What is Biblical Meditation?

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person in hat sitting against a tree at sunset reading Bible

When talking about biblical meditation, I have found that there is a lot of conflicting information on the Internet.

I have a lot of content regarding biblical meditation that I share here at A Little R & R, and how it differs from Eastern meditation, but my concern is that as I have followed other Christian content creators, there is little-to-no distinction.

There are those who sell meditation audio files with background music…

There are those who sell breathing technique programs….

There are those who even encourage mixing Eastern meditation poses with meditating on Scripture.

The conflict is in our understanding of what biblical meditation is and why the Bible instructs us to meditate.

To understand what biblical meditation is, let’s first do away with what it is not:

Biblical meditation is not:

A relaxation technique
A means of reinforcing positive thinking
A way to empty ourselves of stress and pressure

Any time we approach a biblical discipline with pagan ideas and methods, we will not only fail to experience God’s blessing, we offend God.

God is deeply offended when we try to fulfill His commands in pagan ways.

We need look no further than 2 Samuel 6, when David attempted to move the Ark of the Covenant back to Jerusalem by carrying it on a cart pulled by oxen.

God had already given Moses instructions for how to transport the Ark.

But David chose to transport the Ark the way the pagans had, not considering how it would offend God by not following His careful instructions.

God cares how we worship Him. We don’t worship Him in our own way, we must worship Him in the way He commands.

It resulted in the death of Uzzah.

Mixing God’s commands with pagan methods and rituals results in death every time. Maybe not physical death, but it will result in spiritual death.

What is Biblical Meditation?

Now that we’ve defined what biblical meditation is not, let us examine what it is and the power it brings to our life.

Biblical meditation is the act of taking the Word of God that we’ve hidden in our heart, and pondering on it.

The Hebrew word for meditate is “Haga” which means to mutter, to speak to oneself.

As we meditate on God’s Word, we take a verse at a time and speak it over and over to ourselves, either out loud or in our mind, and then examine every word.

As we examine each word, we might look it up in the Greek or Hebrew for further meaning.

Then we ask ourselves, “How does this verse apply to me and my life right now? How can I begin applying this verse in my life.”

A Warning and Caution:

There are Christians online right now who are teaching that you cannot apply every verse in the Bible to your life.

They want us to believe that there are verses and portions of the Bible that were meant for that time in history only.

For example, they will say that we cannot apply Jeremiah 29:11 to our life.

They teach that because it was a prophecy to God’s people who were taken captive by Babylon; that it was spoken to a group of people and therefore cannot be applied to our lives individually.

Dear sister, God’s Word transcends time, culture, and situations!

We can take God’s Word and apply it to our specific situation now, 6,000, 4,000, 2,000 years later. Because it is living and powerful!

God gave us His Word to speak to us; not to just instruct us in how things used to be back then.

If it doesn’t speak to me individually today, in my present situation, to my current circumstance, then I’m not listening well enough!

Do not put a lid on God’s Word!

The Best Time of Day to Meditate

You can meditate on God’s Word anytime and anywhere.

That is the beauty of biblical meditation. You can meditate in your car driving, you can meditate at the bank waiting in line, you can meditate sitting in carline waiting to pick up your kids.

But there is one time of day that is extra-powerful for biblical meditation, and that is as you are falling asleep.

For many, this is a difficult time of day, because our minds begin to rehearse all of our failures and dumb things we’ve done all day.

When we make the choice to replace our negative thinking as we fall asleep with biblical meditation, we will see our entire lives transform radically.

As we meditate on scripture while falling asleep, God’s Word is able to go deep into our subconscious and dig out all of the trauma, insecure thinking, wrong habits, hurts, disappointments, and feelings of failure that have accumulated and grown hard deep inside….

break it all up, and clean it out.

At first, we may begin to experience so weird dreams and nightmares, as all of the junk inside that has festered is being cleansed, but give it time.

God is doing His Work.

Our spirits never sleep, so as we meditate on Scripture while falling asleep, we give the Holy Spirit an open door to go deep down where no psychiatrist and no psychologist can go, and do His miraculous and deep work.

I want to encourage you to begin taking God’s Word, hide it in your heart and meditate on it day and night, and watch as it transforms your life.