Meditation Done Right

 All around us today we see people promoting meditation. We hear that it is so good for us, and it will bring about peace of mind and heart. The problem is that most of what we hear is connected to eastern religions. The type of meditation done in these settings is to free your mind from everything and sit in silence, being disconnected with the things of this world. That is not what real mediation is supposed to be. Meditation is thinking deeply about things that are important. It is digesting what has happened or what we have heard until it becomes a part of who we are. That is the kind of meditation that will bring great results in our life. Mary practiced this type of meditation. (Luke 2:19,51) During the time of the birth of Christ Mary was treasuring up all the things that were happening to her and around her. She was spending time meditating on them. One translation says "pondering" them. She kept them all in her heart, until she could comprehend what God wanted her to know. We would all do well to mediate on the things of God in this way.

Reading God's Word is great, but it is not enough to fully grasp the meaning. Experiencing God's presence and His working in us and around us is wonderful, but it is not enough to get the lasting impact out of it that we need to grow in the Lord. That is why Psalm 1 tells us that the righteous person will meditate on God's Word day and night. That is why the Bible tells us that we need to abide in Christ and in His Word. Abide means to "remain" in it. We must spend time meditating on what the Lord says to us in our prayers and in our times of study. We must allow it to remain in our heart like Mary did. We must think of it often and deeply. Then, the Spirit can mold us into what we are learning from the Bible and from our relationship with God through knowing Jesus. I pray we will all benefit from meditation done right.

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Tomorrow, I intend to read Matthew 3-5.