Meditation
Meditation
Meditation
The definition, nature, and kinds of meditation
“While I was musing the fire burned,” David said (Ps. 39:3). The word meditate or muse means to “think on” or to “reflect.” It also means “to murmur, to mutter, to make sound with the mouth…. It implies what we express by one talking to himself.” A person who practices...
Meditation
The Obstacles of Meditation
Here is a summary of their responses to such obstacles: Obstacle 1: Unfitness or ignorance. Such say they cannot confine their thoughts to a particular subject. Their “thoughts are light and feathery, tossed to and fro.” Answer: Disability, ignorance, and wandering thoughts offer no exemption from duty. Your “loss of...
Meditation
We engage in meditation
One practical dimension of growing in Christ is meditation. This does not mean emptying your mind of rational thought by repeating a syllable or contemplating a conundrum, such as “What is the sound of one hand clapping?” In Christian meditation, your mind hovers over a biblical truth like a bee...
Meditation
The Benefits of Meditation
The Puritans devoted scores of pages to the benefits, excellence, usefulness, advantages, or improvements of meditation. Here are some of those benefits: Meditation helps us focus on the triune God, to love and to enjoy Him in all His persons (1 John 4:8)—intellectually, spiritually, aesthetically. Meditation helps increase knowledge of...
Meditation
Deliberate and Occasional Meditation
The Puritans got it right. So they spent at least a period of time every day in what they called deliberate meditation – where they would deliberately get along with God. They go through an eight step process where they would: first read scripture, memorize something, they then meditated on...
Meditation
Meditation on Heaven
For the Puritans, probably the most important theme for meditation was heaven—the place where God is supremely known and worshiped and enjoyed, where Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father, and where the saints rejoice as they are transcribed from glory to glory. “Meditation is the life...
Meditation
Christian Meditation
Spiritual growth is intended to be part of the Christian life of believers. [This booklet is adapted from Joel R. Beeke, “The Puritan Practice of Meditation,” in Joel R. Beeke and Mark Jones, A Puritan Theology: Doctrine for Life (Grand Rapids: Reformation Heritage Books, 2012), 889–907.] Peter exhorts believers to...
Meditation
God’s Alphabet for Life
Young children, Do you know that you own something that is priceless? This treasure that you own is worth more than all of the clothes, food, and toys that you have. It is more valuable than the home where you live. In fact, it is worth more than the whole...
