meditation – Positive Woman Connection

7bimechfgfy-ben-white

Meditation is where God’s Word meets our hearts. Perhaps the reason so few people meditate on God’s Word, is because it means we must slow down and be attentive to it. Let’s admit it, our society today is going in the opposite direction. Most of us would describe our lives as busy and distracted, with a huge deficit of still time and attention to people and God’s Word. So how do we do it? What does it look like in a practical sense to meditate on the Scriptures?

Meditation is a continual action; it’s a bit like breathing. Breathing out our cares and selfish concerns and breathing in the truth of His Word. In both the Joshua and the Psalms passages, we see the implication of meditating day and night. Even the passage from James speaks of the continual action of looking intently into His Word. Think about it this way, when we go for a swim, we are actively swimming and breathing. But when we stop swimming, we are still breathing (hopefully), and we continue to breathe day and night. As we read and contemplate passages from the Bible during our daily swim, we can meditate on the passage by continuing to think and ponder it throughout our day.

Let’s experience what I’m talking about right now. Stop for a moment and be still. Breathe out your cares and worries that you are possibly carrying around in your mind and heart right now. Give them over to the Lord in prayer and thank Him for His care and His presence. Now let’s breathe in a truth from His Word. Thoughtfully read the following passage several times. You may even want to say it aloud if you are by yourself.

I have loved you with an everlasting love;

I have drawn you with loving-kindness

(Jeremiah 31:3).

Think about each word. Ask the Holy Spirit to teach you and speak into your heart. Ask Him to show you something fresh and new from this passage. Write down the thoughts that come to you on the lines below.

What simple truth can you take with you throughout your day today?

How does this truth change you personally?

Simply put, meditation is being attentive to what the Scripture is saying and breathing it into your daily life. I encourage you to consider and ponder on a thought or phrase from your daily swim (your daily Bible reading). You may want to write a verse or phrase on an index card and carry it with you during the day. The thing that sets Christian meditation apart from all the other types of meditation is that our meditation is centered on God’s truth, the Bible.

This is an exerpt from Becoming a Woman of the Word.

Click Here for more Information

becomingawomanoftheword

outside

When you read the Bible, are you shaken and stirred by what you read? That’s what it means to meditate on God’s Word. The original Hebrew word for “meditate” is hagah, which, surprisingly, means “to moan or growl.” It is pronounced “haw-gaw” (with the emphasis on the second syllable) and is thought to be an onomatopoetic term reflecting the sighing and low sounds a person makes while musing or pondering. Personally, I don’t typically moan or make “haw-gaw” sounds when I am in the depths of contemplating something, but I guess the ancients did.

The implication of hagah is that the reader is so moved by what they are taking in that he or she erupts in audible moaning. Does God’s Word move you to that extent? When you reflect and ponder the Scriptures, are you so taken by its wisdom, conviction, and authority that sighing is the natural release? That’s some serious hagah, my friends! I want God’s Word to move me and change me, but I must admit all too often I read it in a hurry without allowing it to affect me at all.

Meditating on God’s word should not only stir our hearts with the powerful truths and wisdom of the Bible, but it must also shake us up and move us to action. God told Joshua meditate on the Law day and night so he would “do everything written in it.” Similarly, James wrote that we are to not merely listen to the word, but do what it says. As we contemplate His Word, it should stir us to obedience. The Latin word for “obedience” is obaudire, which actually mans to listen with great attentiveness. Do you see how taking in God’s Word and obedience are completely linked together? God wants us to listen and to walk with Him.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, imprisoned during World War II for subversive activity against Hitler’s regime, wrote, “Daily, quiet reflection on the Word of God as it applies to me becomes for me a point of crystallization for everything that gives interior and exterior order to my life.” He continued, “Why do I meditate? Because I am a Christian. Therefore, every day in which I do not penetrate more deeply into the knowledge of God’s Word in Holy Scripture is a lost day for me.”

Click Here to watch a short video with Karol sharing about Meditating on God’s Word.

Father, draw us to Your Word in a deeper, richer way. Let us not only learn it in our minds, but experience it in our hearts and live it out in our lives. May we live in constant communion with You and Your truth. Stir in our hearts the greatest truth of all, the fact that you love us with an unfailing love. Let us walk in your love all day long.

“Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long” (Psalm 119:97).

This is an excerpt from, Becoming a Woman of the Word. Click here to find out more about this resource.