Start Your New Life Today Part 9

Meditate on These Things Transcendental Meditation. Yoga. New Age. Eastern Religions. Hearing these terms causes many Christians to fear the word meditation so much they never realize it was G.o.d's idea first. They're afraid if they meditate they will be part of the occult or some type of pagan wors.h.i.+p. What we need to remember is how often the Bible urges us to meditate.

It is not meditation that is wrong; it is what one meditates on that could be wrong. We can explain biblical meditation in a number of ways, but the one I find most helpful is to think of it as expressed in the Bible. If we read verses such as Psalm 63:56, "My mouth shall praise You with joyful lips when I remember You upon my bed and meditate on You in the night watches," and Psalm 119:97, "Oh, how love I Your law! It is my meditation all the day," among many others, we see three significant things about meditation in the Word.

First, the Scriptures refer to more than a quick reading or pausing for a few brief, reflecting thoughts. The Bible presents meditation as serious pondering. Whenever the Bible refers to meditation, it speaks to serious, committed followers. This isn't a word for quick, pick-me-up Bible verses or Precious Promises. I'm not opposed to those, but this is a call to deeper, more serious concentration.

Second, the biblical contexts show meditation as ongoing and habitual: "It is my meditation all the day." G.o.d told Joshua to meditate on the law day and night (see Joshua 1:8). Psalm 1:2 says that the G.o.dly person meditates on G.o.d's law day and night. The Scriptures give us the impression the people who spoke of meditating did so very seriously and fully applied their minds to it.

Third, meditation has a reward. It's not just to meditate or go through a religious ritual. In most of the biblical pa.s.sages where the term occurs, the writer goes on to point out the results. Again in Joshua 1:8: "For then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall deal wisely and have good success." Psalm 1 describes the G.o.dly person who meditates day and night on G.o.d's law (or Word): "And everything he does shall prosper [and come to maturity]" (v. 3).

Despite what I've pointed out, we don't talk or teach very much about meditation today. It's hard work! It demands time. Meditation also demands discipline and undivided attention.

If you want to win the battle for the mind, meditation is a powerful weapon for you to use. You must focus on portions of G.o.d's Word. You must read them, perhaps repeat them aloud, and keep them before you. Some people repeat a verse again and again until the meaning fills their mind and becomes part of their thinking. The idea is that you won't put the Word of G.o.d in practice physically until you first practice it mentally. Meditation is a life principle because it ministers life to you, and your behavior ministers life to others through you.

I could go on and on about the subject of meditating on G.o.d's Word, because it seems there is no end to what G.o.d can show me out of one verse of scripture. The Word of G.o.d is a treasure chest of powerful, life-giving secrets G.o.d wants to reveal to us. I believe these truths are manifested to those who meditate on, ponder, study, think about, practice mentally, and mutter the Word of G.o.d. The Lord reveals Himself to us when we diligently meditate on His Word. Throughout the day, as you go about your affairs, ask the Holy Spirit to remind you of certain scriptures on which you can meditate.

You won't put the Word of G.o.d in practice physically until you first practice it mentally.

You'll be amazed at how much power will be released into your life from this practice. The more you meditate on G.o.d's Word, the more you will be able to draw readily upon its strength in times of trouble.

This is how we can stay filled with the Holy Spirit-stay with the Lord through meditation and through singing and praising. As we spend time in His Presence and ponder His Word, we grow, we encourage others, and we win the battles against the enemy of our minds.

CHAPTER 37.

The Blessings of Meditation G.o.d not only frequently tells us to meditate-to ponder seriously-His Word, but He frequently promises results. It's as if G.o.d says, "Okay, Joyce, if you meditate, here's what I'm going to do for you." The writer of Proverbs 4:2022 used the words "attend to my words" which is another way of exhorting us to meditate. "My son, attend to my words; consent and submit to my sayings. Let them not depart from your sight; keep them in the center of your heart. For they are life to those who find them, healing and health to all their flesh."

In this pa.s.sage, the promise is life and health. Isn't that amazing? It's even a promise that contemplating and brooding over the Bible will affect your physical body.

We've known for a long time that filling our minds with healthy, positive thoughts affects our body and improves our health. This is just another way of repeating this truth. Or take the opposite viewpoint: Suppose we fill our minds with negative thoughts and remind ourselves how frail we are or how sick we were the day before. We soon become so filled with self-pity and self-defeating thoughts we get even sicker. Why not look at it like this: "I'm going to think about something, so it might as well be the Word of G.o.d because it is full of life and power"?

Psalm 1 and Joshua 1:8 tell us that prosperity will come from meditating on the Word. I believe by prosperity G.o.d means we will be enriched and prosper in every part of our lives. It isn't a promise of mere material wealth, but an a.s.surance of being able to enjoy all the wonderful blessings we have.

