Meditation - My Personal Story

In the late ‘70s, barely in my twenties, I was working on a team with Operation Mobilisation (OM) smuggling Bibles into Communist Europe. It was a very formative part of my spiritual life, and I had the privilege of entering many times into a remarkable ‘place apart’ alone with God. I was hungry to learn more about Him and His Word and spent many hours flat on my face seeking Him and reading His Word in my spare time.

One day, I was plodding slowly and praying through Psalm 1. I came across the second verse, and, that of the “blessed man” (in verse 1) it was said:

“… his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. “

The query that entered my head at that point was to lead to a (literally) life-changing experience for me.

I had always known, from my previous studies, that there were 5 approaches to learning God’s Truth, like the fingers of your hand. The thumb represents meditation, because it is the only digit on your hand that can easily touch all the rest! In all the other four approaches to the Word, meditation allows the Spirit of God to ‘bring it home’ to our hearts!

Back to my query. I said to God, “That’s crazy! How can I meditate day and night? If I meditate all the time when do I work and when do I sleep?!?” I was confused.

I had already learned some wonderful teaching from the Navigators about meditating during waking hours, and soon I will be sharing some ways I adopted then and since, but the LORD focussed in on the ‘night’ part of may question for me in His answer.

I had been working in an office prior to joining OM for a short time after leaving Bible College, and the LORD asked me a simple question, “Bryan, why did the staff at that office always discuss that latest episode of the soap opera at the mid-morning tea break on Monday morning?”

I replied, “Because it was the last thing they watched, before going to bed on Sunday night!”

Like a flash it hit me.

Those office workers went to bed consumed with thoughts about the soap opera, and the next time they were awake and relaxed enough was at tea break the next day, and they only talked about the soap opera episode!

I thought to myself, “If I could go to bed thinking about God’s Word, surely in the morning something marvellous would happen”.

And that’s exactly what happened. And I will continue that part of the story very soon, but right now we need to look at the science. Coming up next.