The Power of Meditation

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.

Psalm 19:14

Do our meditations matter?

As Archbishop Anthony bloom has written, “Meditation is a piece of straight thinking under God’s guidance.” In other words, Christian mediation is reflecting, pondering, considering the things of God. We meditate to give God our full attention. As followers of Jesus, we live and move and have our being in him (Acts 17:28, NIV); like electronic devices, we don’t possess the power but we receive it. One way we receive the power of the Holy Spirit is through meditation.

In truth, we are continually meditating, pondering or reflecting on something in our inner beings. We can easily lose our focus on Christ and miss what we need the most. How do we simply shift our meditations squarely under God’s guidance?

Since Christian meditation is laser focused on Christ and his Word, we need to know how we can fix our attention back to God when we lose our focus. It begins with Jesus and the moment we start interacting with him, our Lord ministers to us, guiding us with his eye (Ps. 32:8).

Recently I started my work-day an hour earlier and didn’t take as much time in the Scriptures that morning. With a looming deadline, I set my face like flint to finish the task at hand. A phone call and several texts came mid-morning and because of the nature of the conversations, my focus shifted away from God and onto the dialogue. Within an hour, I felt the life or the power drain from me. I stopped myself from my ruminating and acknowledged to God that I lost my focus. Allowing time to recall the morning Psalm, I ruminated on the words I, “Deliver me.” A light began to form in my mind’s eye as God’s Word was penetrating not just my mind but my emotions—the place where I was hurt and my will—the place where I was making decisions. As as if hearing the text for the first time,, I gently and calmly shifted my meditations back to God, under his guidance.

Christ’s Word is life-giving to us because it is inspired by the Holy Spirit (John 6: 63). My human meditation accomplishes nothing. But Christ’s words are powerful and effective. That morning it was like I plugged my electrical cord into my power source so I could see and hear the presence of Christ in my life again. Rather than being disturbed when our minds wander, we can turn it into prayer. No matter what distracted us, You and I can use the situation to meditate on Jesus’ life-giving words. We turn them over and over in our minds and as we do the truth is percolated from our heads to our hearts. And that’s when we recognize that once again his healing presence is closer than our own breath; we see him and we see ourselves in a new light because we are squarely under God’s guidance.

QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER REFLECTION: Do you experience the presence of Christ more through meditating on Scripture silently in your heart? In your writing or driving alone in your car? Is there another way that brings you in communion best with Christ and his words? Talk to God about the spiritual discipline of meditation and invite him to give you a renewed desire to hear his Voice through this practice.

PRAYER: Holy One, Deliver me from double-mindedness as I set my heart and mind under the guidance of your Word. Give me the purity of heart to will one thing and may that one thing be you. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

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Pam Lau is the author of Soul Strength and numerous articles for Fullfill magazine and Christianity Today’s Her.meneutics. She teaches communications at George Fox University. Her forthcoming book, A Friend in Me: Building Trust with the Next Generation of Women, is due June 1. Pam lives near Portland, Oregon with her husband and three daughters. See more at www.pamelalau.com.

Spiritual Disciplines

What if spiritual discipline is easier than we think it is? In his book Celebration of Discipline Richard Foster offers this list of spiritual disciplines: meditation, prayer, fasting, study, simplicity, solitude, submission, service, confession, worship, guidance, and celebration.

That list can look like a mountain to climb and a setup for failure. We start to ask questions like: What spiritual disciplines should I practice in my work life? Does prayer make a difference in my work life? Does a Christian layperson really need to read the Bible everyday? We wonder how to fit spiritual disciplines into our lives with so many deadlines and meetings and expectations and budgets. Wouldn’t it be a breath of fresh air to discover the Holy Spirit at work, even here, even without working so hard to bring the Spirit with us everywhere? We hope this series on Spiritual Disciplines gives you freedom and a little more space to breathe.