Devo: The Meditation of Our Mind

The Bible has a great deal to say about our thoughts, but, you may have noticed, modern churches often have very little to say about them. But the Bible has so much to say about our thoughts because they're vital in setting the course of our life.

A.W. Tozer had this to say:

What we think about when we are free to think about whatever we will (is) what we are or will soon become. ~ A.W. Tozer

Our voluntary thoughts not only reveal what we are; they predict what we will become. Other than our basic instincts, all conscious behavior is preceded by our thoughts. The will can become a servant of the thoughts, and to a large degree even our emotions follow our thinking. We commonly say “the more I think about it the madder I get.” Thinking stirs feeling and feeling triggers action. ~ A.W. Tozer

At the very center of the Christian way of life is a very specific conception of “the will”: Christians reject the notion that we’re merely creatures of base instinct, though we certainly recognize that we do have such instincts, and instead, believe that we also possess a “will” by which we can direct the course of our life even over our basest of instincts.

So we should understand that “will” and “thoughts” are not the same: we can think and say things that do not reflect our inward will; we can be trained to give answers to questions that don’t reflect what we inwardly believe and desire. Because these “learned responses” do not reflect our true will, they do not possess the capacity to direct our life. Instead, it's those thoughts that reflect, shape, and stir both our beliefs and desires that have the power to direct the course of our life.

Put simply, our “will” is where our beliefs and desires shape the choices we make.

So our thoughts are important because they have the capacity to reflect, to shape, and to stir our wills. We can lead our wills by the thoughts that occupy our mind when those thoughts begin to change our beliefs and inspire our desires. As we are renewed by God, our thoughts begin to reflect the new life that God is working in us, which, in turn, begin to shape our prayers to God. The meditations of our mind are where the hidden treasures of the new creation that God is working in us are drawn out and shaped. And these meditations of our renewed mind fill our prayers with the renewed life that we have been given by the Holy Spirit!

Again I want to simplify this: as God renews our will, our thoughts begin to reflect the transformation of our will, causing our prayer life to be consumed with the renewed meditations of our mind!

Meditation is the practice where we draw out our beliefs and desires to reflect, shape, and inspire our will by the will of God. When Christians fail to practice meditation, much of our beliefs and desires remain concealed within our wills. We are then surprised when we make choices that do not agree with what we thought we believed.

Have you ever surprised yourself like this?

I remember one time I surprised myself like this and it rattled me to my core: I lost my temper at someone - only time in my life I've done this - and I saw rage in myself that I did not know existed towards this person. You see, I had learned all the right answers in Bible class about how I was supposed to feel towards this person, but I had never taken the time to draw out my own will to reflect on the genuine reality of my will; I had never taken the time to draw out my will so that it could be shaped and inspired by the new life that the Holy Spirit was working into me. So the thoughts I had learned in Bible class did not reflect my true will.

In Christian meditation, God’s word is the light by which we are able to draw out the deepest recesses of our heart so that we can then lift these things to him in prayer.

Now let me pause here to say that everyone meditates: sometimes we call our meditations “day-dreaming”, or simply “dreaming”, and sometimes we think of them as “ambitions” or even as “our passions”. But everyone meditates. Our meditations - call them what you wish - are the things that occupy our thoughts, reflect who we really are (or who we’re becoming), and shape the choices we make in life. And the light of such meditations is what illuminates these kinds of thoughts.

I want to put this in plain language: the light that illuminates the thoughts that occupy your mind is what shapes and inspires your will.

This is why I begin diagnosing spiritual stagnation by asking what most occupies our mind and inspires our hearts. Someone whose mind is little occupied with God can never hope to pray much or experience the riches of intimate fellowship with the Holy Spirit. Far too often we settle on learning “right answers” when we ought to press on into believing and enjoying God’s truth! But this is nothing compared to the devastating effect our tendency to always scroll through social media has on our spiritual life. God has little room in our thoughts because these things always occupy our minds!

We said a moment ago that “in Christian meditation, God’s word is the light by which we are able to draw out the deepest recesses of our heart”, so I want to take a moment to explain the difference between “study” and “meditation”: study involves asking specific types of questions to the text, reading background information, cross-referencing to other passages, defining meaning, searching out insights, and so forth; meditation involves time contemplating God’s word and using it to draw out, stir up, and shape one’s beliefs and desires. Although study richly informs the meditations of our mind, meditation is a separate practice that requires time and solitude.

