The Practice of Meditation

[featured_image]I love SOAP Journaling. (read how to SOAP Journal)

Reading the Bible + Writing Down a Key Verse + Understanding What it Means + Applying it to Life + Prayer  =  Life Change!

Every week college-age students gather at our home and we study the Bible together using this SOAP method. Many of the students are journaling during the week. When we come together on Thursday nights, we break into groups to read the passage and reflect on its meaning and application to our lives.

Last night as we broke into groups, we were focused on Phil 4:8:

Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. (NASB)

As we focused on the concept of dwelling on these things, someone asked about meditation. We looked together at the following verses that seem to elevate the practice of meditating on Scripture.

“This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success.” – Joshua 1:8

“How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, Nor stand in the path of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers! But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night. He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither; and in whatever he does, he prospers.” – Psalm 1:1-3

These verses indicate that meditating on Scripture will have an impact on your life! As you meditate on God’s Word it will lead you to “do according to all that is written in it.” The result of meditation is obedience. And the result of obedience is a God-honoring, fruitful life.

What is Meditation?

I like the way that J.I. Packer describes meditation in Knowing God:

How can we turn our knowledge about God into knowledge of God? The rule for doing this is demanding, but simple. It is that we turn each truth that we learn about God into matter for meditation before God, leading to prayer and praise to God.

We have some idea, perhaps, what prayer is, but what is meditation? Well may we ask; for meditation is a lost art today, and Christan people suffer grievously from their ignorance of the practice. Meditation is the activity of calling to mind, and thinking over, and dwelling on, and applying to oneself, the various things that one knows about the works and ways and purposes and promises of God. It is an activity of holy thought, consciously performed in the presence of God, under the eye of God, by the help of God, as a means of communion with God. It’s purpose is to clear one’s mental and spiritual vision of God, and to let His truth make its full and proper impact on one’s mind and heart. It is a matter of talking to oneself about God and oneself; it is, indeed, often a matter of arguing with oneself, reasoning oneself out of moods of doubt and unbelief into a clear apprehension of God’s power and grace. Its effect is ever to humble us, as we contemplate God’s greatness and glory, and our own littleness and sinfulness, and to encourage and reassure us – ‘comfort’ us, in the old, strong, Bible sense of the word – as we contemplate the unsearchable riches of divine mercy displayed in the Lord Jesus Christ. …And it is as we enter more and more deeply into this experience of being humbled and exalted that our knowledge of God increases, and with it our peace, our strength, and our joy. God help us, then, to put our knowledge about God to this use, that we all may in truth ‘know the Lord’. (Knowing God, p 18-19)

He gives a great definition for meditation – Meditation is the activity of calling to mind, and thinking over, and dwelling on, and applying to oneself, the various things that one knows about the works and ways and purposes and promises of God.

Meditation on God and on Scripture requires a deep pondering and reflecting on truth!

How Do I Meditate?

As you SOAP Journal, take time to truly meditate on the truth of each key verse. Here are some helpful ways to meditate:

+ Personalize the passage – insert your name into the verses.

Example from Psalm 1:2: But Dave’s delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law Dave meditates day and night.

+ Pronounce each word – reflect on what that word means.

+ Picture the big idea – imagine what this actually looks like.

+ Pray the verse back to God – ask Him to empower you to do what it says.

+ Present the verse to someone else – tell them what it means to you.

+ Practice the key concept – just do it.