What does this mean

[HSmomto4]

What does it mean if someone asks you to meditate on a scripture verse? In a bible study I am doing with my daughters it ask them to meditate on 1 Corinthians 13:4-6 and then has a list of questions for them. Does this just mean think about it or should a warning flag be going up?

[CelticMist]

Go in silence, praying to the Father.. and listen to His voice through the Holy Spirit.... seek His ways, His will, and His meaning of a passge.

[Final Trumpet]

My thoughts are to "meditate on scriptures" was to think about them and how they relate to the rest of God's Word and how they apply to it and to apply them to your life. Also to 'hide them in your heart so that you might not sin against Him'. All with the Holy Spirit's help.

However, as we know, meditation is common in eastern and new age mysticism. I do believe it is alot different though. The ideas of those things are to focus on a word or phrase and empty your mind only to it and essentially push yourself to an altered state of conciousness. This of course is completely different to what I believe meditating on God's Word is. However, someone that is a little more knowledgeable in this area might be able to clarify more or tell me I have it wrong.

[Munkh]

What does it mean if someone asks you to meditate on a scripture verse? In a bible study I am doing with my daughters it ask them to meditate on 1 Corinthians 13:4-6 and then has a list of questions for them. Does this just mean think about it or should a warning flag be going up?


Joshua 1:8 (King James Version)
King James Version (KJV)
Public Domain



8This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success

We are told in this and a few other verses to meditate on Gods word. The difference between meditating on the word and the eastern meditation is biblically it means to think about, fill your mind with, dwell on, pray over the word. to basically ingrain it in your mind just as Paul tells us to set out minds on things above not on earthly things.

Eastern Meditation is to empty your mind of all thought and self until something else takes over or fills it and you are "enlightened" ring any bells

In other words fill your mind with Gods word and think on it continually or empty your mind and allow demons\unclean spirits to fill it.

So if you are being asked to meditate on a verse it is scriptural to do so.

[Stinker]

Think about them, let them run through your mind.

ask questions to yourself, mull them over.

Wonder how they apply to you and your walk with Christ.

[antsinmypants]

Traditionally, to "meditate" on Scripture day and night, means that you think of it and how it applies to you, as well as actually memorizing it.

Because the Scriptures were not widely available, people had the entire Scriptures memorized by their adulthood, and some (within Judaism) by age 12. If you were great at memorizing Scripture, you'd be accepted into a Beit Midrash or Yeshiva to learn Oral Tradition as well... which is what it means by the disciples being 'unlearned' is that they basically were 'flunk outs' or folks who dropped out from the Beit Midrash and knew Scripture, but didn't learn the tradition outside of what was done in their own homes and communities.


For me, Meditiation means just that - Study, understand... memorize and figure out how it is applicable to you

[Jesse]

What does it mean if someone asks you to meditate on a scripture verse? In a bible study I am doing with my daughters it ask them to meditate on 1 Corinthians 13:4-6 and then has a list of questions for them. Does this just mean think about it or should a warning flag be going up?

Eastern meditation is an emptying of the mind...but in stark contrast to that, the meditation which the Bible encourages means to think deeply about something. I am not sure which one of these types of meditation are being encouraged in the Bible study that you mentioned, but if it is just encouraging people to think deeply about a passage of scripture rather than eastern style of meditation, then I don't believe that there is a problem with that. That is the kind of meditation which the Bible encourages.

[Sing4Him]

Eastern meditation is an emptying of the mind:thumb

empty in order to be filled, solitude, silence, mantras, "vain repetitions", centering,

see sticky in here on Contemplative terms and also the sticky called Spiritual Disciplines and Formation