Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION R. NIV R Copywrite c 1973,1978, 1984International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

   First Step

  The first thing to understand in regards to meditation is that it is not something you are unaccustomed to; you do it all the time. So to begin biblical meditation what you are going to do is transfer ways of thinking you are already using in accustomed areas of your life to areas where you have never thought this way before. What we are all familiar with are the times when we have had an unsolvable lingering problem or an unsatisfied strong desire for something. Things such as these dominate our thinking for interminable periods of time. Now just imagine the word of God to be in your mind instead of what normally occupies your attention, and you will have a good notion of what biblical meditation is. The difference is the object you are viewing, not the process with which you view it, and this is why I say that meditation is nothing new to you.

  The next thing wrongly assumed in regards to meditation is that your learned approaches to the word of God are the last resort as far as gaining any benefit from the word. This often means if understanding is not  immediately forthcoming, the tendency is to move on to something new with the assumption that what you missed was irrelevant. Such an assumption is false since nothing in the Bible is without relevance. Even worse is that in reality you are hardening your heart to the Lord, acclamating yourself to an approach to the word that will reap minimal value from it when compared to what actually could be learned. This means a change of heart or repentance is in order for you to be ready for biblical meditation.

I know of no better way to show how this change of heart comes about than to speak of biblical meditation as hearing the voice of  God both indirectly thru His physical creation and directly in  His written word, the Bible. And don't think I'm exaggerating. If you do, one of the biggest blessings of your life may blow right over your head. Any of you who believe God is not speaking, unfortunately are listening to another voice. God is always speaking, but sadly you and I are not  always listening.