The Value of Meditation/Pondering
by DSB
Meditation is above all a quest. It is using your mind to
seek an
ever growing understanding of God, the character and ways of God, the
word of God, and the why and how of the Christian life in order to
respond in the most deeply personal and practical ways possible to what
the Lord is saying to you and asking of you.
When practiced for a prolonged period of time on specific topics and
scriptures, the result of meditation is like going from kindergarten to
college graduate, or from Junior High cross country runner to Boston
Marathon winner.
However, the discipline and attentiveness required for prolonged
focused pondering is difficult to sustain, especially when you first
begin practicing this form of spiritual development. Therefore,
Christians have sought and found help keeping focused by using such
things as selected portions of Sacred Scripture – either
recently
read or memorized, good books – including early church
literature, listening to spiritually profitable teaching and then
meditating on it, reading or singing hymns, and making communing with
God an integrated part of meditation.
When you meditate on any truth, it helps your understanding of that
truth grow from simpler, less defined first thoughts to a much deeper,
broader, more practical and applicable understanding. Meditation helps
you make truth your own, for as your understanding of a truth grows,
and as you commune with God about your increased understanding, you
will be motivated to confront and judge yourself by that truth with the
goal of making whatever changes are necessary to live according to that
truth.
But meditation goes further, for as you continue pondering a specific
truth and assessing your life according to it, you see ever more
clearly and deeply two things. First, you continue to discover
previously unseen ways in which you fall short of that truth. Second,
you continue seeing additional ways in which the truth can and must be
applied to your life. And as you deal honestly with these two things,
you gain greater faith, a more holy life, a purer heart, greater love
for God and neighbor, and a more deeply personal intimacy with God.
Meditation not only educates and transforms you, it makes you
increasingly sensitive to the things you need to be sensitive to in
relation to the topic or scripture pondered. It puts truth on the tip
of your mind, as it were, so that it is ready for use at any time. It
increases your awareness of anything that impedes or blocks the way of
your God-ward progress, and feeds vigilance against them. It brings you
into a deeper, increasingly applicable understanding of God, His will,
and His word. It nurtures awe and love for God, as well as an increased
sensitivity to loving your neighbor as yourself. Therefore, this
sensitivity greatly helps in resisting the devil, putting fleshly
desires to death, putting on more and more Christ-likeness, and drawing
ever nearer to God.
There are many and varied methods of meditation. What works for one may
not work for you. Do not be deterred by this, for a method is only a
means for making progress in your quest. The important thing is to
advance, with the help of the Holy Spirit, along the path of
meditation, a path that will take you to deeper convictions, stronger
faith, a purer heart, a growing longing to please God, a hunger to
commune with God, and the immeasurable joy that comes from knowing and
walking with God.
One final thought: there is one constant for all who meditate
–
it requires time, devoted time, protected time, undistracted
time.