Christian Meditation

Is Meditation even Christian? Isn't that like a Hindu or Buddhist thing?Meditation in eastern mystical religions focus on emptying the mind. Christian meditation is altogether different. The Bible encourages meditation as a filling of the mind with the Word of God.Joshua instructed God’s people to “meditate day and night” on His Word (Joshua 1:8). Psalm 1 tells us that the wise man meditates on God’s Word day and night. David prayed in Psalm 19:14, “May the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight.” Paul wrote to Timothy about principles in God’s Word and then told him to “meditate on these things” (1 Timothy 4:15).The word means to carefully ponder and think through. It implies prayerful consideration in how God’s Word can be absorbed and applied to our lives. It’s keeping the Word of God at the forefront of our thinking to affect our decision-making, reactions to situations, and attitudes through the day.How does it work? Why is it beneficial?Another word we use for meditate is ruminate. And it’s an excellent word picture for how meditation works and why it is so helpful.Don’t let this gross you out, but the word ruminate refers to the digestive process of cud-chewing animals, like sheep. Ruminating animals are able to get a tremendous amount of nutrition from foods that we humans would die if it was all we ate. But sheep live on grass. They are able to do this because the rumination process gets every bit of nutrition available out of their feed. They have four compartments to their stomachs. When they are out in the field grazing, they eat and swallow as much grass as they can. Then later as they are resting, (here comes the gross part) they regurgitate what they had eaten, and start re-chewing, pulling nutrition out of what they had eaten earlier. They do this again and again, until all the available nutrients have been completely absorbed.That’s what mental rumination, or meditation is. It’s careful contemplation, consideration, and pondering on truth, over and over, until every implication and application is understood and absorbed. Meditating on God’s Word is thoughtfully processing what it says so that we can get the most out of it, and put it into practice.In my next blog, I’m going to share with you my own practice of meditation in a practical step-by-step guide. This is something you can do! And if you actually put it into practice, it will change your life.