We often forget G.o.d wants our fellows.h.i.+p, our company, and our time with Him. If we want a deep relations.h.i.+p with our heavenly Father, we have to make room for time with G.o.d. We all want special times with G.o.d, but they won't happen if we never make time for them.

D. L. Moody once said the Bible would keep us from sin, or sin would keep us from the Bible. That's the principle here. As we concentrate on G.o.d's Word and allow it to fill our thoughts, we will push away all desire to sin or to displease G.o.d in any way. We become more deeply rooted in Him. Again, think of it in the negative. When our minds remain focused on our problems, we become consumed with them. If we meditate on what's wrong with others, we see even more flaws and faults. If what we concentrate on becomes bigger to us then just imagine how big G.o.d and His promises will become as we meditate on them. They will become so big they will crowd out everything trying to destroy us.

We all want special times with G.o.d, but they won't happen if we never make time for them.

No matter which translation or paraphrase of Philippians 4:8 we read, the statement and message in it is powerful and describes exactly what we need to do to condition our minds for victory. Here's Eugene Peterson's paraphrase in The Message: "Summing it all up, friends, I'd say you'll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, n.o.ble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious-the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse."

CHAPTER 38.

Truth in the Inner Being King David sinned with Bathsheba by having s.e.x with her and then he even went so far as to have her husband murdered to cover his sin. He married Bathsheba and tried to ignore his sin for a year. G.o.d sent Nathan the prophet to confront him and one of the things he said was, "G.o.d desires truth in the inner being" (see Psalm 51:6). It is vital for us to be truthful with ourselves, with G.o.d, and with others. Only the truth can set us free.

G.o.d's Word is truth, and when we love it and obey it we are set free from bondages that have held us captive. David was miserable even though he was trying to ignore the real reason why. Many people blame their misery on everything and everyone, and some never get around to facing the truth that they are simply disobeying and ignoring G.o.d.

Don't ever be afraid of truth. It brings light into your life and dispels darkness. Don't be afraid of the light. True, it is a little difficult to look at if one has been in the dark a long time, but we adjust quickly and realize it is much better to live in the light than it is to live in the dark. The Holy Spirit is given to us after we receive Jesus as our Savior, so He can consistently teach us and reveal truth to us. It is an ongoing process in our lives and one that can and should be exciting. G.o.d never shows us anything wrong with us for the purpose of making us feel bad, but He wants to deliver us and make our lives better. In order to do that, we must see and accept the truth, be sorry for our sins, and be willing to turn away from the dark to the light.

G.o.d never shows us anything wrong with us for the purpose of making us feel bad, but He wants to deliver us and make our lives better.

Anything we hide has authority over us, but the moment we bring it out into the light it is exposed and loses its power. We instantly feel that a huge burden has lifted and our lives are made better. Yes, it is a little embarra.s.sing to really face the things we have previously kept hidden, but it is the only pathway to freedom.

I had to face a lot of truth in order to get from where I started to where I am now. I had to face the fact that my parents really never did know how to love me properly and never would. I had to see that I allowed myself to be filled with self-pity and blame and it was not doing me or anyone else any good. I had to face the truth that I was very bitter and resentful and it was not the will of G.o.d. He actually required that I forgive all the people who were responsible for my pain and pray for them. I had to face many unpleasant things about myself and my behavior. Although I had reasons for acting and feeling the way I did, I had no right to remain that way because G.o.d was willing to heal me and set me free. All I had to do was face the truth He was showing me and depend on Him to help me change.

What has G.o.d been trying to reveal to you? Have you been hiding in the dark? If so, I urge you to come out into the light and begin your journey of total healing.

Your Will

CHAPTER 39.

Making Right Choices Making right choices is very important because life is made up of a series of choices. Sometimes we like to blame everything on the devil, but the devil cannot run our lives if we are diligent to be obedient to G.o.d.

Satan places pressure on us and he tries very hard to lead us into disobedience. The spirit wants to do what is right, but the flesh says, "I want my own way." G.o.d speaks something to your spirit, some good thing to do, and the soul says, "Now wait a minute. Let me tell you what I think. Let me tell you how I feel about that. I don't know if I feel like doing that. Let me tell you what I want." I call this ongoing commentary of the soul "I want, I think, I feel."

Underlying everything we do is the soul saying, "Let me do what I want. Let me do what I think. Let me do what I feel. I want, I think, I feel." As believers, we need to go deeper than allowing our thoughts and emotions to control us. Luke 5 has a wonderful verse in it that says to come on out in the deep and get ready for a haul (see v. 4).

