Meditation in the Word will change you! There is simply no such thing as a believer who meditates in the Word not changing. Ten to fifteen minutes a day of meditation in the Word of God can overcome years of wrong thinking and believing.
As I mentioned yesterday, meditation takes the Word from your surface thought life down into the very recesses of what you think and believe! You meditate two ways: by speaking the word slowly out loud, and by cogitating it over and over mentally, thinking about every Word in a verse of scripture. This applies the Word in a practical way to your life and lifestyle!
When I first came back to the Lord and was filled with the Holy Spirit, I began the practice of taking a few minutes throughout my day for meditating. I meditated on being a new creature in Christ and what that means (2 Corinthians 5:17); on being the righteousness of God in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:21); on having no condemnation between me and the Lord (Romans 8:1); on being loved by the Father (John 16:27, John 17:23); on Jesus taking my sicknesses and diseases the same time He took my sins (Psalm 103:1-3; Isaiah 53: 3-5; Matthew 8:17, 1 Peter 2:24); on the Father providing for all my needs (Matthew 6:33; Phil. 4:19); on being free from fear (2 Timothy 1:7); on the value and power of my words (Matthew 12: 34-37; James 3: 1-6; on my authority in Christ over demonic forces (Colossians 2:15; Colossians 1:13; Ephesians 1: 17-2:6).
Boy did my life change! Over a period of time, fears that had ruled me lifelong began to fade away like a snowball in sunshine! And in their place, faith rose in my heart!
Then God begin to show me a different level of knowing Him. I began to see character issues in a way I never had before. I begin to see how the fear of others had driven me into isolating myself from intimacy. From really letting others know what I’m like. I began to see how perfectionism, being an obsessive and compulsive person, had ruled me and my relationships with those close to me. I began to see how using accomplishment as a means of being pleased with myself and as a tool to get others to affirm me had ruled my life.
Meditation in the Word began to rip these false beliefs from the core of who I was. Confidence in being loved and fully accepted by the Father completed replaced the fear that dominated my relationships with God and others. Knowing that the Father cares and knowing that He rules me has set me free from the never having arrived attitude and feeling that perfectionism brings. Knowing that as I act on His Word God honors His Word in my life and brings it to pass has liberated me from the obsessive compulsive desire to have everything just right. Now, I live as unto the Lord, seeking to simply to honor Him and His Word.
Life is rich, peaceful, and enriching when you have a values system that agrees with what the Father’s values.
Take time to meditate in the Word today. Find scriptures that deal with the problem areas of your life and begin to let them revolve on the inside of you. Go back to the scriptures I listed in the earlier paragraph. Type them out. Make a list of them. Then, every day, take a few minutes to meditate on them. Give it some time. Twenty one to twenty eight days begins the formation of new habits. IF you’ll be honest with yourself, allowing the Lord to show you the areas that need changing, and then if you’ll meditate in the Word that addresses these areas, you’ll change.
Start today! For your convenience I’ve listed the scriptures I mentioned earlier along with a few others. Copy and paste them to a place where you can read them out loud and meditate on them. Your life will change!
2 Corinthians 5:17 – Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
2 Corinthians 5:21 – For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Romans 8:1 – There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
John 16:27 – For the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from God.
John 17:23 – I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.
Psalm 103:1-3- Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless His holy name! (2) Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits: (3) Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases.
Isaiah 53:3-5 – He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. and we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. (4) Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. (5) But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.
Matthew 8:17 – That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying: “He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses.”
Acts 10:38 – How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.
1 Peter 2:24 – Who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed.
Matthew 6:33 – But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
Philippians 4:19 – And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
2 Timothy 1:7 – For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
Matthew 12:33-37 – Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or else make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for a tree is known by its fruit. (34) Brood of vipers! How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. (35) A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things. (36) But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. (37) For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”
James 3:1-4 – My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment. (2) For we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body. (3) Indeed, we put bits in horses’ mouths that they may obey us, and we turn their whole body. (4) Look also at ships: although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires.
Proverbs 18:20-21 – A man’s stomach shall be satisfied from the fruit of his mouth; from the produce of his lips he shall be filled. (21) Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.
Colossians 1:13 – He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love.
Ephesians 2:5-6 – But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, (5) even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), (6) and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
Luke 10:19 – Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.