I remember the first time I witnessed a Buddhist chanting service. I was in Thailand, years ago, and was kind of freaked out by the way the hypnotic rhythm got in my head. A few years later I was at a Muslim house meeting and once again heard that dance of voices, this time reciting one of the five pillars of Islam. After a little more travel I’ve learned that meditation is a part of every major religion. Even today, in secularist circles you will see people looking at themselves in the mirror and saying, “You sure are good looking! You are successful!”

Meditation may show itself in different forms, but some breed of it lives in every major belief system.

Even Christianity.

You may not know it, but because Christianity finds its roots in Judaism, we too are called to meditate. We, however, are told to meditate on scripture, not in an attempt to open our minds to the spiritual world. That’s what prayer is for. I DO NOT recommend Eastern style meditation at all, as I’ve witnessed a few folks who lost themselves completely to whatever they opened their minds to.

As I told a girl in India. ”No, don’t let just anything in. There are some things you don’t want inside of you. I don’t care what your Guru is telling you.”

Meditating on God’s word is one of the keys to success and prosperity in the Bible. It is the spiritual equivelent to storing up grain for the winter, so when the day of trouble comes we have a reserve of the Word to fall into, instead of wiggin out and running to someone else for help all the time.

Mediation in Scripture

 Psalms 1

Blessed is the man
Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,
Nor stands in the path of sinners,
Nor sits in the seat of the scornful;
² But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
And in His law he meditates day and night.
³ He shall be like a tree
Planted by the rivers of water,
That brings forth its fruit in its season,
Whose leaf also shall not wither;
And whatever he does shall prosper.

Joshua 1:8

This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.

But what does that mean?

Don’t worry, you don’t have to shave your head and wear orange… unless you just want to.

The word meditate in the bible means “to moan, utter, muse, mutter, meditate, devise, plot and speak.” Scriptural meditation is the process of taking the Word of God from the page of the Bible, carrying through the complicated maze of your mind, until it gets deeply planted in your heart.

Listen, this process is simple. It’s not complicated. The hard part and the key is consistency. Below, I’ve come up with three steps to guide you in this process. If you follow these steps you will see a change in your life.

But, as said… the key is consistency.

1) INPUT

Before you can moan, mutter or muse on something you have to get it in your head. This is where you READ YOUR BIBLE. As you read, perhaps a scripture pops out. If so, there you go – that’s your scripture to meditate on.

Maybe you are going through some problems. If so, search Google for scriptures about that. Maybe you want to store up scripture on health, or finances, or business success. Find scriptures on that.

Read the word and pick one or two scriptures (in context) to begin with. Highlight or write them down.

2) PROCESS

Think of this step as chewing (like the cow you are… just kidding) Once you get the word in your head it’s time to break it apart, word by word. Ponder each word separately, asking yourself at each stop, “What does this mean?”

Say the scripture to yourself, over and over and over.

Here’s an example…

“The Lord is my shepherd…”

The… Who? THE Lord. There is only one.

The Lord…. The only ruler over everything. Lord – master.

The Lord is…. Not was. IS. He is alive and present today, in my life.

The Lord is my… This is for me! Not just ancient special people with sheep.

The Lord is my shepherd… What does a shepherd do? He leads me to provision. He protects me from harm. He cares for my wounds. He knows me by name.

“The one and only Lord and master over the entire world is my personal shepherd who leads me to provision and protects me from harm and cares for my wounds. He knows me by name.”

As you think on each word, muttering the scripture with your mouth over and over again, that word will begin to go from your eyes, to your mind, then into your heart.

Another helpful tool is to listen to scripture being read. That helps too.

3) REPEAT, REPEAT, REPEAT

Return to step one and repeat, again and again and again and again…

Read the scripture, process it by muttering the word, breaking it down in your mind, speaking it out loud to yourself, until you get a new understanding.

Do this daily, throughout each day. Once you’ve meditated on a scripture for a while move on to a different one.

That’s it! 

Really. That’s all there is to it. Keep the scripture bouncing from mind to mouth all day long. Before long you will KNOW it by heart, and when you KNOW it by heart then, as Ephesians 3:20 says, God can do exceedingly abundantly, above all you ask or think, but it is according to the power at work within you.

God’s word is God’s power. So get it in you! Meditate on the Word of God!