Meditation

In the Greek and Hebrew the word meditation are hagah: and meletao: It reads, to ponder and have a prime interest of resolving things in our mind on matters that are of mutual interest and concern to God and ourselves. In turn, this causes us to do creative acts and use our human faculties being energized by the Holy Spirit, which produces concepts and mental images, which are totally new and original, causing us at times to experience pleasure and anger as we murmur and mourn for fulfillment.

Psalms 1:2-3 tells us that if we really love the Lord, “ we should be delighting and have a desire to meditate in the word of God both day and night and if we do this, we will be like a tree firmly planted by a stream of water and this will cause us to bear much fruit in its season and our blessing from God will not fade or wither and everything we put our hand to under God’s instructions will cause us to prosper and we will come to maturity.” The word meditate is mentioned in the bible 14 times and 9 of those times it is listed in the book of Psalms. It is only fitting because; David was a perfect example of a God seeker from his childhood until his death. He did wander for a while as we know but God pegged him as a man after God’s own heart. When I read that forty years ago it witnessed to the desire in my own heart and I have never looked back. I have been tempted and tried to quit but God has always brought me through. What greater privilege and honor can a child of God have then for God to say, “We have a heart and fellow feelings like Him?”

Therefore, we see here that if we have no hunger and desire with passion to seek after God, there will be no habit of us doing studies in the daytime and when it is night. The word habit is defined, as a tendency toward an action or condition which by us continually repeating it, has become contrary to things that at one time was against our own will to do.

Paul the Apostle in 11Timothy 1:12 says, “I am suffering because of the call on my life. Never the less I am not ashamed: for I know in whom I have believed in and I have been persuaded that God is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.”

We see here that, Paul was going through the normal faith trials in his life. He was learning what the process was and through these life experiences, he was being persuaded by God to change his mind and be even more committed to Him. He told Timothy, “the day I personally meet the Lord it will finally confirm to me that, I was right in following God’s instructions in my life.” The word persuaded means, to pacify or convince by argument to become obedient and make a friend. When this happens, we bring an end to a conflict and warring arena of life. A peace begins to rein in our total being.

We know the story of Paul how before he became a Christian, he went about killing people in the name of Lord. Of how on the road to Damascus he had, an encounter with a flash of light from heaven and God got his attention and he had a miraculous conversion. I am convinced through scripture and my experiences, fellowship, and the testimonies of fellow Christians that, if we are going to grow up in Jesus Christ we must enter into the arena of understanding the meditation life of the Spirit.

There is a great concern in me when I encounter so many unsaved and born again believers who have fallen between the cracks of life and have missed their purpose and God’s call for them. The harvest of people are ready to be gathered in the market places if, the Christians in the pews on Sunday morning will yield to God and begin to minister Jesus in their circles of influence. This bless and tickle my ear mentality in the churches of today must cease. Over the years we have forgotten that, we need a constant every day conversion from a fallen and sinful nature. We seem to believe that our relationship with God is automatic and everybody is O’K. Christianity has become a concept that because we were born into some type of so-called Christian values we‘re all God’s children. This cannot be any farther from the truth. As Paul had to repent and change his mind and acknowledge his need for God, so do we.

This is the beginning of wanting to seek after God. It is a joy to see altar calls on Sunday night meetings and hearing and seeing people’s heart cry and people being saved. The encounters with people in the market places of life and talking with them about their hopes, growing pains and their daily encounters with the Holy Spirit should follow next. Do you look for opportunities to talk about the Lord in your daily travels?

It is a rewarding feeling of achievement and it adds so much to our purpose for living when, we take the opportunity to be doing our God’s business in the highways and byways of life.

We can see from the interpretation of mediating that, we have to have a hunger to pursue a constant reasoning with the Holy Spirit and wanting to be molded and changed by Him. There has to be a passion involved in meditating. Passion is having a fervent devotion and feelings of desire. It says that we will murmur and have feelings of pleasure and anger and be mourning at times.

The word murmur means, a continual complaint in a low tone. It also like having an auscultation procedure being done on your physical body meaning, when a Doctor has to check you with a stethoscope to see how well or sick your heart is. As we meditate with the Holy Spirit, He has a spiritual stethoscope on our soulish heart and He is giving us an evaluation of what He believes has to be corrected to come into line with God’s curriculum of life.

