Biblical meditation is a key to our mental and emotional health.
It is also a key to our prosperity and success.
Today I listened to this sermon from Bill Johnson. The key text he presents in this message was Joshua 1 which is the account of Joshua taking over after Moses died to lead the Israelites into the Promise Land.
He illustrates that we all know how to meditate, because we have all experienced times where we were kept up all night thinking about something we were concerned about. I can certainly relate to this. This scripture is the key to transforming that way of thinking.
This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Joshua 1:8
Christian meditation – to reflect, to moan, to mutter, to ponder, to quietly repeat. The way this looks is to repeat Scriptures and relate these truths to our lives. At about 22 minutes into this sermon, Bill shares how he uses Psalm 127 to meditate and pray it out. For me, I have used Psalm 23 as a meditative passage in recent months where I breath in “The Lord is my shepherd.” I breath out, “I lack nothing.” I continue on from there, but I choose to make this a slow meditative practice that sows and waters seeds in my heart.
Making Scripture Personal
Another approach to Biblical meditation that I love is making scripture personal. Here is an example:
And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. 1 John 4:16
Personalized – this becomes “I have known and I have believed the love God has for me. God is love, and when I abide in love, I abide in God and God in me.”
Bill shares that Christian Biblical meditation is an ongoing encounter with God. Where we harness our thoughts and emotions and submit them to God’s Truth. According to the scripture above it is a key to prospering and having success.
Psalm 1 is a parallel scripture to the Joshua 1:8 admonition.
Blessed is the man
Who walks not in the counsel of the [a]ungodly,
Nor stands in the path of sinners,
Nor sits in the seat of the scornful;
But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
And in His law he meditates day and night.
He shall be like a tree
Planted by the rivers of water,
That brings forth its fruit in its season,
Whose leaf also shall not wither;
And whatever he does shall prosper.The ungodly are not so,
But are like the chaff which the wind drives away.
Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment,
Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.For the Lord knows the way of the righteous,
Psalm 1
But the way of the ungodly shall perish.
Because Biblical meditation is a key to our mental and emotional health this is one of my go-to tools when I am in distress and as more of a maintenance practice that I do on a regular basis. I’d love to hear what some of your meditation strategies include.
In this post – I shared 10 things Christians can do when they are feeling antsy, which may also be helpful to you.
