Biblical Meditation

‘When I remember You on my bed, I meditate on You in the night watches’ (Psalm 63:6).

Biblical meditation is the act of discovering the thought and ways of God as you fix your thought on God through contemplation on His word (Isaiah 55:8-9). With the growing emphasis on meditation in eastern religions usually referred to as Transcendental meditation, meditation is a word that makes many Christians feel uneasy, they only associate it with monks, mystics and gurus reciting mantras in the lotus position. However, the Bible is filled with countless examples of meditation. ‘Eastern forms of meditation and Biblical meditation are miles apart’. In Eastern forms of meditation there is an attempt to empty the mind. Biblical meditation, however, is an attempt to empty the mind of the wrong things in order to fill it with what is right and true according to the index of God’s inspired Word (Phil 4:8).

The word of God is pregnant with signs and wonders, it is God’s high way to His great acts. Where the word of the king is there is power (Eccl 8:4). However, until the Word of God becomes flesh or it’s manifested in ones daily decisions, through meditation and obedience, it cannot produce the required results in our lives. Steps of faith and wisdom are that which unlocks the blessings in God’s word. Isaiah 11:2 teaches that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of knowledge and one of the seven-fold ministry of the Holy Spirit is that He gives Christians Knowledge. This is accomplished as one meditates on God’s word. What you see and hear produces your thoughts, your thoughts produce your actions, your repeated actions become your habit, your habits produce your character, and your Character carves out your future or destiny.

Biblical meditation is the key to unlocking the unsearchable riches in God’s word for our lives. You are what you think, ‘As a man thinketh in his heart so is he’. Jesus was the express image of God and it is the reading and meditation on of God’s word that makes one know Him. 2 Pet 1:3 explains it best, ‘His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue’. On the contrary, ‘Eastern forms of meditation are dangerous and actually opens up one’s mind for Satanic attack as it is found in New Age thinking. All Eastern forms of meditation stress the need to become detached from the world. There is an emphasis upon losing person-hood and individuality and merging with the Cosmic Mind… Detachment is the final goal of Eastern religion. It is an escaping from the miserable wheel of existence… It is merely a method of controlling the brain waves in order to improve your psychological and emotional well-being.

Biblical Meditation consists of reflective thinking or contemplation, usually on a specific subject to discern its meaning or significance or a plan of action. Some synonyms would be contemplation, reflection, rumination, deep thinking, or remembering in the sense of keeping or calling something to mind for the purpose of consideration, reflection, or meditation. Compare for instance the following verses of Scripture’: ‘When I remember Thee on my bed, I meditate on Thee in the night watches’ (Psalm 63:6) and ‘I remember the days of old; I meditate on all Thy doings; I muse on the work of Thy hands’ (Psalm 143:5). Biblical meditation involves becoming detached from the controlling and hindering influences of the world and attached to the living God through Christ that we might, through faith and transformed values, experience the sufficiency of the Savior and reach out to a hurting world in need of the living Christ.

Biblical meditation is object oriented. It begins with reflective reading and rereading of the Word and is followed by reflection on what has been read and committed to memory. In Scripture, the word meditate is generally found with an object (God, His Word, or works, etc.) or in a context where the object of meditation is understood’ (J. Hampton Keathley). The fact is if you know how to worry about you problems or how someone offended you to appoint when you are bursting with anger then you know how to meditate. Meditation can mean talking to oneself through God’s word. Are you going through seemingly unbearable situations today? Talk to yourself through God’s word.

‘Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things’ (Phil 4:8).