Cultivating a Heart of PeaceSample

Meditate on God’s Word Day and Night

Yesterday, we examined how the practices of solitude and silence create space for God to cultivate peace in our hearts. In the quiet place, alone with Jesus, we can find healing from the heavy burden of worry, fear, and doubt.

Today, we will consider another practice from the Way of Jesus that the Holy Spirit often uses to transform us into people characterized by peace: Meditation on God's Word.

The world would have us believe that through meditation, you and I can achieve inner peace. In practice, we are encouraged to carve out space in the quiet to be alone with ourselves, not God. Away from the noise of daily life, we are encouraged to empty our minds to allow the inner peace deep within ourselves to come to the surface. This flawed way of thinking regarding practicing meditation exposes two failure points we covered earlier in this reading plan.

Lie #1: Finding inner peace is accomplished by looking deep within yourself.

Truth #1: Jesus alone is the sole source of peace in our lives.

Lie #2: The human mind can find inner peace through increased control and habit formation.

Truth #2: Peace is found as we posture our lives in complete surrender to Jesus and His Kingdom.

On the contrary, Scripture has much to say about meditation. Here are two examples from the Psalms.

"Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or take the path that sinners tread, or sit in the seat of scoffers; but their delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law they meditate day and night." (Psalms‬ ‭1‬:‭1‬-‭2‬ ‭NRSV‬‬)

"I will meditate on your precepts, and fix my eyes on your ways. I will delight in your statutes; I will not forget your word." ‭‭(Psalms‬ ‭119‬:‭15‬-‭16‬ ‭NRSV‬‬)

Meditating on God's Word means immersing oneself in Scripture so that His Ways, His Kingdom, and His Truth take deep root in one's soul.

On one hand, meditating on Scripture might look like carving out larger windows of uninterrupted time to slowly read through one of the Apostle Paul's letters or several chapters from one of the Gospels. Here, we are not reading to check off a box on our to-do list; we are reading to be transformed by the Holy Spirit from the inside out.

On the other hand, meditating on God's Word might also involve marinating on just one or two verses for several days. How delightful it would be to meditate on the twenty-third Psalm for days, even weeks, one verse at a time.

In time, the Word of God begins to occupy more and more space in our minds, leaving less and less room for worry, fear, and doubt to thrive.