Meditation, Joshua 1:8&9

 We live in a world that values responding more than thinking. Social media, video games, and smart phones push information at us in an alarming rate. Our natural response when things are thrown at us is to catch them, to respond. We value action movie heroes and sports figures who can make split second decisions under pressure. In our scripture today we find that God tells Joshua to take time to think, time to meditate on God’s word.

Joshua is told to take time throughout the day and night to think about God’s Word and be careful to live according to all that is written in it. Then he is given the promise of prosperity and success. The word meditate is used directly about 20 times in the Psalms. We find people in the Bible meditating from Abraham, the prophets like Daniel, the apostle John who described it as being in the Spirit, and even Jesus made a regular habit of going off alone.

Meditation gets a bad rap because when you use the word meditate we think of people trying to empty their mind. We conger up visions of people sitting cross-legged on a mountain top chanting ummmm.

The meditation we find in the Bible is not emptying your mind but filling your mind. Filling your mind with God’s word and reflecting on it. This time of meditation has a purpose, “that we would be careful to do according to all that is written in it. “

For Bob the most valuable parts of his day was the drive to and from work. At the start of his trip he listened to Greg Lorrie on the radio then shut it off and used the rest of the drive to think. Before the day came upon him with all its pressures, he had some time to think about God’s Word. On the way home was a time to reflect and decompress, 45 minutes to think about how God wanted him to handle things.

 

1.      The push to respond

a.      Heroes

b.      Information push

c.       Natural to catch

2.      Joshua is told to meditate

a.      Ideas of meditation

b.      Biblical meditation

c.       20 times in Psalms

d.      Abraham, prophets like Daniel

e.      Jesus went to quit places

f.        John and Peter describe times of being the Spirit

3.      Meditation

a.      Bob

b.      In your reading and in your study take time to reflect

c.       What is this about? What can I do with it?

4.      James 1:19-27 for 7 minutes.

5.      14 minutes a day

a.      7 minutes to read

b.      7 minutes to reflect

6.      God’s promise

a.      To Joshua

b.      To you

The challenge: 14 minutes a day for God. You will be amazed how it could change your life.