ON HIS LAW THEY MEDITATE DAY AND NIGHT.’ PSALM 1:2 RSV Meditating on God’s Word
If you’ve never meditated perhaps you think it’s too difficult; something only monks and mystics do, or gurus reciting mantras in the lotus position. Answer this: do you know how to worry? Okay, then you know how to meditate, because meditating is just: a) thinking deeply and continuously about something b) memorizing it c) letting it take root d) ‘owning’ it until it becomes a life force operating within you. The point isn’t how much Scripture you memorise, but what happens to you in the process. Meditating on God’s Word clarifies and corrects, enriches and equips you by making you think different thoughts than if you were watching TV, talking on your mobile phone or shopping at the local department stores. Jesus once asked His listeners: ‘ “Why do you keep on saying that I am your Lord, when you refuse to do what I say?“ ’ (Luke 6:46 CEV). Good question! These folks knew the truth but they weren’t ready to act on it. This is expressed in Saint Augustine’s famous prayer when he longed for sexual purity but wasn’t ready to change his lifestyle: ‘Lord give me chastity, but not just yet.’ Ever feel that way? David said, ‘Thy Word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against Thee’ (Psalm 119:11 KJV). Meditating on God’s Word is the cure for: a) moral and spiritual weakness b) a life with no focus c) lack of intimacy with God d) chronically weak faith that causes you to keep missing God’s best. So dust off your Bible, open it and ask, ‘Lord, what are you saying to me?’ Then meditate on His answer.