(Ps. 4:4)
God’s Old Covenant people knew a great deal about meditation. He taught them about it when He brought them out of Egypt and said:
… You shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when
you lie down, and when you rise up. And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, like the days of the heavens above the earth.
(Deut. 11:18 – 21)
In my personal Bible studies, I’ve noticed there are several meanings for the Hebrew word translated meditation. One definition of it is “listening to God’s Word.” Another refers to “reflecting on and remembering God’s acts and miracles.” It can also include “rehearsing God’s deeds and laws.”
The word meditation is used in the Bible 48 times, and every case reveals that when a person will emphasize meditation in his/her own personal life, change is imminent.
Why is that?
It’s because meditation produces an encounter with God, and through that encounter, the person is transformed.
Few people understood the transforming power of meditating God’s Word better than King David. He was a great meditator. In Psalms chapter 119, he spoke to the Lord about the benefits of it and said:
Oh, how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day. You, through Your commandments, make me wiser than my enemies; for they are ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers, for Your testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the ancients, because I keep Your precepts. I have restrained my feet from every evil way, that I may keep Your word. I have not departed from Your judgments, for You Yourself have taught me. How sweet are Your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! Through Your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way. (verses 97 – 104)
According to that passage, one of the biggest blessings of meditating the Word is that it separates us from every false way. It brings us into a place in God where His nature so reigns in us that the things of the world don’t even appeal to us.
When we meditate on God and His Word, we don’t have to struggle to get victory over sin. We don’t have to strive to get rid of our fleshly ways. We can simply put them aside because we don’t have any desire to walk in them anymore.
In the light of the Word, the world loses its attraction for us. Our hearts are separated from it and we become more and more attached to Him.
Scripture Reading: Psalm 119:162 – 174
Excerpt permission granted by Lynne Hammond Ministries
On the chilly March night in 1972 when Lynne Hammond took her first step into a life of Spirit-led prayer, she had no idea what was about to happen. All she knew was the hunger in her heart for God wouldn’t let her sleep. In the few short months she’d been born again, her desire to fellowship with Him had grown so strong she could hardly contain it. “Help me, God!” she cried. “I want to know you. I want to be able to talk to you. Please, teach me to pray!”
Suddenly, a heavenly presence flooded the room. Lynne sensed waves of spiritual fire sweeping over her and a beautiful language began to flow like a river from within her. Although she’d never heard of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, she knew instantly, without a doubt—this was God!
What began that night soon blossomed into a life of prayer that ultimately became a ministry of prayer when, in 1980, Lynne and her husband, Mac, founded Living Word Christian Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Under Lynne’s leadership, the prayer ministry at Living Word has become an internationally recognized model for developing effective pray-ers in the local church.
A teacher and an author, Lynne publishes a newsletter called Prayer Notes, has written numerous books, and currently serves as the national prayer director for Daughters for Zion. Her passion for inspiring and leading others into the life of Spirit-led prayer continues to take her around the world to minister to believers whose heart cry, like hers, is “Lord, teach me to pray!”