Some people will never spend the inheritance Jesus died to give them because they are not living deep enough. What level are you? Are you living only on the emotional or mental level? Do you always strive to get what you want, or have you turned your will over to G.o.d? Some people never move beyond living from their own minds. They never move beyond living based on how they feel. If they feel like going to church, they go; if they don't, they don't. If they feel like spending money, they do whether they have it or not. If they feel like cleaning house, they do; if they don't, they don't. If they feel like being kind and loving, they are; and if they don't feel like it, they are grumpy and selfish. Anyone who lives according to feelings is sowing seeds for destruction. We will always have feelings, but we must learn not to bow down to them and obey them. Our souls tell us what we want, what we think, and what we feel, not what G.o.d wants, thinks, and feels. It is very important for us to learn to divide soul and spirit, and only the Word of G.o.d can teach us how to do that (see Hebrews 4:12).

It is very important for us to learn to divide soul and spirit, and only the Word of G.o.d can teach us how to do that.

The Bible says G.o.d has set before us life and death, the blessings and the curses; therefore, choose life, that you and your descendants may live (see Deuteronomy 30:19). It is like a multiple-choice test with the answers right in front of us. Set before us is: (a) life (b) death. Choose life. We don't even have to try to figure this one out. G.o.d gave us the answer, but there are mult.i.tudes of people still failing that test every day. I encourage you to choose life!

CHAPTER 40.

Just Obey Many non-Christians don't really understand the Gospel. This isn't a new thing unique to our day. When Paul wrote to the Corinthians, he pointed out that the Greeks in his day thought it was foolish (see 1 Corinthians 2:14), and to the natural mind, it is. G.o.d sent Jesus, the sinless One, to earth for the express purpose of dying for wicked, sinful people. To unbelievers, that is foolish. The natural man cannot understand the power of the Gospel-it can only be "spiritually discerned."

This is just as true in daily living. Sometimes G.o.d speaks to us, and if we try to explain it to people who don't know Jesus, it doesn't make sense. For example, I remember one couple who went to Africa as missionaries. They had no denomination or large church behind them providing support. They sold everything they owned, including their wedding rings.

"Your wedding rings?" a skeptical relative asked. "You mean G.o.d wouldn't provide for you, so you had to do it yourself?"

The wife smiled. "No, I think we had to decide if comfort and having things like everyone else was more important than serving Jesus." The couple never doubted they were doing the right thing, but it never made sense to the skeptical relative.

It is difficult for many people to hear G.o.d speak and to obey without question. But Jesus did just that-and not only on the cross. John 4 relates the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well. What most modern readers don't get is the introduction to the story: "It was necessary for Him to go through Samaria" (v. 4). Jesus had been in Jerusalem, and He wanted to go north to Galilee. The country of the Samaritans was in between, but Jesus didn't have to take the route pa.s.sing that way. He could have taken another route and avoided going through Samaria. Most Jews avoided going through Samaria because they hated the Samaritans for mixing and marrying with people from other nations.

But Jesus went, even though it wasn't what we would have called the normal or reasonable thing to do. He went because there was a woman-and eventually a whole village-who needed to hear the message only He could deliver.

The natural people-those whose minds have not been enlightened by the Holy Spirit-scoff at us. What we do doesn't always seem logical to them. But then, who says our actions have to be logical? The Bible tells us the natural or carnal mind doesn't understand spiritual things (see 1 Corinthians 2:14). Too often, we push aside thoughts, saying, "This doesn't make any sense," and we actually ignore divine guidance. It's true, of course, the devil can flood our minds with wild thoughts that we do need to ignore, but if we pray and open ourselves to the Spirit, we soon know the difference.

Consider the story of Peter who fished all night and caught nothing. Jesus, a carpenter, came along and told him, a professional fisherman, "Put out into the deep [water], and lower your nets for a haul" (Luke 5:4).

Peter reasoned with Jesus, reminding Him they worked all night and caught nothing. But to his credit, Peter, exhausted from a long and unsuccessful night's work, heard the Lord. I'll emphasize it again: Peter heard the Lord and said, "But on the ground of Your word, I will lower the nets [again]" (v. 5). And Peter was not disappointed. They caught so many fish the nets almost broke.

This is an important principle of obedience we must grasp: obeying instead of reasoning, or as one of my friends calls it, "The Nevertheless Principle." She says sometimes she feels G.o.d leading her to do things that don't always make a lot of sense. When she hears herself expressing that sentiment, she quickly adds, "Nevertheless." Then she obeys. That is really all G.o.d asks of us: to obey instead of reasoning against something He is telling us to do. The best policy is to check with your spirit and see if you have peace rather than checking with your mind to see if what G.o.d is asking is reasonable.