There are times when solitude is better than society, and silence is wiser than speech. We would be better Christians if we spent more time alone, waiting on God, gathering spiritual strength through meditation on his Word for the work ahead.

We need to think deeply about the things of God because that's how we extract their real nourishment. Truth is like a cluster of grapes. If you want wine, you have to crush them. Press them. Squeeze them again and again. The feet must come down hard and joyfully on the bunches, or the juice won't flow. Tread them well, or you'll waste the precious liquid. This is what meditation does—it treads the clusters of truth until the wine of comfort flows.

Think about it. Your body isn't nourished by simply putting food in your mouth. What actually feeds your muscles, nerves, sinews, and bones? Digestion. That's the process that takes outward food and transforms it into inner life. The same is true for our souls. We're not nourished by bouncing from sermon to sermon, from one truth to another, like spiritual channel-surfers. Hearing, reading, marking, learning—they all need inner digestion to complete their work. And that digestion? That's meditation.

Why do some Christians hear hundreds of sermons yet barely inch forward in their spiritual life? Because they neglect the quiet place. They don't meditate thoughtfully on God's Word. They love the wheat but won't grind it. They want the corn but won't go to the fields to gather it. The fruit hangs right there on the tree, but they won't reach up and pluck it. The water flows at their very feet, but they won't stoop to drink.

From such folly deliver us, O Lord! Let this be our resolve today: "I will meditate on your precepts."