Sometimes I’m amazed at the chasm that stands between my morning quiet time and the rest of the day. You know what I mean? At times, there seems such a huge breach between Scripture and the real world.
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Drinking deeply of the Word of God in the early morning hours, I express in prayer my love for the Lord, His Word, and His church. It’s all good.
But then I leave the house.
Mind the Gap
It doesn’t take long for the day to begin jerking at my coat, pulling, tugging, and trying to drag my heart away from all I believe and am firmly convinced of. It’s like God is on the far rim of the Grand Canyon.
Sometimes the real world seems to have such a disconnect from our quiet time:
- The demands of caring for a home
- The drive to work with crazy commuters (often with fish symbols on their bumpers)
- The pressures of a world of deadlines and little thanks
- The tremendous financial obligations of raising a family
It’s tough to put our finger on why the chasm exists at all.
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Your Quiet Time and Your Crazy Life
Part of the reason the chasm stands there comes because we often define our spiritual lives by our emotional lives. If we feel good about our day, then we see ourselves as spiritual. But it’s not necessarily that way.
- Emotions are a great gift from God. But the Lord never intended them to serve as our guide.
- Neither are our feelings are a barometer of our faith. We can feel one thing but believe something else entirely.
The problem, of course, is our actions often follow our feelings—not our faith. We respond to the tug on our sleeves from the world. We hear the loud demands of our day rather than the truth we affirmed during our quiet time.
How can we close that gap?
Meditation: Think About It
The best way to bridge the gap and retain the truth of our morning quiet time throughout the day comes through meditation.
- Biblical meditation has nothing to do with the emptying of our minds—the meaningless effort of New Age gurus.
- Instead, godly meditation seeks to fill our minds with truth—and renew our minds.
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Meditation allows you to take the Word of God with you all throughout the day. It emblazons the pages of Scripture in the folds of your brain. Here’s how:
- Find truth. During your quiet time, pray for and look for one single truth you can meditate on throughout the day. Just one.
- Write truth. Write that truth in your journal, along with the verse that supports it.
- Think about truth. Set up memory triggers to remind you to think about this truth throughout the day. This could be a watch that beeps on the hour or an appointment on your calendar. You could even ask Siri to remind you.
Determine to think about that one truth literally all day long. This is meditation—and it will transform your thinking and your life.
Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. —Philippians 4:8
Every Day for the Rest of Your Life
When you feel the pull toward the other side of the Grand Canyon, it’s time to meditate on truth again. Meditation requires a continual effort to develop the habit of thinking biblically all day long. Filter everything through the truth you know:
- Your motives
- Your thoughts
- Your temptations
- Your words
- Your reactions
- How you interpret someone else’s actions or words
Filter all these things through the truths of the Scriptures and not your feelings and your emotions. Filtering through your feelings causes you to act in ways you’ll regret.
The ultimate goal of meditation is the renewal of the mind. It closes the broad chasm between your quiet time and your crazy life.
Tell me what you think: How has meditation helped you? To leave a comment, just click here.