We Don't Hear From God If We Don't Spend Time In Meditation
Ok, So Let’s Talk About Meditation
Meditation is a spiritual discipline that should be part of our routine practice as a believer and follower of Jesus. Actually, meditation is a very important element of our prayer life. Prayer is communication and conversation with God.
We talk. God listens.
God talks. We listen.
Or Vise Versa
My pastor recently preached a message about the transfiguration of Jesus in Matthew 17:1-13. It was a powerful message about beholding the glory of Jesus. One of my favorite things he said in his sermon was based on God speaking in Matthew 17:5,
“This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!”
Matthew 17:5b
In his commentary of God’s words in Matthew 17:5, my pastor said, “We serve a God who talks and He talks to us.”
Oh my goodness! I love that! I know that. I knew that, but hearing it in that moment was so powerful. God talks to us.
But, are we hearing Him?
Are we giving Him our ear, our heart, our time, our devotion to truly hear what He wants to speak to us. That dear sister is where meditation comes in.
Meditation is the one spiritual discipline many people blow right past and for several reasons.
First, busyness, the enemy of all elements of our Christian life, hinders us from hearing from Jesus.
If we are so busy, we can’t find time to spend in God’s presence beyond giving Him our list of prayer needs, we aren’t providing ourselves with the opportunity to hear what God has to say.
Second, the devil absolutely doesn’t want us to grow in our prayer life where we hear from God.
Growing our prayer life and hearing from God will be the devil’s ultimate defeat in our specific circumstances. Therefore, he throws every distraction and hindrance our way to stop us from getting alone with God and resting in His presence to hear what God wants to say to us.
Third, we often have a misunderstanding about meditation.
We see it as tied to pagan worship rather than a Christian discipline. Quite possibly a tactic of the enemy to taint what God intended as a way for us to hear from Him. In other words, if the devil can convince us by any reason that meditation shouldn’t be a part of our Christian practice, more points for him. See the psalmist’s proof below that meditation is biblical.
Psalm 4:4 - Be angry, and do not sin. Meditate within your heart on your bed, and be still.
Psalm 63:6 - When I remember You on my bed, I meditate on You in the night watches.
Psalm 77:6 - I call to remembrance my song in the night; I meditate within my heart, And my spirit makes diligent search.
Psalm 77:12 - I will also meditate on all Your work, And talk of Your deeds.
Psalm 119:15 - I will meditate on Your precepts, And contemplate Your ways.
Psalm 119:48 - My hands also I will lift up to Your commandments, Which I love, and I will meditate on Your statutes.
Psalm 119: 78 - Let the proud be ashamed, For they treated me wrongfully with falsehood; But I will meditate on Your precepts.
Psalm 119:148 - My eyes are awake through the night watches, That I may meditate on Your word.
Psalm 143:5 - I remember the days of old; I meditate on all Your works; I muse on the work of Your hands.
Psalm 145:5 - I will meditate on the glorious splendor of Your majesty, And on Your wondrous works.
Fourth, simply not recognizing the power and pleasure hearing God speak to us.
Throughout my journey with Jesus, God has spoken to me the most when I was the quietest. And those moments when God speaks to us register on top of the list of most amazing Christian experiences. I love hearing from God and I love what hearing from God does for me.
Not only should meditation be a part of our prayer life, it should also be connected to God’s word. And just in case I need to say it, God’s word should be a part of our prayer life. Let’s look at Joshua 1:8.
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
Look At The Word Meditate And Meditation:
In English:
· MEDITATE means to think deeply, to contemplate, to deliberately focus.
· MEDITATION defined is a devotional practice that leads to contemplation.
In the original Hebrew language:
- In Joshua 1:8 meditate or hagah means to growl, groan, sigh, mutter, speak, and it is used figuratively meaning to meditate or ponder. The root word of hagah refers to intense meditation, musing or sighing by the psalmist in prayer as he cries out to the Lord. Used also in Psalm 5:1 and 39:3, which we will look at in a moment.
When I look at meditate in the original language, the thing that stands out to me is the intensity and physical manifestation present in meditation. As Joshua 1:8 teaches us to meditate on God’s word, we see the potential presence of growling, groaning, sighing, muttering, and/or speaking.
I love this because, it tells me I’m not crazy when I am moaning, groaning, or talking out loud when I am wrestling through Scripture. Instead it shows me that it is exactly what I need to do.
Meditating on God’s word is the place where we slow down and take time to focus, think, consider, and ponder on God’s word. Why is this so super important? Joshua said it is how we make our way prosperous and have good success. And I submit to you that the reason meditating on God’s word is so important is because H-E-R-E (in Biblical meditation) is where we H-E-A-R God.
Spend Time Focused on God’s Word
We need to focus on God’s word long enough that we let it reach our insides and our issues. Where the truth of God’s word pierces our soul and ministers to our hurts. Allowing God’s word to convict us, direct us, grace us, and extend mercy and compassion to us when each is needed.
Give ear to my words, O Lord, Consider my meditation.
Psalm 5:1b NKJV
My heart grew hot within me. While I meditated,
the fire burned; then I spoke with my tongue
Psalm 39:3 NIV
Why is meditating such an important spiritual discipline?
Because meditating keeps us from reading God’s word as a part of a check list that we check off. If busyness is one of our hindrances to our prayer life, we might tend to spend a few minutes in prayer telling God what we need, give a few minutes to reading a few Scripture verses, and shut our Bible. We check off our list and go about our busy way. Sadly, we missed an opportunity to hear from God.
So dear Sister, let’s slow down and give God a chance to speak to us through His word because when He does, we will never be the same. We will have that hunger, passion, and fire for God’s word on the inside, that nothing can put out.
Much Love & Blessings!
