God made our hearts burn for Him in Christ. Though our affections rise and fall, and our zeal is hotter on some days than on others, coldness is not the heritage of the Christian. We are the ones who walk the road to Emmaus; our souls burn when Christ, again and again, opens the Scriptures that speak of Him (Lk 24:32). We belong to the fellowship of burning hearts.
Yet we also know what it feels like when the fire goes out, when coldness settles over a heart that was once on fire. Some of us feel this way most mornings. Like unattended campfires, our hearts grow cold overnight. We wake up in ashes, needing the Spirit to blow on us again.
What do we do when our hearts grow cold? Many ancient Christians, being burning and burning lamps themselves, would advise us not only to read the Word of God, not only to pray the Word of God, but also to slow down, take a deep breath and to meditate in the Word of God.
What is meditation?
Common forms of meditation today require people to sit or kneel for a set amount of time, paying attention to breathing in and out. The mind is involved, but not active in any specific way. However, Biblical meditation requires thought and feeling, more than posture and breathing. Even more important, Biblical meditation does not focus on our breathing but on God’s: we surrender ourselves, with rigorous reflection, to his exhaled Word, until our hearts begin to warm.
Tim Keller, summarizing John Owen, offers a concise and helpful description of meditation:
“Meditation is process a truth and then Apply that truth until his ideas become “big” and “sweet,” moving, and until the reality of God is felt in the heart” (p.154).
Keller’s description finds classic expression in Psalm 1, the quintessential Scripture passage on meditation. here the psalmist processes the truth, filling his mind with “the law of the Lord” instead of “the counsel of the wicked” (Ps 1:1-2). He thinks and thinks, at specific times and also “by day and by night” (Ps 1:2), and focuses his energies on understanding God’s revealed truth.
Also apply the truth, making it very personal in his soul until the Scriptures become the sap that runs through each member (Ps 1:3). He not only understands the Word of God, but also enjoys it: “in the law of the Lord is his delight» (Ps 1:2). The truth has become big and sweet to him, displacing the alternative pleasures that threaten him on all sides (Ps 1:1).
Finally, having indicted the truth in your mind and applying it in his heart, the truth manifests in his life, setting him on a path of spiritual prosperity that is the prelude to a happy judgment day (Ps 1:4-6). No wonder he is “blessed” (Ps 1:1), happy beyond measure in the God who speaks such wondrous words.
Why meditate?
Psalm 1 has already given us several reasons to meditate: Meditation warms and delights our hearts (Ps 1:2). Meditation protects us from the fate of the wicked (Ps 1:1, 5). Meditation makes us strong and fruitful like trees fed by rivers (Ps 1:3). The first verse of the next psalm, however, offers another compelling reason.
Biblical meditation requires thought and feeling, more than posture and breathing
Psalm 2, which records the futile fury of unbelievers against God’s anointed king, begins: “Why do nations rage, and peoples plot vain things?” (Ps 2:1). As Derek Kidner observes, it is surprising that the Hebrew word for hatch here is the same as for to meditate in Psalm 1:2. The blessed man meditates; so do the wicked nations and everyone else. We will meditate one way or another. If we don’t do it based on God’s words, then we will take the words supplied by our flesh, the world, or the devil.
In a world like ours, pious meditation is a form of resistance, a recovery and renewal of a mind that once rebelled against God. Kidner writes of Psalm 1: “In verse 1, the mind was the first bastion to be defended and is treated as the key to the whole man…Everything that really shapes a man’s thought shapes his life” (). In other words: it captivates the mind, it captivates the man.
How do we meditate?
So how can we meditate in practice? What steps could we take, with God’s help, to process its truth and apply it in such a way that we are formed by the words of God instead of the words of man?
Consider the following simple approach: prepare your mind and heart, pause and meditate, make it personal. To these we could also add the brief (but necessary) introduction to choosing a place and time, as part of your daily Bible reading. Although meditation is not just a separate act, but a lifestyle (“day and night”), the lifestyle develops from regular (even daily) uninterrupted moments of focused meditation. Some may find these moments rare, but those who make the necessary sacrifices, even for brief periods of meditation, will find benefits more than enough to outweigh their losses.
Having chosen our place and our time, we are ready to prepare our minds and hearts.
