I will meditate on your precepts
and fix my eyes on your ways.Psalms 119:15
Meditating For Beginners
Have you ever meditated before? It’s become more popular in recent decades as people are wanting to better their physical, emotional, and for some, spiritual health. I’ve also done it in the past but haven’t been consistent in practicing meditation now. Meditation is beneficial for clearing your thoughts, relaxing, and focusing one’s mind. If you haven’t tried it before, you can start now. Just follow these four easy steps:
- Find a quiet space.
- Sit still and close your eyes.
- Focus on breathing in and out deeply and slowly.
- Do this for short amounts of time (5-10 minutes each) and then gradually build up to longer periods (20+ minutes).
Meditation can really help you when you’re feeling anxious, stressed, or angry. But when you’re meditating, what are you thinking about? It’s good to clear your mind and think about nothing at first. But after that, what’s your next step? If you’re a believer in God and Jesus, then we should think about God’s Word and what it means for us today.
Meditating on God’s Word is More Than Just Sitting Still
In the opening passage, Psalms 119:15, we should meditate on God’s precepts and on His ways. The word, “precepts”, is an older word that means “laws or teachings”. Does that mean we just sit there and think about what God’s Word says? Should we say it repeatedly like some mantra? Let’s understand this better together.
Meditating on God’s Word is more than sitting quietly and breathing deeply. It’s writing it on our hearts and minds – understanding what it means so we can obey it.
I have stored up your word in my heart,
that I might not sin against you.Psalms 119:11
“That I might not sin against you,” this line reminds us that when we don’t have God’s word stored on our hearts, if we don’t meditate on it daily, then we will sin against God. Because of Adam’s sin, all of us have been born into that sin (see Romans 5:12), and if we are in sin can we be with God? God is perfect and holy. If God, who is holy, is with sinners, they will die (read Exodus 20:18-19). God told His people in the Old Testament to write His Law on their hearts and minds and teach it to their children each generation (see Deuteronomy 6:6-9). We are not the people of the Old Testament, but of the New Testament, and even today we are told the same thing.
For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel
after those days, declares the Lord:
I will put my laws into their minds,
and write them on their hearts,
and I will be their God,
and they shall be my people.Hebrews 8:10
Have you read your Bible today? Have you taken time to meditate on what God’s Word says and what it means?
If you haven’t yet, I encourage you to take some time, even if it’s just five minutes, to pray and read a few Bible verses. Try to understand them from God’s perspective and how they apply to our lives of faith. We shouldn’t live static lives of faith, but active ones – meaning we need to put our faith into practice. James 2:17 says faith without works is dead. So, let’s become active believers and read and study the Bible daily, and then put our knowledge into action. How can we do that?
Thoughts Lead to Actions
In whatever we do, our actions are preceded by a thought or an idea of some sort. We decide on what to cook before we make dinner, and even before that we decide on what to buy at the grocery store. We think about what we want to wear before getting dressed in the morning. Even if we don’t consciously think about what we’re doing, that action has to begin somewhere.
When it comes to living our life of faith, we can’t just think about obeying God. We can’t just say we obey God. We must put our words and thoughts into action. So let’s learn how with these steps:
- Step 1: Pray to God to give a heart mind of understanding. We cannot understand Scripture on our own, we must rely on God (Prov. 3:5).
- Step 2: Start reading the Bible. Now, that may seem like a daunting task – the Bible has 66 books in it – so it may be best to begin with books like Psalms or Proverbs, then perhaps the Gospels.
- Step 3: Begin to study the Bible and try to understand the Bible from God’s perspective – He is the author, after all. If you don’t know where or how to begin a study, we’d love to help you.
- Step 4: Change yourself – as you study and begin to understand what God and Jesus desire for us as believers today, we should begin to change how we think and live in accordance with God’s Word.
- Step 5: You should repeat this process as often as you can until you are fully changed into one who can put your faith into action and obey what God and Jesus have said.
This is something we must do as believers and rely on God to help us with. So let’s meditate on God’s Word by reading it, understanding it, and obeying what it says. Let’s ask ourselves these questions:
“Have I prayed and read my Bible today?”, and, “Do I know the Bible well enough to understand and obey it?”
If you can’t answer “Yes” to both questions, then what should you do? I hope and pray you can eventually answer “Yes” to both questions in the future. Let’s make sure we take time to daily read and reflect on God’s Word.
Written by Kenny
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