Biblical meditation begins with taking a verse or two from the Bible and not just reading them but chewing on them. Not literally so if you started chewing on your bible pages stop it now!
It is taking the time to really think about what these words are saying to you. Chewing them up and digesting them and allowing the truths that are there to be used against whatever is causing you fear, depression, anxiety, and or pain.
Now, before I give you an easy example let me just have a brief RANT!!! I hate churches and leaders promoting the “Read through the Bible in a Year” program. I have done it myself at least twice and the only thing it accomplished was for me to be able to boast that I had read my Bible through in one year. It took me some time every day and I scanned my eyes over all the words but learned very little that I needed deep in my soul. If you are doing it and priding yourself for it I want you to stop it. It is time to slow down, focus on just a verse or two and let those truths sink deep into your soul through biblical meditation. (Thanks for allowing me a small rant!)
So, here is an example of how I use biblical meditation. Let’s say I am struggling with being anxious about my finances because of the large amount of debt that I have. (This is not just some fictitious example it is something I have been dealing with for over a year now.) I need a verse of Scripture that will speak truth to those fears so one of the verses I use is this;
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:6-7
I pray my way through that verse like this …
“Abba Father, I am really struggling with anxiety regarding all of the debt that I owe. However, I know that you are my Provider. You have provided for me every single day of my life. Today you are going to provide every breath of air that I need to stay alive. You have always provided what I need and I thank you that you will do so again today. I thank you for what you will provide as I work. Help me to seek first the kingdom of God and Your righteousness and I thank you that all these other things will be provided for me.”
Do you see what I am doing in that prayer? I am taking what the verses in Philippians tells me to do and I am doing it. I am addressing my anxiety and or depression and I am praying specifically about what is troubling me.
However, note this, the passage tells me to do it “with thanksgiving”. Instead of asking Him for more money I am thanking Him that based on the reality that He has always provided and I by faith am believing that He is going to provide. This a prayer of thanksgiving for what He has done and then, by faith, thanking Him for what He will do. BTW – God loves it when we use faith in our prayers.
I hope that example helps and we will do another tomorrow. Also, if having prayed through that passage and meditating on what it says does not bring me peace from the anxiety, then I stay in that place and talk through my specific fears … and I listen to anything His Spirit might want to say to me. It says that “the peace of God” will guard my heart and my mind and I will stay in that time of prayer until I sense His peace.
