Word to strengthen our faith. So as a Christian, you must constantly read and ponder on the Bible if you wishes to know it well. Otherwise, your knowledge of God’s word will consist snatches of imperfectly remembered utterances perhaps tainted with distortions. When we cannot quite recall what the Bible says, we try to reconstruct it in our own words. We come up with our own version of the Bible. God does not need an editor, so we need to know exactly what He is saying. (Psalms 19:13)
Confession
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. (Psalms 19:14)
Prayer
Father, help me develop the strength and self-control required to keep my mind on Your Word as opposed to the cares of the world. Amen
Additional Reading
Deuteronomy 6:6-9
Proverbs 4:20-22.