Thomas Brooks, who was a seventeenth-century puritan, wrote this:

Remember that it is not hasty reading but serious meditation on holy and heavenly truths, that makes them prove sweet and profitable to the soul. It is not the mere touching of the flower by the bee that gathers honey, but her abiding for a time on the flower that draws out the sweet. It is not he that reads most but he that meditates most that will prove to be the choicest, sweetest, wisest and strongest Christian.

The focus of Christian meditation is on God, His glory and majesty, His ways and works in the world. And its intended effect is to shape one’s inner life and align one’s outward behavior with the things that have shaped one’s inner life.

Theologian J.I. Packer describes it this way:

Meditation is the activity of calling to mind, and thinking over, and dwelling on, and applying to oneself, the various things that one knows about the works and ways and purposes and promises of God… It is an activity of holy thought, consciously performed in the presence of God, under the eye of God, by the help of God, as a means of communion with God.

And this is why the meditations of the mind are so vital to our prayer life: meditation calls to mind, contemplates, develops, and dwells on the things of God, which inspires and enriches our prayer life with the many glories of God!

So now there are two lessons to attend to from Scripture:

Psalm 119:97 CSB

97 How I love your instruction! It is my meditation all day long.

Christian meditation is not a practice of route duty. You will not find any commands requiring you to meditate for any number of hours. Christian meditation is observed as a practice of love for fellowship with God.

So let’s draw a few lessons out from this text:

God’s instruction is the basis of Christian meditation.

Love for God’s instruction is the manner of Christian meditation.

Christian meditation is continual.

So this means that, just as we talked about last week in “the whole life prays”, we are meant to actively meditate throughout the day.

Philippians 4:8–9 CSB

8 Finally brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable—if there is any moral excellence and if there is anything praiseworthy—dwell on these things. 9 Do what you have learned and received and heard from me, and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.

The content of Christian meditation is centered upon those things that are morally and spiritually excellent; these are the things that compose Christian thought. And I think it’s notable that “doing” follows “thinking”; our minds are to be centered on exalted things, which we then put into practice.

Notably, all the terms in these verses are found in the Greek versions of the Old Testament, meaning that Paul hasn’t simply borrowed these from secular moralists, but has drawn them out from God’s word.

“True” (alēthē) has the sense of something that is valid, reliable, and honest — the opposite of false; it characterizes God (Rom 3:4) and, therefore, should also characterize believers.

“Honorable” (semna) has the sense of things that are worthy of respect, and is used throughout the New Testament to describe church leadership (1 Tim 3:8, 11; Tit 2:2).

“Just” (dikaia) carries the sense of what is upright or just, conformable to God’s standards and, therefore, worthy of his approval.

“Pure” (hagna) emphasizes moral purity and includes in some contexts the more restricted sense of “chaste.”

“Lovely” (prosphilē) carries the sense of what is pleasing, agreeable, or amiable, and was used in the LXX to describe Esther’s apparel when she appeared before the king (Esther 5:1).

“Commendable” (euphēma) denotes what is praiseworthy, attractive, and what rings true to the highest standards.

We should observe that Paul suddenly changes the sentence structure to conditional clauses — “if anything is …” — a rhetorical device that forces the reader to exercise his own discernment and choose what is “excellent” and “praiseworthy”, which suggests that Paul wants us to expand the meditations of our mind to include all moral and spiritual excellence!

When we continually center our minds on such thoughts as these, then we will live like Christians.

Extra Notes:

This definition illustrates the great difference between Eastern meditation and biblical meditation. As Peter Toon says,

The simplest way to highlight the difference is to say that for the one meditation is an inner journey to find the center of one’s being, while for the other it is the concentration of the mind/heart upon an external Revelation. For the one revelation/insight/illumination occurs when the inmost self (which is also the ultimate Self, the one final Reality) is reached by the journey into the soul, while for the other it comes as a result of encounter with God in and through his objective Revelation to which Holy Scripture witnesses.2

Eastern meditation, whether Transcendental Meditation or various forms of New Age meditation, is to be avoided. But biblical meditation should not be feared. On the contrary, it should be fully embraced as a valuable means of knowing God, growing in grace, being transformed into Christlikeness, and fulfilling God’s purposes for our lives.