Do you meditate? Perhaps you say, “no, I don’t have time, I’ve got too much on my mind!” Then you are meditating!
What you are Focusing, giving your mind over to and continually going back to, dwelling upon, talking inwardly to yourself about, is … meditating! We all meditate, it’s just a matter of Who and what we meditate upon, that makes the difference! For example today have you found yourself worrying, fearful, critical, bitter, depressed? Going back over again in your mind the circumstances that are dominating your thoughts, then as you have allowed those thoughts to control and fill your thinking is what you have been …meditating upon!
Some say we need to “clear our mind” to meditate, but that’s not what Scripture means.
Scripture would have us Replace our wrong thinking and FILL, CONTROL our mind with His Word to change our thinking so our choices are aligned with Him and as Psalm 1:3 teaches we are being changed! It is to REINFORCE His Word to our lives.
To Meditate is to Focus on a specific subject, Recalling Him, His Word continually to our minds, applying to our circumstances His view, perspective, so we conform to His will for us in the matter. It is talking the truth to ourselves, reminding ourselves of it. Just as the Psalmist in Psalm 103:1-5 did, when he said, “Bless the LORD O my Soul bless His Holy Name.” He talks to himself and determines what he would THINK on and Praise the LORD! We read in Psalm 43:5, “Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my Savior and my God.” Again note he speaks to himself and answers himself with what he “will” do instead. Instead of being downcast, disturbed, he REPLACES with his FOCUS on Placing his “Hope in God,” and then he says what he will do, He will praise Him, because of who He was to him, “my Savior, my God.”
We Meditate on His Word, to know Him better, His will, ways, so as to influence our thinking so we align our choices to live for and with Him.
Some aspects to meditate upon…
1.Meditate on GOD HIMSELF;
“When I remember You on my bed, I meditate on You in the night watches,”-{Psalm 63:6}
2.Meditate on His WORD;
“But his delight is in the law of the Lord, And in His law he meditates day and night.”-{Psalm 1:2}
“Oh, how I love Your law! I meditate on it all day long. Your commands are always with me and make me wiser than my enemies. I have more insight than all my teachers, for I meditate on Your statutes.”-{Psalm 119:97-99}. “I will meditate on Your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways. I will delight in Your statutes; I will not forget Your word.” -{Psalm 119:15-16}
3.Meditate on His WORKS;
“On the glorious splendor of Your majesty And on Your WONDERFUL WORKS, I will meditate.”-{Psalm 145:5}
“I remember the days of long ago; I meditate on all our WORKS and consider what Your hands have DONE.” -{Psalm 143:5}
4.Meditate on His PROMISES;
“My eyes stay open through the watches of the night, that I may meditate on Your PROMISES.
5.Meditation MOTIVATION;
“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart Be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my rock and my Redeemer.”-{Psalm 19:4}.
Meditate on the Greatness of His Person, His Word, His Works, His Promises, and the motivation? His honor, in the acceptance of what you are continually thinking upon! When anxious thoughts, fearful thoughts, critical, bitter, despairing thoughts come to mind, then immediately RECOGNIZE them as from the evil one, tempting you to embrace and act on them and so grieving the Spirit of God, see them as offensive to the LORD. REPLACE them with TRUTH and RECALL His Word to your mind and RECOUNT over and over, Himself, His Word, His Promises, His Works, His pleasure your motivation and as you meditate upon truth, such as His promise, “…and you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.” We are free from condemnation and the penalty and power of sin, the authority of the evil one, but as Lazarus whom Jesus called out from death was alive, He told the people to take the grave clothes off Lazarus, as he was alive and had no need to be robed, constrained in death clothes. You are alive “in Christ” and sometimes we live in dead person’s cloths, spiritually “dead man’s thinking,” in the habits of our mind, going back when pressure comes to us, to go back to thinking before we knew the LORD as though we had no Help, nor care from Him. But He does Help us, He tells us to come to the Throne of Grace to receive mercy, grace and HELP in time of need!-{Read Hebrews 4:15-16}. And “He cares for you.”-{Read 1 Peter 5:7}. So we take off the “old grave clothes” of thinking that excludes God, His Word, and walk in the freedom we have “in Christ,” and the provision of His Spirit through His Word helping us, choice by choice!
And note in Psalm 1:2, the more you meditate upon His Word the more delight, pleasure you will find in it, as the Holy Spirit teaches you and explains His Word to you, pointing you to the Treasures of Christ, His Word, the gifts of His promises, His loving warnings, His daily goals, and the Power you will find in the Spirit of God to enlighten, empower,exalt the LORD, and note in Psalm 1:3…it brings about change in our lives! It brings about spiritual stability, spiritual fruitfulness, and spiritual prospering of the soul, because the person has met the qualifications of verse 1 and 2. Such is the outcome of those who delight in His Word and who meditate on His Word day and night, to know Him, obey Him. “Day and night,” speaks of constantly, not occasionally, but no matter what time of the day or night the Psalmist mind turns over and over to the Word of the LORD. He keeps going back there. This is why we too must hide His Word in our hearts so we have something to feed our soul on and for the Holy Spirit have truth to recall to our mind to conform us to the image of Christ, to exalt Him, to share Him, to live honoring and in dependence upon Him. May God work in us the habit to meditate upon His Word, day and night…
“But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
And in His law he meditates day and night.”He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,
Which yields its fruit in its season
And its leaf does not wither;
And in whatever he does, he prospers. “- {Psalm 1:2-3}.