Meditate – percolate (1)

Meditating in Scripture is one of the best ways we can grow spiritually. In Psalm 1, David wrote, ‘In His law he meditates day and night’ (Psalm 1:2 NKJV). But meditation can seem a daunting task. We might imagine super-religious people spending hours on end sitting perfectly still with serious faces as they think serious thoughts. Or we might think of incredibly clever people who come up with some brilliant new insight every time they take a moment to reflect. Neither of those pictures is particularly inviting – how on earth could we compare? We admire the people who can do it, but we come to the conclusion that He certainly hasn’t called us or given us the skills to do it. Or we think meditation is a discipline that needs hours of uninterrupted time, and time is the one thing we don’t have to spare. So we end up living busy but spiritually barren lives. Some people might think that meditation is a fine thing, but there are too many other areas of spiritual growth and character development to work on first. The main problem is that we don’t understand what it means to meditate, or the rich benefits it will give us. A spoon of instant coffee is okay if you just want the basic taste of coffee. But if you want more – if you want to enjoy the flavours of the coffee in all their richness – you have to let it percolate. So, we could paraphrase the Scripture this way: ‘In His law he percolates day and night.’ That’s the idea Paul was trying to get across: ‘Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom.’ Today, enjoy the aroma, taste the flavour, and experience the strength.