2002-09-23 - Meditation

Mark 1:35 And in the early morning, while it was still dark, He arose and went out and departed to a lonely place, and was praying there.

Christian meditation is the serious contemplation of the things of God. It is not really an intellectual look into the things of God, because we are not really trying to understand when we meditate on the things of God. Rather, in Christian meditation, we are seeking to experience the things of God in our lives. Meditation is designed to lead us in holiness. We see this was the practice of Christ in Luke 5:16 where we read that Christ would often slip away into the wilderness to pray. Luke 9:18 also talks about Christ spending time alone with His Father in prayer.

Christian meditation, however, is slightly different from prayer. Contemplating God's truth and being are one of the ways that we grow in grace. It is a means to personal holiness when we focus in on God's holiness and seek to gain the mind of God. As Proverbs 15:29 tells us that the Lord is far from the wicked, but hears the prayer of the righteous, so also, we can infer the positive of the negative and the negative of the positive. Namely, that God is close to the righteous and does not hear the prayer of the wicked.

Godly meditation is important because we become conformed to the things which we are focused upon. Meditation can also be corrective in our lives because as we contemplate the things of God we become more and more exposed to His truth. Some things that we should seek to meditation on would be the will of God for our lives, the life, ministry, and example of Jesus Christ, the plan and means of salvation, our position before God as sinners and, through Christ, as His adopted children, and our future state of being in heaven. Those are just a few, but they would certainly be worth taking the time meditate upon.

Meditation is not an easy thing. It is much easier to lose focus and to let our thought wander. It is often hard to maintain a sustained, serious, and prolonged time of communion with God. One of the ways to practice this duty is to have a set time and place to meditate on the things of God. It seems that this was the practice of Christ who appears to have used the mornings to often get alone with His Father. Meditation can certainly be connected with prayer and the reading of Scripture but it is a separate discipline.

Lastly, try not to be discouraged at your failure in this area of your life. This is not an easy practice in our sound bite, MTV world. Rather, if you develop the desire to meditate on the things of God, be encouraged that God has given you such worthy desires. Meditation is a lost practice in the Christian life for most of us. The fact that it is a struggle to regain is to be expected. Thus let us seek to cultivate it, but not despair when it does not come easily. Many things worthwhile are a struggle to achieve. "Be strong, and let your heart take courage," Psalm 27:14.

Soli Deo Gloria,
T-

godrulestb@aol.com
http://www.cfdevotionals.org
http://www.papercutpress.com