Essentials Of Effective Meditation - Part 1

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Tuesday, November 30th. Biblical meditation is a crucial skill for any follower of Christ. Today, you'll get help developing a lifestyle of dwelling on the truths of Scripture. We find ourselves going through difficulties and trials and troubles in life.

Usually, if we're looking for some word of comfort, where do we turn? We turn to the Psalms. Why do we turn to the Psalms? Because it's very evident that David went through difficulty, hardship and trial in his life in such a fashion that he discovered some things about God, some things that were so overwhelming as he wrote them down. Now, all these thousands of years later, we read what he wrote and we get the most comforting, reassuring feelings.

Why? Because this man knew how to listen to the Father. He knew how to meditate upon God. And while he was out there as a shepherd boy and even later on in his life, he's still meditating, still sitting before the Lord, still listening to God. And so often people say to me, well, what's the most important thing you can do to grow in your Christian life?

And usually they want some big time answer. And it's real simple because you see, I really believe with all of my heart that what really determines how God uses us, the degree to which He uses us is not talent, though that's important, not spiritual gifts though they're all important, not charismatic personality, though that may appear to be important to some people. The real bottom line is our intimate personal relationship with Him.

And so what that does, it brings us all down to the same level at the cross and that is God's ultimate determining factor is our personal relationship with Him. Well, David certainly had that kind of relationship. And if you'll turn to 2 Samuel and you'll recall that in the 7th chapter, the Bible says in verse 1, that came about when the king lived in the house and the Lord had given him rest on every side from all of his enemies. Then he and Nathan had a conversation and talked about several things there. And then the 18th verse of that 8th chapter says, then following this conversation, then David the king went in and sat before the Lord and he said, who am I, O Lord God?

And what is my house that you've brought me this far? And then he begins this time of meditation, thinking upon the Lord and listening to Him. And if you will recall, what David did here are four things primarily. He reviewed his past as a shepherd boy out there and among his family and fighting Goliath and running from Saul and all the things that had been going, all the battles he'd been in, all the wars he'd fought. And then the Bible says that he reflected upon God. He talked about how good and gracious and great God had been to him. And then the third thing he did was he remembered the promises of God and recalled those. And then he made his petition. And that is he made his request to God.

So this is what he's doing sitting before the Lord. Now, in the process of doing this, I think there are several essentials to effective meditation. That's what I want to talk about, the six essentials to effective meditation because listen, until you learn to be quiet before the Lord, you will never be satisfied in your Christian life.

There'll always be something missing. And not only that, you'll never have the effectiveness in your life with other people if you do not learn to meditate upon his word and with him. So I just want to mention these six things primarily. And if you'll notice he says here, then the king went in and sat before the Lord and he said, so he begins to talk to God and share with him what's on his heart. And if you'll think about some of your favorite Psalms that David wrote and how often he must have sat out there under the stars and talked to the Father and listened to him and wrote and as he also sang and played and so forth, God dealt with this man the most unusual way. You recall we mentioned last time that even though he had many faults and failed many times, he's the man about whom God said, now here's a man after my own heart. Not perfect, not sinless, made his mistakes, made big public blunders. And yet God says, here's a man after my own heart.

What was it? It wasn't because of his abilities and talents, though God had given him great courage and given him skill as a fighter, skill as a musician, skill as a leader, all of those things. But what is it that most impressed God about him? He said, here's a man after my own heart. Here's a man who's hungry for me.

Here's a man who wants to know me. And remember this, that God not only judges us and I say judges, I don't mean condemns us, judges us by our actions and our conduct, our behavior, but our intentions, what is our heart's desire. So I want us to look at these essentials and they're very simple, and yet sometimes it's these simple things we overlook and sometimes need to be reminded of them. But I think there are six things primarily that are absolutely essential if you and I are going to grow in our personal relationship to him because you see, our intimate relationship with him ultimately is the thing that determines our effectiveness for him. So if you want to be used effectively for him and you want to grow in your Christian life, there are just some things that God requires, and I think there are six essentials and here they are. Number one, that is a season of time.

You've got to spend time with him if you want to grow like him. It is what we gaze upon most that we become like. It is what we think about most in our minds that most affects us and what we become like. So a season of time, and you'll recall this passage, we've mentioned it before, but it's not only two of Jesus, but of David and others as they meditated upon the Lord. Jesus got up early in the morning, went up to the mountains to pray, to be with the Father. He spent time, and as we think about how busy your schedule and mine is, we think about what we have time for and what we don't have time for, in essence, here's what we're saying. If we don't have time for the Lord Jesus Christ and we don't have time for joy, we don't have time for wisdom, we don't have time for prosperity, his kind of prosperity, we don't have time to grow. If we don't have time for him, it just takes time. And you see, when somebody says to me, well, what can I really do to really grow in the Lord? I mean, just move on with God. Well, there's nothing you can do to move on if you mean grow hurriedly. If you want to move on with God, then take time back here with him not to do anything else but be with him.

