| Do you find it hard to just stop thinking? If you | | | | Joshua 1:8 admonishes us to meditate on God day |
| don't, you are an exception and truly blessed. In | | | | and night if we want success in life. |
| fact, if your mind isn't constantly wandering, I | | | | Christians that have not learned to abide in God's |
| would bet to say that you practice some | | | | presence and be still with Him spend most of their |
| technique on a regular basis that helps you to | | | | time doing for God. They go to church and attend |
| quiet your thoughts and maintain inner peace. | | | | many meetings and Bible studies but that is not |
| Unfortunately, the majority of the population, | | | | where intimacy with God is created. You can't get |
| including Christians, have a difficult time turning off | | | | that from going to church. It comes only from |
| the flow of minutia in their brains. Even when they | | | | spending time with the Father. Jesus said they |
| want to stop thinking and embrace the peace and | | | | that worship me must worship me in spirit and in |
| quiet they can't. I believe that our thoughts can | | | | truth for these are the types of worshippers the |
| literally drive us crazy sometimes, especially when | | | | Father desires. |
| they interfere with our sleep, create worry, and | | | | Through Christian meditation not only will our |
| steal our peace of mind. | | | | relationship with God grow, but our inner peace |
| There is really only one way to quiet our minds | | | | and joy also increases as well. That is because |
| and that is through meditation. But as Christians, | | | | practicing Biblical meditation helps us to live for the |
| we have been taught that meditation is something | | | | moment and leave everything else in God's hands. |
| evil and to be avoided. Yet if you looked up | | | | Through learning to quiet our minds and abide in |
| meditation in the dictionary you would find that it | | | | God's presence we also begin to lose our |
| means to ponder, to pray, to contemplate, and to | | | | attachment to things or beings and God takes a |
| muse over. | | | | more preeminent role in our life. |
| In addition, if you did an internet search on | | | | Meditating on God can be as simple as sitting in a |
| Christian meditation you would find that Christians | | | | quiet area just focusing on the Lord. It can |
| have been meditating for centuries. In fact, Jesus | | | | encompass meditating on a sacred word (part of |
| is our greatest example of why we need to | | | | scripture) or your breathing to anchor your mind |
| meditate. The scriptures tell us that it was Jesus' | | | | and keep it from wandering, or it can be simply |
| daily custom to find a solitary place and spend | | | | listening to a guided Christian meditation that |
| time with the Father. Also, when Jesus was in the | | | | takes you through a progressive relaxation and |
| desert those 40 days and night, what do you | | | | scriptural narrative. |
| think he was doing? He was communing with God. | | | | The truth is that once you spend time just abiding |
| It is in the stillness and quietness that we truly | | | | in God's presence you won't want to stop. |
| come to know God. Psalms 46:10 says, "Be still | | | | Dwelling in the sweet presence of God will draw |
| and know that I am God." Therefore, as | | | | you like bees to honey. We can't be in God's |
| believers, we don't have to believe the lie that all | | | | presence and not be changed. We can't meditate |
| meditation is bad. It's just a matter of what you | | | | on God and not feel is love. We must learn to be |
| are meditating on. If your meditations are on | | | | still and quiet our thoughts so we can truly hear |
| loving God, proclaiming His goodness, and abiding in | | | | from God, embrace His Word and be |
| His presence, how can that be a bad thing? | | | | transformed into his likeness. |