Pastor's Corner: Meditate on the Word

“Blessed (fortunate, prosperous and favored by God) is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked (following their advice and example) nor stand in the path in the path of sinners, nor sits (down to rest) in the seat of scoffers (ridiculers).

“But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on His law (his precepts, and teachings) he (habitually) meditates day and by night.” (Psalm 1:1-2 Amplified Version.)

Now, according to Mr. Webster, the word meditate means, “1. To reflect on: Ponder. 2. To plan or intend in the mind …To engage in contemplation. Vine’s An Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words says that meditate means “… primarily, to care for … to attend to, practice, … be diligent in, … to practice is the prevalent sense of the word, … to ponder, imagine, … to premeditate.”

So to meditate seems to be a very important word in this scripture. Proverbs 4:20 says this, “My son, attend to my words, consent and submit to my sayings.” If we put Proverbs 4:20 together with these definitions of the word “meditate,” we see that we attend to God’s Word by meditating on it, by pondering on it, by contemplating it, by rehearsing or practicing it in our thinking.

The basic idea is that if we want to do what the Word of God says, we spend time thinking about it.

Remember the old saying, “Practice makes perfect”? We really do not expect to be experts at anything in life without a lot of practice, so why would we expect Christianity to be any different?

So, according to what we have just seen here, “meditation produces success.”

I like what Joshua 1:8 says, “This Book of the Law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, that you may observe and do according to all that is written in it. For when you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall deal wisely and have good success.”

If you want to be a success and prosper in all your dealings, the Bible says you must meditate on the Word of God day and night.

How much time do we spend thinking about the Word of God? If you are having problems in any area of your life, an honest answer to this question may disclose the reason why.

We need to take time to think about what we are thinking about, what we are meditating on. Ephesians 2:3 says, “Among these we as well as you once lived and conducted ourselves in the passions of our flesh, obeying the impulses of the flesh and the thought of the mind.” Paul warns us all here that we are not to be governed by our sensual nature or to obey the impulses of our flesh, the thoughts of our carnal mind.

Even as Christians, we can have trouble controlling our thoughts. We can stumble and allow our thought to take us captive instead of the other way by taking our thoughts captive. We need to change our thinking.

Our thoughts can become a warring zone or a battlefield. We need to step back and stop and say to ourselves, “I need to think about what I am thinking about.”

Sometimes our minds are a mess and we need to renew our minds and thought life. The psalmist David talked frequently about meditating on all the wonderful works of the Lord, the mighty acts of God. He said that he thought on the name of the Lord, the mercy of God and many other attributes of his Heavenly Father.

If we are feeling down or depressed, here is what David wrote in Psalm 143:4-5, “Therefore is my spirit overwhelmed and faints within me, wrapped in gloom, my heart within my bosom grows numb. I remember the days of old, I meditate on all Your doings; I ponder the work of Your hands.”

We see from this passage that David’s response to his feelings of depression and gloom was not to meditate on the problem. Instead, he literally came against the problem by choosing to remember the good times of past days, pondering the doings of God and the works of His hands.

In other words, he thought on the goodness of God and it helped him overcome depression.

Never forget this: your mind plays an important role in your victory. I know that it is the power of the Holy Spirit working through the Word of God that brings victory into our lives. But a large part of the work that needs to be done is for us to line up our thinking with God and His Word. If we refuse to do this or choose to think it is unimportant, we will never experience victory.

Rev. Brian King pastors at First Baptist Church, Fairbury

This article originally appeared on Pontiac Daily Leader: Rev. Brian King Pastor's Corner: Meditate on the Word