It takes time. And you see, it's interesting that Jesus never got in a hurry. Now, the reason he didn't get in a hurry is because, listen, because he had such a relationship with the Father and he spent enough time with him that he had such absolute confidence and assurance of the Father's leadership, he didn't have to get in a hurry. He didn't have to rush around.

And I believe when you and I learn how to meditate, what happens is you can move outwardly, quickly, but at the same time moving slowly in your spirit. And I think you never find Jesus rushed, hurried, or anxious about getting to the next place because he understood how valuable it was to spend time alone with the Father. And so when I think about David, the Bible says he sat before the Lord. Here's the man who sat before the Lord, not after all his battles were over.

He sat before the Lord in the midst of those battles. He learned to sit before the Lord and to rely upon him and to meditate upon him and to think upon him and remember, he didn't have all this to read. When I think about what he had, he just had a few Scriptures. That's all he had.

That's all he had. What was handed down, you and I have it written down. Of all the people in the world who are blessed, we have it written down. We can just take it out and read it. Here's what God says.

It takes time. And so I just want to ask you to be real honest as you think about Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, do you honest and truly have any time that on your schedule you have set aside for God? I can tell you this, I don't care who you are, if you don't set it aside, He won't get it.

If you don't set it aside, He's not going to get it. So I just want to ask you, look at your calendar. Is there any time on there that says meditation or quiet time or prayer time?

Is there anything on there that says that? If there's not, I'm telling you, you're not going to do it. Don't tell me you are. I know you're not going to do it. Because the devil is going to crowd your time. You're not going to have time. You have to set aside time. You have to make time.

You have to set it down. I'm going to do this. If you don't, you won't. And you know what you'll do? You'll fill it up with good times. I remember a few weeks ago, I decided, well this week, here's how much time I just want to be alone with God. I felt the real need of this.

Did you not have to bet the third day? I thought, God, I can't believe how absolutely horribly busy I have been and have not spent that time that I know you laid upon my heart to spend, some of it but not nearly what I agreed to. It's easy. It's easy to let your time get filled up with good things.

And people who are in the ministry, we of all people, if we're not careful, we can have so many good spiritual things going that God whom we serve gets on the periphery out here while we're supposedly doing His work. And I'm here to tell you, if it can happen to us, it can happen to you. If you don't set it aside, it's not going to happen.

I want to say it one more time. If you don't set it aside, it's not going to happen. And if you don't spend time with Him, you're not going to grow. You say, well, I'm moving along, but how are you moving?

You wobble all over the place. But God wants us moving ahead in our spiritual walk, and what He wants is intimacy. And so that takes time. And so I just want to challenge you. You say, well, my vocation is this, that or the other, and I'm so jammed with time.

You know what? I learned a long time ago. Every time I'd get laid out sick, it's like the Lord reminded me, now how much time do you have? You've got all the time you need.

Listen, we do have the time. It's a matter of priority. And you say, well, don't you say that pretty often?

Absolutely. And I'll tell you why, because I know that's the bottom line of the Christian life. And if I don't remind myself often, if I don't remind you often, what happens? We drift if we're not careful. And so I just want to say, the first essential to real meditation and the first essential to real effectiveness is meditation and time with Him. And the first essential is time. Every single one of us have a clock.

And listen, all of our clocks have the same numbers on them, right? It just depends on how much you love God. Do you really want to know Him or we don't want to know Him? If I really want to know Him, I got to spend time with Him. If I don't, I'll fill my time with something else. And is it not true all of us have twenty-four hours in every day and we just have to decide what we're going to do with it?

And I just want to challenge you. When you go home tonight, pull out your calendar and look at it and see who's on there. And see if you have God, prayer, meditation, quiet time, if you have any of those words on your calendar. If you don't, here's what you're saying to God. God, I am so busy, I don't have any time for You. You say, well, when I pray down the expressway this, I'm not talking about that.

I'm talking about when you spend time with Him. Second essential, not only is time, the second essential is stillness. Now listen, you and I know that passage in Psalm four to six, be still and know that I am God. There are some times when if we are not still, we're not going to be able to sense Him. Stillness means I stop everything else.

It's time with stillness. I don't have to, you know, isn't it amazing how many times we try to do more than one time? How many of you watch TV and do something else at the same time? And the commercials, what are you doing? You're reading something else or doing something else or whatever.

