A thought by David Jeremiah, from his book, Hope: Living Fearlessly in a Scary World (p. 49). Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.)
Here is what Joshua 1:8 says, "You shall meditate in it day and night." The it is God's Word.
David says, "We don’t like anything slow or deliberate, and we particularly hate the idea of quiet. We like things to be fast paced. We like more action and less reflection. We like 140-character tweets instead of in-depth information." So true.
He goes on, "But meditation—biblical meditation, not the emptying of the mind featured in Eastern religions—is central to the life to which God calls us. It requires that we give up our hurry and listen quietly and deeply to what God has to say. J. I. Packer describes the right way to do it:
Meditation is the activity of calling to mind, and thinking over, and dwelling on, and applying to oneself, the various things that one knows about the works and ways and purposes and promises of God. Its purpose is to . . . let his truth make its full and proper impact on one’s mind and heart. . . . It is, indeed, often a matter of arguing with oneself, reasoning oneself out of moods of doubt and unbelief into a clear apprehension of God’s power and grace.[1]"
David continues, "Like a cow that chews the same grass over and over to digest it and benefit from it, we meditate on the Word of God by going over and over it in a way that allows God to speak to our hearts and quiet our fears.
"Meditation is preventive maintenance for the mind. We fill every corner of our thinking with rich, eternal truth before the errors of the world can take root there and infect us. We live in this world, and we’ll be exposed to all that is wrong about it. But we can make ourselves resistant to the virus of false ideas. Meditating on God’s Word is inoculation against 'every wind of doctrine (Ephesians 4:14)."
He later says, "Try meditating each day on Philippians 4:13, which reads, 'I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.' Think about how much more resistant you’d be to the insidious whispers that say, Give up—you can’t do this; God isn’t going to help you. The implanted Word is a bulwark against the lies of the evil one."
He then says, "Whichever of those two messages touches your soul most frequently—the voice of courage or the voice of defeat—that’s the one that wins the battle for your mind."
And this is so true. So let's start meditating on God's Word and see the difference it will make, okay? Yes, yes! #continuethought
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