This last Sunday evening my lovely wife was preaching at St Simons Church, in Southsea. We looked at the importance of making time for God in our busy lives and specifically the importance of meditating on the word of God.
This was interesting because the word meditation conjures up all sorts of images for us; most of which or not generally compatible with Christianity. Jo, with a little help from her “Strongest Strong’s” concordance explained how there were at least two types of meditation used in the Bible which our modern translations have turned into one word.
The first is often used in the Psalms where to meditate means to ponder and to reflect upon. The second is used in Joshua 1 when he is told by God to mediate upon the law daily so that it would never depart from his lips. This form of meditation means to mutter to ones self.
I found this fascinating, more than anything because it seems to make so much sense. The idea of constantly repeating the Word of God so that it sinks in and we really start to grab an understanding of what it’s all about. Many of our modern worship songs play on this idea of repetition.
I’ve taken it upon myself to repeat a familiar passage of Scripture, out loud 5 times a day for the next week to see what effect it has on me. Why not try it too.
9:43 am
A good tip on how to meditate was given to me by a good friend of mine. If you are good at worrying, then you are probably quite good at meditating too! When we worry, we spend a lot of time thinking about things which are stressing us out, things that we have to do, things that we ought to do, with the net effect of probably leaving us more worried. Meditation therefore is exactly the same except we are spending time thinking about God, what God has done and as Rob suggested His word. This has the complete opposite effect to worrying in that it will leave us with peace and a greater sense of God’s awesome power. Many times have I read something or heard something and thought ‘Oh thats nice’ but then only when I have really taken time to think it through has the full understanding hit me. I think that reading things aloud 5 times a day is really good advice - I’m gonna give it a go