Meditation

Meditation is one of the most important ways to seek God and go deeper in your walk with him. When we meditate we
are training our minds to focus on God and listen carefully to his voice in Scripture. God wants us to draw near to him so he
can work in our lives (John 15.4; Hebrews 10.22).
Meditation is both commanded by God and modeled by the Godly in Scripture (Donald Whitney, Spiritual Disciplines for
the Christian Life, p. 47).
Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do
everything written in it. Joshua 1.8
David and the psalmists celebrated the benefits of meditation, and Paul taught the early Christians to meditate (Psalm
1.1-3; 39.3; 77.12; 119.97; Philippians 4.8).
Biblical Meditation is NOT
Biblical Meditation IS
4Passive 4Active
4Emptying your mind of all thoughts
4Filling your mind with Gods Word and his works
4Entering a trance 4Enjoying Gods presence
4Focused on me and my needs
4Focused on God and listening to his voice
4Mechanical or automatic
4Relational and dependent on God
4Complicated or difficult 4A discipline anyone can practice and develop
4A way to change how I feel
4A way to change me
Christian meditation, very simply, is the ability to hear Gods voice and obey his word. It is that simple (Richard Foster,
Celebration of Discipline, p. 17). Heres how to get started:
1. Prepare. Find a place without distractions. Remember that when your body is tense your mind/heart/spirit will be
distracted. Take a few deep cleansing breaths. Still your soul. Then, select a passage of scripture. Psalm 131 is a great
passage. It expresses humility, a desire to be with God, and a childlike dependence on him.
2. Rewrite. Write the verse in your own words. This will help you focus your attention on what the author is saying and
what it means. You may find the resource Journaling for Spiritual Transformation helpful (available at adabible.org >
Ministries > Spiritual Formation).
3. Pray the passage. Prayer is a way of submitting your mind and heart to what God is saying to you and responding to
it honestly. Tell God what you think he is saying to you, how you feel, and what you think you should do. Some have found
writing a prayer journal to be very helpful.
4. Look for applications all day. Your meditation doesnt stop when you get on with your day. Memorize the passage or
just remember the key thoughts and think about them often. Ask God to show you ways to apply it. This helps you bring
Gods Word into your daily life whether you are at work, in the car, or at home with noisy children.
5. Be patient. Like any new discipline, allow yourself to be clumsy at first. If you are a bookish person, you may
immediately love meditating. Resist the temptation to study (meditation is devotional, not analytical). If not, meditation
may need to grow on you. Resist the temptation to give up. Nothing is more practical than learning to listen to Gods voice.

Meditation brings Gods Word into our lives in a way that

transforms us into the image of Jesus Christ. (Romans 12.1-2)