An Introduction to Christian Meditation
Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.—Josh. 1:8
[This is the first of a three-part series on the discipline of Christian meditation.]
“Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love.”
Does that describe you?
Me too.
To be honest, much of this blog is not so much about how successful I am at living the Christian life, but how I’m not.
Like you, I too struggle to connect the dots.
I’m busy. I’m distracted. And frankly, I’m disobedient.
But God, in His goodness, teaches us many powerful practices that we can begin to entwine into our routines.
Things like rest, retreat, community, prayer, Scripture memory, and so much more, help us keep our eyes on Him in the midst of a world that competes for our love and affection.
Just recently, as my husband and I are starting up our new ministry, I have felt overwhelmed. On top of caring for our disabled daughter and homeschooling my last child, I feel like I’ve treated God more as a genie in a bottle, not the great God that He is.
But God is good. Providentially, at our new church, we were introduced to the idea of meditating on God’s Word.
And because I learn best when I write about it, I thought I’d look more into it to see how I might begin to practice this in my own life. Wanna join me?
The Block to Meditation
Now like me, you might see the word “meditation” and red flags go up. And rightly so.
Though meditation is a biblical idea, our culture has commandeered the term nowadays to encourage self-optimization and productivity on the one end, with dangerous spiritual practices on the other.
This is not surprising. Though meditation is a practice encouraged by Scripture, as with all things, we easily corrupt it with our sinful hearts. We take something God intends to train us to focus upward to Him and turn it inward towards ourselves.
So if you feel wary—I do too. But I hope it also doesn’t keep you from exploring it.
Here are a few things I learned.
The Basics of Meditation
At the most basic level, Merriam Webster defines meditation simply as “to focus one's thoughts on : reflect on or ponder over.”
So if that’s all it is, as my pastor points out, we’re always meditating on something.
When we worry, we meditate on the unknown we cannot control.
When we fume with rage, we meditate on the wrongs done to us.
When we feel impatience, we meditate on how long something is taking.
The question is not so much “should we meditate?” but “what are you meditating on?”
Christian meditation, specifically, is then focusing, reflecting, and pondering on biblical truths.
It is not about emptying your mind, but filling it.
It is not about focusing on yourself, your breath or your heartbeat, but on God and His Word.
It is not limited to quiet places (though it helps), but can be practiced any time of the day.
So, what are you meditating on?
The Benefits of Meditation
As expected, if God asks us to meditate day and night on His Law, then it is usually for our good. Though there are many benefits, let me highlight a few (okay, it’s a long list!):
Blessing: It is the way or path to a truly God-saturated life.
Awareness: Focusing slows us down in our fast-paced lives to recognize Him.
Stability: It tells the Story that underlies our own and forms a steady foundation to build on.
Change: It takes the Word down from head to heart, where transformation happens.
Delight: Marveling on His greatness helps us enjoy Him more and fans our affection.
Growth: It enlarges our understanding of Him and deepens our trust.
Memory: Slowly reflecting on His Word often leads to memorizing it too!
Prayer: Thinking God’s thoughts prepares us to praise and petition in line with Him.
Reminder: Steeping in His Word steers us from sin.
Repentance: It calls us back to truth when we veer from God’s path.
Perseverance: It provides the inner motivation to keep pursuing God when tempted otherwise.
Comfort: Thinking on Scripture in times of suffering heartens us.
Ministry: What we meditate on is often what we will counsel others with.
Gratitude: Meditation focuses us on God’s gifts, not on what we lack.
Worship: It helps us live as God intended—communing with and exalting Him.
That’s Great, But…
The next couple of posts are going to get more into this practice, but I hope that by this point, you—like me—are starting to come around to the idea of meditation and can see that when practiced intentionally as a discipline can yield great benefits.
But this leads me to another problem: When am I going to find time to add yet another thing to my spiritual routine? With such a busy life, I don’t know when this is going to happen!
Yet if meditation is one pathway to God’s blessing (Ps. 1:2), I don’t want to miss out on it either!
The good news is this, my friend: if meditation is simply about focusing our thoughts, this is something we can learn to do even on the run.
Think about Deuteronomy 6:6-9. We often focus on verses 6-7 because they’re actionable.
However, verses 8-9 are really a picture of meditation, even if it doesn’t use the word directly. “You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” Isn’t this what meditation is—the focus of our thoughts?
Binding God’s Word on the hand reminded them to do God’s law. Frontlets (also known as phylacteries) were boxes containing the Hebrew texts and tied around the head with bands (see photo above) reminded them to think—and thereby keep—God’s law. Signs over doorways and gates reminded them that wherever they go, they are to walk in His ways.
So meditation is certainly not passive. It is not only for quiet moments.
We meditate while we go about our lives.
We’re always thinking about something. So what are you thinking—meditating—on as you’re on the run? What we think about will frame how we see life, speak, and act.
In the next couple posts, we’ll learn more about how to meditate as a believer, but for now, I encourage you to just notice what you’re meditating on.
Take a baseline evaluation (with no judgment!), and then come back next week to see how we might grow in this skill.
