Monday, May 6, 2013

Thought of the Day: Meditation

Our thoughts have a lot to do with how we act. Before ever we do anything, we give some attention to what we say or do. The Bible has a lot to say about our minds and how we should use them for God’s honor and glory.

Many are incurably religious, searching for truth. A large number of things have vied to satisfy man’s hunger and thirst for reality. In the 1970s and still today, Transcendental Meditation (TM) has sought, and still does seek, to satisfy that longing for reality. TM is a very dangerous religion without the God of the Bible and therefore the Christ of the Bible as well.

I would like to suggest a Biblical alternative to TM. The dictionary definition of meditation is “to think about, to contemplate.” We meditate whenever we think deeply and continuously about something.

Let us think first about the Lord Jesus Christ’s practice of meditation. All through His time here on earth, Jesus was about His Father’s business. He was devoted to the Old Testament Scriptures. The Father’s will was always on Christ’s mind. His prayer life illustrates this clearly.

Listen to the words of the Psalmist, “Oh how love I thy law! It is my meditation all the day” (Ps. 119:97). Peter encouraged the dispersed Hebrew Christians to “gird up the loins of your mind” (1 Pet. 1:13). Paul the apostle called for “the renewing of the mind” (Rom. 12:2). Again he said, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 2:5).

It does take time to be holy. You cannot be holy in a hurry. Do not forget, “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he” (Prov. 23:7).