Jesus said: “I always do what pleases Him who sent me.” (John 8:29) He lived a perfect, sinless life. How did He do this?
And the Spirit Jesus sent us declares: “Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.” (1 John 2:6) Now though we know we can’t stop sinning completely, just how are we to fulfill this “must” in our life, to “live as Jesus did?”
Answer: by daring to feed on every word, not just some of the words, that comes from the mouth of God. Whether it’s a word that is virtually new to me, strange to me, or nearly unpracticed around me. Whether it’s a word I’ve heard before but never truly considered, is a word I’ve considered but thought was only for others, or is a word I’ve deliberately ignored. Somehow, someway each of us must get to the place where we live by every word that God breathes out to us.
Take for example Psalm 1. Who doesn’t love this brief, wonderful psalm that sets the standard and tone for the one hundred and forty nine that follow? Rehearse the first three verses:
Blessed are those who do not walk in step with the wicked, or stand in the way that sinners take, or sit in the company of mockers, but who delight in the law of the LORD and meditate on his law day and night.
They are like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever they do prospers.
Now what specifically did this ancient/current word from God say makes a person “blessed,” enables them to not live like the world of people around them, and makes their life truly beautiful and beneficial to others, akin to the way a healthy, productive fruit tree would bless an Israelite farmer of old? Did you catch it?
In a single word: meditation.
Ask yourself: “How different would my life be if I literally, consistently practiced the heart of this so rarely mentioned passage, to ‘delight in the law of the LORD and meditate on his law day and night’? “
If you did so, this would be a spiritual thing, no? And if you did so, it would come about only because you made it your discipline, true? Ah, and so we have a clear, direct word from God for the disciplined shaping of our life to His glory. And the word is meditation.
And so, just how much Christian teaching have you seen come your way, or you have deliberately sought out on your own, on this matter, meditation? That’s what I thought. It’s past time; way past time. And that is why every Christian should seek to know more about, and come to practice spiritual disciplines.
