Whenever I hear someone talking about meditation, I go into lockdown mode to find out what they mean. Meditation in pop culture is huge these days. I was even taking a continuing education course on a totally unrelated topic and the person doing the course had a section on meditation. The reason I go into lockdown is to understand what type of meditation they are talking about. Nine times out of 10, they are talking about Eastern mysticism/transcendental meditation. That’s pretty sad to me.
As a quick reference/general terms, Eastern mysticism/transcendental meditation is about “emptying yourself.” However, Biblical meditation is about filling yourself with God’s presence and focusing on Him.
The title of this article is in reference to Philippians 4:8-9 which states:
Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you. (New King James Version… While I usually read the Bible in the New Living Translation currently, I often remember verses in King James or New King James from growing up.)
I was explaining to a friend of mine who is from India the difference and I shared with him some principles of good, Biblical meditation practice:
- Start by just choosing a Bible verse. Just one
- Read through it, word by word.
- Consider what each word means. You can use a site like www.blueletterbible.org to read the verse and understand the meaning of each word in the original language.
- Think through the verse as a whole. Read it through to the point where you can remember it to recite it.
- Spend at least a whole day just recite it and think about it. Let it “roll” around in your thoughts. Let it make connections with things you know and things you see. Specifically ask God to help you understand and apply it in your life.
- Once you have a good understanding and have been letting it roll around, read it as part of the whole chapter in the Bible from it comes. Consider how it fits in the chapter and then in the whole book. This is where commentaries will help as well.
- Remember Eastern meditation is about emptying yourself when you meditate. Christian meditation is about letting God fill you with His wisdom, knowledge, and presence.
There are a number of good sources to learn about Biblical meditation. Here are a couple:
- What is Biblical Meditation?
- Celebration of Discipline: A good book that is about Christian Spiritual Disciplines is Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster. I’ve read it several times over the years. It has a good practical section on Biblical/Christian meditation. The link in the title of this item is to Amazon. Right now (when I published this article, it was free on Kindle Unlimited). Some of it is available on Google Books
As far as what to meditate on, the sky is the limit. Scripture is always a good place to start using the principles I noted above. Pick a topic and search the Bible for what verses are about that topic (Google makes that pretty easy). Pick a verse. Then just walk through that.
However, you might meditate on concepts. Here is a short meditation routine that I did for another friend that might be helpful when thinking about meditating on concepts:
- Day One: Your big question of the day to contemplate (in the background…rolling around with the loose marbles…):
- How vast is the universe and its Creator?
- Day Two: Your big question of the day to contemplate (in the background…rolling around with the loose marbles…):
- How infinitesimally small are the details that God cares about in His creation?
- Day Three: Your big question of the day to contemplate (in the background…rolling around with the loose marbles…):
- How long is eternity? Despite its vastness, how much does God know your every moment on its spread?
- Day Four: Your big question of the day to contemplate:
- What is the deepest depth that you can fathom? What is the longest distance you can perceive? These lengths are nothing compared to the depths of God’s love for you. God loves you most.
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