Biblical Meditation

What is Biblical Meditation?

What it is not: Not emptying ourselves like eastern meditation. This opens us up to demonic. We discourage our members from doing any other form of meditation such as Yoga as it is not Biblical and can open you up to demonic attack. True Biblical meditation is filling ourselves with His Word and ultimately, His presence. It is meditation on the truths in His Word, His Works, His attributes and even His creation. I will concentrate on meditating on His Word in this sharing.

Psalm 1:2-3 says of the blessed and fruitful person: “But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree
planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper.”

If we learn proper Biblical Meditation we will prosper and mature in the Lord.

Therefore, we need to meditate on His Word. In the Old Testament the word “Law” referred to the whole body of inspired writings they had at that time. Now we have the Bible with 66 books from Genesis to Revelation. To be blessed and prosperous we need to meditate on it day and night in order, as Joshua 1:8 says, to “observe to do according to all that is written in it.”

The Hebrew word used for “meditate” in the OT is “hawgaw” meaning to murmur (speak under the breath) and is used of pondering over and imagining something. The Greek word for “meditate” in the NT is “meletao” which mans to “revolve in the mind”. So, mediation is muttering His Word under our breath and thinking upon it continually.

In the NKJV the only time the word “meditate” is used is in 1 Timothy 4:15 which says, “Meditate on these things; give yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all.” To understand what things Paul is telling Timothy to mediate on you must read the previous two verses which say, ^“Till I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the eldership.”

Therefore, Timothy was to mediate on the Word of God he had read and used to exhort and teach his church and on the words of prophecy spoken over him by the leaders (which would have been according to the Word of God).

The Bible says concerning itself that we are to read it, meditate on it and study it daily. This should be done in this order. I have observed, and I have been guilty of in the past too, that most Christians start with Studying the Word. They have not even properly read the passage in question or deeply thought about it all, but they go to classes or read books or articles that study the context, background and meaning of it. This leads us to being puffed up in the head and not the heart!

It is essential that we have a daily discipline of reading big chunks of his Word, aloud if possible, followed by a daily meditation upon a verse or passage of what we just read. Studying can come later.

Personally, I read 10 chapters of the Bible daily on my iPhone and screen capture one verse or passage that particularly speaks to me from that reading. Then throughout the day I can meditate on it.

I first learnt to meditate on His Word in 1985 when I went on a mission trip to Morocco, North Africa. We travelled by van all the way from England and back. This took days and during our travelling we were given bible verses to meditate on for hours at a time and then share back. The first verse we were given was John 14:14: “If you ask anything in My name, I will do it”. (KJV) The leader said we had three hours to meditate on it! I thought it is such a short verse that a few seconds would suffice. However, I found that even as the three hours ended, the Lord was depositing deep truths into my heart from this verse that remain with me until this day.

To meditate on a verse or passage the first thing to do is memorize it so you can mutter it under your breath and think upon it without having to refer to the written text. Usually I do this by referring to the screen capture of my passage early in the morning and memorize it before going into my daily work.

Then during the day, I can meditate on it, firstly by muttering it over and over under my breath as I am working or in the pauses between work, asking the Holy Spirit to bring understanding and revelation.

I find it helpful to go through the passage word by word and asking simple questions such as “why is this word used?”, “what is this really saying?” or “Holy Spirit, what are you speaking to me through this?”

Going back to John 14:14. The first word is “If”. I remember spending about half an hour on this one word in the van on the way to Morocco, realizing that true asking prayer is conditional. It is a choice. I need to choose to daily ask the Lord in prayer. That realization led me to ask for His forgiveness for having rarely made that choice and I committed myself to seek Him as to what to ask for. Likewise, I took ages meditating on the words “ask” and “anything” and “in My Name” and “I will do it”. I began to piece together a picture of true prayer that is coming in faith to the Father to ask in the character and authority of Jesus Christ, according to His will. It is His strength and power that will provide the answers.

So true biblical meditation will lead to a change in us. The Holy Spirit will highlight issues from the passage that we need to think properly about and change our behaviour so that we are led into greater maturity.

One point to mention is that a good Bible translation should be used so that the passage meditated on is truly reflecting the original meaning of the inspired Word of God. Remember that the Bible was originally written in Hebrew and Aramaic (OT) and Greek (NT). It was in these ancient languages that the actual words and thoughts of God were communicated to us. It is imperative therefore to get a good translation that is as near to the original but still relatively easy to read and understand.

There are two basic branches of translations today, those based on the Majority Texts and those based on the Critical Texts. The Majority Texts are the remaining original language texts that are most numerous, and the Critical texts are those that are the most ancient.  For example, the NKJV is based on the Majority Texts and the NIV is based on the Critical Texts. An easy way to find out which translation type you have is to look up Matthew 17:21. It does not exist in the Critical Texts as their proponents say the translators added it later. However, Majority text proponents say that earlier texts were usually destroyed when the translators made more recent copies to change any errors and the ancient copies found were ones that escaped that destruction but actually contain errors, omissions or additions.

Personally, I still favour the Majority Text translations and that is why I use the NKJV. For example, the NIV translates John 14:14 as: “You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.”. Firstly, it does not highlight the conditional nature of asking prayer and could be taken as you may or may not ask in prayer, it is not really that important. The Critical Text adds “me” after “ask”, which makes Jesus say that we ask Him (that is Jesus) in prayer. However, His other teachings seem to show that we ask the Father in His name (that is in His character and authority) and He will answer by doing it in the power of the Holy Spirit.

The Critical Texts dispute Mark 16:9-20 which talk about the disciples speaking in tongues and moving in the power of the Holy Spirit. They also dispute 1 John 5:7 (or even omit it completely) that is the clearest text on the Trinity in Scripture: “For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one.” Try looking up this verse in your Bible – if it is there uncontested then your translation is based on the Majority Texts, if not it is based on the Critical texts. Also look un Luke 4:4 – NKJV says, “But Jesus answered him, saying, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.’” whereas the NIV chops it down to “Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’”, completely ignoring the way we are to live, which is by the Word of God!

I encourage you to study this topic on the origins of different Bible translations and be fully persuaded yourself as to the best translation and then you can use this for reading and meditation. In studying the Word, it is good to compare multiple translations, but for what I am talking about now, meditation on the word, I recommend, and our church recommends the NKJV.

So, I encourage you to continue reading 10 chapters of the Bible daily. Take one verse each day to meditate on.

1.   Write down or screen capture that verse.

2.   Memorize the verse until you do not need to look at it.

3.   Mutter the verse under your breath over and over for some time.

4.   Go through the verse word by word, thought by thought, asking why that word is used and what the verse is really saying.

5.   Ask the Holy Spirit to Speak to you, showing you things, you need to think or do differently. If you want and are able to you can journal and write down what He says.

6.   Go and do what the Lord has spoken to you in this verse.

You can do this process as you are working and by taking times during the day to sit and ponder more deeply (For example:  As you are sitting on the toilet!). If you are sitting down in a quiet place to meditate start by taking deep breaths and asking for God’s presence to surround You. Then speak out the memorized verse and mutter it under your breath over and over. After a few minutes go through each word with the process I have described. If your break is not that long you can just do one word per break but you can still ponder on it as you are working if you have activities that you don’t need to think too hard about such as repetitive actions.

In fact, go away now and meditate on John 14:14. Find a quiet place to sit down and go through the process I have described to you. If you want, you can contact me with your testimonies of what God speaks to you or does in your life though these times of meditation. I have found, as the Scripture says, as I meditate day and night on His word my soul prospers with greater love, joy, and peace, I gain more of His wisdom and His presence intensifies in my life.