All of the successful people we read about in the Bible had a habit of meditating on God’s Word. They knew that it was the way to keep their minds renewed to God’s ways. To meditate simply means to roll over and over in your mind, to mutter softly or speak out loud. We all do know how to meditate but we often apply the principle in harmful areas. I can easily meditate all day long on my problems or something someone did that hurt me. I can actually do it without even trying, but I can also choose to meditate on something else that will benefit me and be pleasing to God. Meditation is actually very powerful. I like to look at meditating on God’s word as chewing my food. If I swallow my food whole, then I don’t get the nutrition that is in it and it does me virtually no good with the exception that I might get a stomachache. If I skim over God’s Word or just hear a weekly sermon in church, it is like swallowing it whole, but never getting the good things out of it that God wants me to have. The word of God actually has inherent power in it and I believe that power is best released as we think on it over and over.
A friend of mine that I will call Pete shared an experience from his own life that I believe makes this point very clearly. He shared that he had had a lifelong problem with lusting after other women in his thoughts. This was especially painful to him because he is a minister and knew that the principles he taught and believed in should be working in his own life. He had shared this with his wife for accountability and although they prayed about it diligently he found no relief. This of course greatly grieved Pete because he did not want to think these wrong thoughts, but no matter how hard he tried he could not seem to stop. If he saw a pretty woman, his mind would imagine all sorts of things that were unclean and inappropriate. After many years of absolute agony over this problem, his health began to fail and through the difficult circumstances he encountered he sought God in a deeper way than ever before in his life. God showed him several things that were helpful, but the one that was the most important concerned forming a habit of meditating on God’s Word. My friend had no idea that this would solve his lifelong problem with lustful thoughts, but in obedience to God he began with a Scripture about loving others. We are called to freedom; our freedom should not be an excuse for selfishness, but we should serve one another out of love (see Galatians 5:13).
He meditated on this portion of Scripture diligently, thinking about it often throughout the day. This continued for several days and then he had an occasion to be at the swimming pool at the hotel where he was staying. He wanted to go to the pool with his family but actually dreaded it because he knew that he was likely to see women in bathing suits and feared that his mind would more than likely be filled with the same lustful thoughts he had fought for years. He did indeed see a very beautiful woman and she was dressed in a very scanty and extremely revealing bikini, but Pete surprisingly discovered that his first thoughts were, “I wonder if this woman dresses like this because she has never had anyone to genuinely love her, and I wonder if she has ever known the unconditional love of God?” He began praying for her much to his surprise and was delighted to realize that he was not even tempted to think lustful thoughts. I might add that this amazing victory has continued from that time until the present. Pete has continued his journey of meditating daily on portions of Scripture and has found it to be totally life-changing for him.
Although he is a minister and was educated in God’s Word, he was not getting the power out of it that was available to him because he had not developed a habit of meditating on it. I pray that Pete’s story will be fuel for the journey you have ahead of you. These simple, yet powerful, thoughts are keys to victory in the mental battle that we fight in life, and they will bring an amazing dimension of power to you. They have absolutely transformed my life, and I believe they will do the same for you. But remember, you have to meditate on them, which means to think them on purpose!
The Power Of Love
Books on leadership often appear on best-seller lists. Most of them tell how to become a powerful and effective leader. But Henri Nouwen’s book In the Name of Jesus: Reflections on Christian Leadership is written from a different perspective. The former university professor who spent many years serving in a community of developmentally disabled adults says: “The question is not: How many people take you seriously? How much are you going to accomplish? Can you show some results? But: Are you in love with Jesus? . . . In our world of loneliness and despair, there is an enormous need for men and women who know the heart of God, a heart that forgives, that cares, that reaches out and wants to heal.”
John wrote, “In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the [atoning sacrifice] for our sins” (1 John 4:9-10).
“The Christian leader of the future,” writes Nouwen, “is the one who truly knows the heart of God as it has become flesh . . . in Jesus.” In Him, we discover and experience God’s unconditional, unlimited love.
Father, please show the wonder of Your great love through me to others today so that they might know they need not walk through life alone. Let my heart personally experience and display Your care.
God’s love in our heart gives us a heart for others.
Insight
John, who referred to himself as “the disciple [Jesus] loved” (John 13:23; 19:26; 20:2; 21:7), wrote his gospel to show how God is his great love, how God gave us His Son to die for our sins, and how Jesus came to give us abundant life (3:16-18; 10:10; 17:3). This new life is to be characterized by love (13:34-35). John wrote 1 John to show believers how to put love into action. In today’s passage, he reiterated the primacy and priority of the Christian to love. The person who lacks love shows that he does not really know God nor is in close fellowship with Him, “for God is love” (vv.7-8). In this letter, John reminds us once again of how much God loves us (vv.9-10).
Read: 1 John 4:7-10
In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the [atoning sacrifice] for our sins. —1 John 4:10
Bible in a Year:
