Psalm 104: Verse 34 (NIV)
May my meditation be pleasing to him,
as I rejoice in the Lord.
Matthew Chapter 5: Verses 28 (NIV)
But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
2 Corinthians Chapter 10: Verse 5 (NIV)
We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
Is it enough to keep our thoughts to ourselves, especially if they are ones that we wouldn’t want anyone else to know? I don’t think so, based on these three verses. The Psalmist prays that his meditation would be pleasing to God. Meditation in its simplest form is simply the things we spend a lot of time thinking about and find ourselves going back to. In his comments on today’s ‘Bible in One Year’ readings, Nicky Gumbel said, “If you know how to worry, you know how to meditate! All you need to do is change what you think about and you will be practising Christian meditation.”
Jesus said that looking at a woman in lust was equivalent to adultery. That’s because of the thoughts going on in that person’s heart. If we keep going over the same things over and over in our minds, there is a danger that it leads on to action, and that’s why Paul told the Corinthian Church that we need to take our thoughts captive.
If we want to make our meditation pleasing to God, we need to turn our thoughts to things that we know are pleasing to him, such as the list of things that Paul gave to the Philippian Church in chapter 4: Verse 8. “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” Surely making our thoughts dwell on such things not only lifts our own spirits, but is indeed pleasing to God.
Dear Lord,
Help me to make more of an effort on the things that I should focus my thoughts on, so I pray like the Psalmist, may my meditation be pleasing to You. I pray in Jesus’ Name. Amen.