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By God’s grace, with the Puritans as mentors, combined with holy resolve, perhaps we can recover the biblical practice of meditation for our time.
Beeke’s Book of the Month for May 2023 is How Can I Practice Christian Meditation? from the Cultivating Biblical Godliness Series by Dr. Joel Beeke. Enjoy this brief excerpt from their introduction to learn why filling our minds and dwelling on truth is essential to Christian growth. (Note: All of the references in this article are properly footnoted in the full text of How Can I Practice Christian Meditation?)
Spiritual growth is intended to be part of the Christian life of believers. Peter exhorts believers to “grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18). True Christians are members of Christ by faith, and partake in His anointing. By Christ’s power they are raised up to a new life and have the Holy Spirit given to them as an earnest, by whose power they “seek the things which are above (Col. 3:1). Spiritual growth is only to be expected, since “it is impossible that those, who are implanted into Christ by a true faith, should not bring forth fruits of thankfulness” (Heidelberg Catechism, Q. 32, 45, 49, 64).
One hindrance to growth among Christians today is our failure to cultivate spiritual knowledge by meditation. We are conscious that we often fail to give enough time to Bible-reading and prayer, but too often we fail to realized that, for the most part, we have abandoned altogether the practice of meditation. How tragic that the very word meditation, once regarded as a core discipline of Christianity and “a crucial preparation for and adjunct to the work of prayer,” is now associated with unbiblical “New Age” spirituality. We rightly criticize those who engage in transcendental meditation and other mind-relaxing exercises because these practices are connected with false religions, such as Buddhism and Hinduism, and have nothing to do with Scripture. Such forms of meditation focus on emptying the mind to become detached from the world and to merge with the so-called Cosmic Mind. There is no living, personal God to attach to, to listen to, and to be active for. Yet, we can learn from such people the importance of quiet reflection and prolonged meditation.
At one time, the Christian church was deeply engaged in biblical meditation, which involved detachment from sin and attachment to God and one’s neighbor. In the Puritan age, numerous ministers preached and wrote on how to meditate. In this booklet, we will sit at the feet of the Puritans, considering what they taught about the nature, duty, manner, subjects, benefits, obstacles, and self-examination of meditation. By God’s grace, with the Puritans as mentors, combined with holy resolve, perhaps we can recover the biblical practice of meditation for our time.
