It is my feeling we cover our lack of discipline with many excuses, the above mentioned being some of them. While I admit that opening ones mind to just any old thing would be like leaving the back door open at your open. Soon a cat or a raccoon or a skunk will find its way into an apparent welcoming situation. Satan too looks for opportunity to invade our minds.
With that said I should warn the reader against hypnosis and yoga type meditations. Even some martial arts experts need meditation to allow the 'energy' to come up through their body and give them hyper strength. Be warned about freely granting such opportunity to evil. It will take advantage.
By the same token good and wholesome meditation is important and vital, especially when we are talking about meditation on uplifting and educational reading material or the Word of God. Charles Spurgeon, the great preacher said, "He is not the best student who reads the most books, but who meditates upon them." Truly we find rest for our souls when we stop to just rest and think quietly about the scripture.
David of old said, "As for me, I will meditate upon thy statutes." How long has it been since you let the pendulum of your soul swing to a complete stop while you took in the deepest meaning of a single passage of scripture? If its been a while, then slow down...and listen to your heart...listen to God. Most of the time God whispers. If that is true then you will have to be still to hear. Try meditating in God's Word for ten minutes everyday.
Be blessed,
Pastor T
1 comment:
Hey Tim.
After reading your blog, I dug up an old book called, "Celebration of Discipline".
Recently I've wondered about this topic of meditation =have a friend who's presently doing yoga=, so it was helpful to have an opportunity to weigh and consider some of these things.
A quote from the book that brought a little clarity:
"Eastern meditation is an attempt to empty the mind; Christian meditation is an attempt to empty the mind in order to fill it. The two ideas are radically different. All Eastern forms of meditation stress the need to become detached from the world. There is an emphasis upon losing personhood and individuality and merging with the Cosmic Mind...Detachment is the final goal of Eastern religion...Christian meditation goes far beyond the notion of detachment. There is need for detachment, "sabbath of contemplation" as Peter of Celles, a Benedictine monk of the twelfth century, put it. But we must go on to attachment. The detachment from the confusion all around us is in order to have a richer attachment to God and to other human beings. Christian meditation leads us to the inner wholeness necessary to give ourselves to God freely, and to the spiritual perception necessary to attack social evils. In this sense it is the most practical of all the Disciplines."
Thought you might appreciate reading this.
Karen
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