I Think He Thinks Meditation is Important

Part of my reading for my spiritual transformation class this week is from Donald Whitney‘s book Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life. Chapter 3 is about Bible “intake” for the purpose of godliness. I also had to read about “learning” as a purpose toward godliness.

There are 15 pages about learning as a spiritual discipline. There are about 10 pages of why Bible memorization is important. Then there are 40 pages about the benefits and methods of meditating on God‘s word! He gives 17 different methods (!!!) for meditating on God‘s word.

I think Whitney thinks meditation is pretty important. #understatement

I did appreciate his reclaiming the word “meditation” for Christianity, and not just for some New Age yoga transcendental meditation craziness. He says about Biblical meditation

“The kind of meditation encouraged in the Bible differs from other kinds of meditation in several ways. While some advocate a kind of meditation in which you do your best to empty your mind, Christian meditation involves filling your mind with God and his truth. For some, meditation is an attempt to achieve complete mental passivity, but typical meditation requires constructive mental activity.”