www.bible.com/111/jos.1.8.nivKeep this Book of the Law always on your lips; mediate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.-Joshua 1:8
After Moses died and Joshua was made his replacement God gave him a set of instructions, and among those instructions are the words that make up our passage for today. God’s instruction to Joshua and to the people of Israel were to read “the Book of Law” and to mediate on it day and night. What does it mean “to mediate” on God’s word? Is God telling us to follow the practices taught in Buddhism? No, what God is telling us is to not just read his word quickly and as way to put a check mark in some box for the day, but to read God’s word actively and to be attentive to what the Holy Spirit is revealing to you through God’s word. But it does no good if you are just attentive to the promptings of the Spirit, you must be attentive and willing to follow the promptings of the Spirit. That is what God meant when he told us and Joshua, “so that you may be careful to do everything written in it.” When you are following the promptings of the Spirit you will be become doers and not just hearers. And that is the whole point of God’s instructions to Joshua and to us here. When you are actively reading God’s word, it will began to sink in and it will change your life.