It's amazing and I find myself sometimes when I've got one thing going, if I've got a little time, I'll slip this in. I've got two or three things. If I'm on the phone, I may be doing something else or working on a computer and listening to somebody talk. It depends on who it is. And it depends on if I can carry on that conversation and do this at the same time.

Well, that's not good, but that's how hurried we oftentimes find ourselves. Stillness means I'm going to just stop. I don't think Jesus sat up in the mountain and flipped rocks while He was talking to the Father or, you know, broke sticks or, you know, put His thing in the sand, said, Now, fathers, I've been thinking about this and drawing some picture over here. I don't think He did that at all. He knew how to sit still.

And I believe David knew how to sit still. The Scripture says here, He sat before the Lord and He said, Who am I, O Lord God? What is He doing?

He's talking to the Father. You see, when you and I get real still, we can concentrate and think about Him. And we need to think about Him. And this is why it's so important when you listen to a sermon, write something down. So when you get by yourself and you're thinking about God, thinking about the things that you know and sort of reiterating them to Him and reminding Him of them, just being still and being quiet. You know why we can't get too still? Because sometimes we don't like what stillness brings. Sometimes we don't like what stillness brings because some things rise up that we don't want to deal with.

And so as long as we keep active, we don't have to bother them. But we get real still, something happens on the inside. And oftentimes God brings up these issues in our life or things in our life that we particularly don't particularly want to bring up. And on the other hand, when we get still, what happens? Not only are we able to concentrate upon Him, but we get still His goodness, His love, His grace, His kindness, His mercy. And oftentimes when we get still, what does He do? He reminds us of what He's done in our life. He reminds us of His love for us. He reminds us of His promises, just being still. I want to challenge you tonight when you go home or tomorrow, whenever, just sit down and just get still before the Lord or lie down or kneel down or whatever you want to do. And don't do anything, just get still. You see, God can speak to us while we're doing other things, but I wonder what you and I miss that He would like to say if we just get still enough to listen.

And one thing about fasting is fasting sharpens the mind. So the second thing I just simply want to say is stillness. The third one is seclusion. And this is what Jesus really had to fight for in His ministry because He says He would go away in the mountains and you know what, that crowd, they'd follow Him.

And He'd go on the other side of the lake and end up, here they come. So seclusion for Him was a major challenge. Now, by seclusion I mean getting by yourself. You say, I don't like being by myself. Well, if you're going to learn to meditate before the Lord and sit before Him, being by yourself is very important. Now, being with somebody and praying with other people is wonderful. But there's something about being alone with Him when there's nobody there but just you and the Father, you and the Lord Jesus, all alone, being still, unhurried, not checking the clock, not answering the telephone, not wondering what's going on. I wonder how often you and I get quiet before the Lord and we don't let anybody disturb us. Now, if the Lord Jesus walked into your house tonight and He sat down and He said, I want to have a conversation with just the two of us, I wonder if the telephone rang, you would say, oh, excuse me, Jesus, I need to go answer this. Or if somebody knocked on the door, you'd just, no, you wouldn't.

He would have your undivided attention. And you recall when Mary and Martha were entertaining Jesus one day and they had a real problem between them because one of them was in the kitchen carrying on all of his work and the other one was sitting at the feet of Jesus just being quiet and listening. You see, the problem is sometimes we think we are wasting time by just being quiet and being still and being secluded. Now, let me ask you this. Now, don't answer this out loud, of course you wouldn't. Is do you have any place in your house that you can get by yourself and close the door and nobody bother you?

Surely there must be some place. There's something about being alone with God, just like there is something you being alone with your husband or your wife. You don't want somebody around all the time. You know that God doesn't want somebody around you and me all the time? He wants to love us. You know how God loves people? One at a time. One hug at a time.

One word at a time. God doesn't hug in general, He doesn't love groups. He loves us one at a time. He wants our undivided attention, secluded, away, being quiet, being still, just listening to Him. And here's what happens.

We'll talk about this later, what all the consequences of this are, these consequences are. But, you know, one of the most wonderful things about being quiet alone with Him is ultimately there's going to be this awesome kind of peace that nothing else and, listen, nothing else in the world brings the kind of peace that seclusion with Him in stillness, unhurriedly listening, being quiet, just letting Him speak. And so as we talked about how God speaks, one of the problems is we can't listen because we're in too big of a hurry and we're so busy doing this, that, and the other and so forth. And what He wants is stillness. What He wants is seclusion.

He wants to get us by ourselves. So let me ask you a question. When's the last time you got by yourself just to listen to God? Still, just listening, unhurried, no clock, nothing.

Now if we're real honest, is it not true that not many folks spend very much time like that? There's always something to do, but nothing so important as just being quiet before God. I just want to emphasize seclusion by being alone with Him and just listening. Thank you for listening to Essentials of Effective Meditation. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.