When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart’s delight.
Jeremiah 15:16
A long time ago, a man told me about a dream he had that involved me. In his dream, he saw a scroll, and on that scroll was written the Word of God. As people were standing around to admire it, I walked in, shouldered my way through the crowd, tore off a piece and started eating it.
I didn’t think much of this dream at first, but over time God showed me that this picture had been from him.
When I study the Word, I find it easy to get caught up in the absolute beauty of it, but I don’t stop there. Although there’s nothing wrong with enjoying God’s Word, its purpose is to be taken in so it can then be released to go to work. I aim to digest his Word—meditate on it and get its truth inside me.
When you eat something, your body breaks the food into smaller, digestible bits, absorbing what it needs. The same is true with God’s Word. You have to chew, swallow and then process each bite before you can put it to use.
Sometimes we get caught up with thinking that we need to read or listen to a large amount of Christian resources every day to be effective. In fact, it’s better to read two verses a day and spend ten minutes talking to Holy Spirit about it than to read an entire book without chewing on one word.
The real life-changing power of God’s Word can only take effect once you have meditated and absorbed what you can learn from it. Then you can put it into practice in your life.