Hello highly favored ones!

The word, “MEDITATE” means to think about OVER AND OVER again, like in Joshua 1:8 (NLT).  It says,

  • Study this Book of Instruction continually.  MEDITATE on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it.  Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do.

The word, “MEDITATE” also means to UTTER, to SPEAK, to IMAGINE, and to STUDY.

Do you know it’s been said that we think over 30,000 thought a day ~ there’s always something playing in our minds?  We need to pay attention to what we’re MEDITATING on.

Really, MEDITATING is the same principle as worrying.  Worrying is simply MEDITATING on the wrong thing ~ you’re using your faith in reverse.

Do you remember when Jesus said in Matthew 6:22 (NKJV),

  • The lamp of the body is the eye.  Therefore if your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light.

Well, our eyes are the entrance to our hearts and minds and they provide a doorway to our souls.  If you’re in a lighted room, you can see everything clearly, but walking around in the darkness results in stumbling, falling, and groping for something to hang on to.  So, if our eyes are good, that will radiate outward from within our hearts and minds.

That’s why Proverbs 4:20-26 (NKJV) gives us these instructions:

  • My son, give attention to My Words; incline your ear to My Sayings.  Do not let them depart from your eyes; keep them in the midst of your heart; For they are life to those who find them, and health to all their flesh.  Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.  Put away from you a deceitful mouth, and put perverse lips far from you.  Let your eyes look straight ahead, and your eyelids look right before you.  Ponder the path of your feet, and let all your ways be established.

Today, more than ever before, there’s doom and gloom all over the news.  If you watch the news too long, you can tend to get depressed and full of worry and fear.  People are panicked!  If you go through the day thinking about how bad it is, wondering how you’re going to make it, you’ll get all stressed out.  So, what should we think about?  Philippians 4:8 (MSG) says,

  • Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and MEDITATING on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious – the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse.

So, if it’s not a good report, don’t dwell on it.  It’s going to poison your spirit.

Let’s take a quick look at Ephesians 4:17-24 (MSG).  It says,

  • And so I insist – and God backs me up on this – that there be no going along with the crowd, the empty-headed, mindless crowd.  They’ve refused for so long to deal with God that they’ve lost touch not only with God but with reality itself.  They can’t think straight anymore.  Feeling no pain, they let themselves go into sexual obsession, addicted to every sort of perversion.  But that’s no life for you.  You learned Christ!  My assumption is that you had paid careful attention to Him, been well instructed in the truth precisely as we have it in Jesus.  Since, then, we do not have the excuse of ignorance; everything – and I do mean everything – connected with that old way of life has to go.  It’s rotten through and through.  Get rid of it!  And then take on an entirely new way of life – a God-fashioned life, a life renewed from the inside and working itself into your conduct as God accurately reproduces His character in you.

I encourage you to look up the promises of God on your iPhone or iPad and think about them.  Study Psalm 91 ~ it’s full of compassion for TODAY!

2 Timothy 2:15 (KJV) says to,

  • STUDY to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that needs not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

There are over 7,000 promises in the Bible.  That’s why 2 Peter 1:3-4 (NKJV) says,

  • His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped  the corruption that is in the world through lust.

As believers, our trust isn’t in uncertain riches, but in the living God, Who richly and ceaselessly provides us with everything for our enjoyment (1 Timothy 6:17).  King David said in Psalm 20:7,

  • Some trust in chariots, some trust in horses, but our trust is in the Name of the Lord, our God.

In our time, we would say, “Some trust in their money, some trust in their job, some trust in what the economists say, but our trust is in the God Who created it all.  Our trust is in Jehovah Jireh, the Lord our provider” (Genesis 22:14).

We are exhorted in Isaiah 26:3,

  • If you will keep your mind fixed on Me, then I will keep you in perfect peace.

The world is doing everything it can to find peace.  Jesus tells us in John 14:27 (NLT),

  • I am leaving you with a gift – peace of mind and heart.  And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give.  So don’t be troubled or afraid.

So, how do we get peace?  Keep your thoughts fixed on Him.  Colossians 3:2 (NIV) says to,

  • Set your minds of things above, not on earthly things.

The Scripture tells us in Isaiah 60:1 (AMP),

  • Arise from the depression that has held you down and arise to new life.

The first place we have to arise is in our thinking.  In Ephesians 4:23 (GWT) it says,

  • You were taught to have a new attitude.

I encourage you to not go through the day thinking about your problems and dwelling on who hurt you.  That’s going to keep you discouraged.  You’ve got to think about yourself the way God sees you.  Jeremiah 29:11 (NLT) says,

  • For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord.  They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.

So, on purpose, MEDITATE ON WHAT GOD SAYS.  When you MEDITATE on GOD’S PROMISES, you will always come out on top.  The bottom line is:  You’re going to become what you believe (Matthew 9:29, The Message).  Get in agreement with God and you will always triumph.

Meditating on God’s Word,

Lisa Gordon

Assistant Pastor

Jesus City Church