1. Prepare your mind and heart
John Owen describes a family experience in meditation: “I began by thinking of God, of his love and grace in Christ Jesus, of my duty to him; And in a few minutes, where am I now? I reached the ends of the earth” (, Vol. 7). Meditations on God’s love can quickly turn into meditations on lunch, chores, or emails. So part of our preparation is to expect difficulties.
Meditation requires spiritual resolve, the kind that says, “I will meditate on Your precepts, and I will consider Your ways” (Ps 119:15). The psalmist fixed his mind’s eye on the Word of God, refusing to look at shiny objects on the periphery. He captured his attention, barred the doors against distractions and pushed out intrusive thoughts. When he found his mind wandering, his gaze drifting away, he didn’t give up or turn away, but instead seized the wanderer and readjusted his gaze.
Mature meditators learn not to faint at the first distracting temptation (or tenth).
More than that, he gold. Past and present experiences revealed his insufficiency for meditation. So he pleaded: “Open my eyes,” “Enliven me,” “Make me understand,” “Grant me,” “Widen my heart,” “Make me walk,” “Incline my heart,” “Return my eyes,” and so on ( Ps 119:18, 25, 27, 29, 32, 35-37). Those who attempt prayerless meditation reject not only Saul’s armor, but David’s sling as well: unarmed, they fight alone against the Goliath of distraction.
Mature meditators learn not to faint at the first distracting temptation (or tenth) and also learn not to rely on their determination alone.
2. Pause and reflect
Meditation and reading the Bible are not the same activity. If reading the Bible puts us under the stars, meditation places our eye on the telescope and invites us to study Orion or Sirius. Meditation begins when we stop on a particular glory and begin to reflect. Perhaps the glory stopped us right in the middle of our Bible reading, or perhaps we return to it once we have finished a passage; either way, we started process the specific glory: to seek, examine, observe, understand.
Process a truth can take various forms. If we just finished Psalm 1 and want to meditate on the first part of verse 2 (“In the law of the Lord is his delight”), we could, for example, write the verse slowly. Perhaps we could read the verse several times, each time emphasizing a different word: “In the law of the Lord is his delight“, “In the law of the Lord is his delight…». We might also force ourselves to ask questions: How is “the law of the Lord” related to “the counsel of the wicked” in verse 1? Why does the psalmist say that he delights in law of the Lord more than in the Mister same?
Don’t be afraid to speak out loud. the word for to meditate carries the idea of speaking; this is the reason why translators sometimes translate it as speaking, uttering, or murmuring (Ps 35:28; 37:30; Is 8:19). That is why God also says to Joshua: “This book of the law will not depart from from your mouthbut you shall meditate on it day and night” (Jos 1:8). So also try to speak the Word of God, which can help you focus your attention.
3. Make it very personal
Some may be tempted to stop here. But process a truth is only a part of meditation, because a heart that understands the Word of God may still feel cold before it; you can experience light, but no heat. So after process a truth, the we applymaking it personal in our hearts.
“Preaching to Yourself” may already sound like a well-worn app to you. But despite our familiarity with the idea, I wonder if the practice has been tried enough, or if it has been tried for a short time and then dropped. Either way, one of the most powerful methods of making God’s truth personal is by proclaiming it until you understand it. As Richard Baxter writes: “Imitate the most powerful preacher he has ever heard” ().
Meditation is not only for ardent and zealous Christians, but also for those who know they are not.
How often do you stand at the pulpit of your soul during your devotions? How often do you take a truth in hand and play the role of prophet or psalmist, not for someone else but for yourself? How often do you rebuke your unbelief, declare God’s firm truth to your fluctuating feelings, and strive to preach fire to your cold heart?
«I will meditate»
Meditation is not only for ardent and zealous Christians, but also for those who know they are not. Meditation is for those who, like the author of Psalm 119, can say, “I have gone astray like a lost sheep” (Ps 119:176), whether for a day, a week, or a month.
The same wandering psalmist says four times to God and to himself, “I will meditate” (Ps 119:15, 27, 48, 78). I will meditate because I know my heart needs warmth. I will meditate because I know that I stray easily. I will meditate because I need to see his glory. I will meditate for only He can revive my delight.
Blessed—happy!—are those who say the same (Ps 1:1-2).
Originally posted on . Translated by…