What becomes disturbing and a hindrance in our search for truth is, when we have teachings saying that, we are not to complain and murmur against God. We allow the meditating process to be stunted and we begin to live in denial of our feelings because of not being able to be honest with our true feelings. Murmuring is part of the healing process of coming into agreement with God. We are always going to have conflicts on new revelation from the Holy Spirit.

A trust and loving relationship with God will open up our lives to Him and we will begin to murmur less because of our proven record of accomplishment with Him.

Now it also says we will have emotions of pleasure and anger in this process. Have you ever called on God with a gut-wrenching cry deep in your heart for what you believe at the time to be a life and death situation? Maybe you had a sickness that caused you to have great physical pain. Maybe it was a debt that came do and you thought, I am going to starve or lose my house. You were desperate. You cried out to God one minute and became angry with Him the next minute. You vacillated somewhere between heaven and hell. You thought, He promised to be there for me where is He when I am afraid and hurting so much. Maybe to some of you this example is an extreme case and you have never been between a rock and a hard place. It’s these gut-wrenching trials that make our roots and trust in God grow deep as we abandon ourselves to that still small voice that we must be learning to trust and obey in the meditating hours of our lives. We need to understand that this condition is a repeated process of living our lives; as we seek after God and we need to know that He is the source of all revelation and comfort for all of life situations.

It goes on to say that we will mourn. The word mourns in the Greek is pentheo: meaning, to grieve, have sorrow, and have feelings with passion. Jesus in his discourse on the Beatitudes in Mathew 5:4 says, “Blessed are they that mourn for they will be comforted.” The word comforted is parakaleo: meaning, call near and come beside and to invite. Using the Greek this interpretation reads, “Blessed are they that grieve and have sorrow and feel the passion and hunger for a relationship with God, for their hunger will invite and draw God near to their side.”

II Timothy 3:16 tells us that, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction and for instruction in righteousness.” We need to understand that scripture was written for man to realize that his first love duty is to know God intimately and allow Him to draw near to us.

Scripture was written so we can understand those areas of our ignorance that stops God, who just wants to have fellowship with us. When we have a lack of passion and commitment in our desire in seeking God, it is impossible to have a fellow feeling with His desires for us. To be instructed in righteousness is learning to feel God’s heart beat and walk in the same footsteps as Him.

It is through our meditating life style that brings us the reality of who God is and His love for us. I said earlier that the word meditate was used 14 times in the bible and nine times in Psalms. Let us use David as an inspiration and see his hearts condition and how he meditated. I will only touch on two psalm references to show his heart and the heart we need have to seek after God.

Psalms 119; 146-148 reads, “Lord I am crying to you; continue to restore me so that I will have the opportunity to keep your testimonies by hearing, loving and obeying them. I know the morning is coming but I continue to cry to you like a child and hope to hear a word from you. I look forward to these night watches I have with you and I am at my heart station before the allotted time that I might meditate and hear a word from you.” What dedication, abandonment and an unquenchable appetite for a relationship with a living God. It seems to me; he just wanted to be swallowed up with the presences of God in his life. It is obvious that, as he experienced God’s personality and the affection He had for him, it made him hungrier in his pursuit of God.

Psalms 63: 1-6 reads, “you are my God; with a deep seated conviction will I seek you: my being is weak and I have a hunger for you. Apart from you, I live a life that is wearisome and there is no purpose and joy. So I am looking to you in the secrete place in my heart, to see your power and glory. Because your loving-kindness is better than my life, I will through my lips praise you. I will continue to praise you while I have life in me. I will lift up the talents you have given me and do your works. This will make me whole, complete and satisfied. There will be in me a praise and worship and it will be constantly coming out of my mouth because, I will be remembering You upon my bed, and be meditating on you in the night time watches.”

We see here that David through the years since his childhood had become addicted to the presence of the Lord. He had come to realize and knew the difference of a relationship with God and one without. There was no denial in him. He had through the experiences of his life come to know what was needed to turn him on and off in his daily travels. What transparency and openness in his prayer life with humility and broken spirit before God. It is no wonder; He was a man after God’s own heart.