As you walk around the neighborhood

As you sit at your desk at work during your lunch break

When you’re driving in your car on the way to wherever

When you’re lying in your bed at night before you go to sleep

What are you meditating on?

Meditating means: contemplating, considering, thinking about, pondering.

The meditations of our hearts are what drives us.

What is your heart thinking about?

What is your heart longing  for?

What drives you.

What are your goals?

What direction are headed in?

In a surface-level conversation I would probably say: I want to be a writer. I want to write books. I want to record music. I want to make videos. I want to

I want to

I want to

I want to

But then my actions say otherwise.

They say: I want to dance. I want to exercise. I want to spend time with friends and those who I love. I want to eat. I want to sleep. I want to rest. I want to do nothing. I want to turn off my brain.

 

“May these words of my mouth

and this meditation of my heart

be pleasing in your sight, LORD,

my Rock and my Redeemer.” Psalm 19:4

 

Pleasing to God. Lots of my thoughts definitely aren’t pleasing to Him. I know this because they’re all about me. They’re all about glorifying myself. How can I get better, look better, be more well-liked. Be more successful.

Don’t get me wrong: success is good. Caring for yourself is good. But not all good goals and things are goals and things I should be pursuing at this time.

God has a post for each of us where he sets us at. He wants us to stay at that post and watch. He wants us to perform the necessary duties at the post. He doesn’t want us to be distracted by whatever the enemy wants to dangle in front of us.

So often we forget about our post and leave it behind, and instead pursue our desires, our temptations. We begin meditating on ourselves and what we want and what we desire and we forgot Who knows better what we need.

God knows that I need to focus on the gifts He’s given me and focus on pouring them out to other people. He also knows that I am easily distracted. He knows what I’m distracted by. He knows my weaknesses. He sees my heart and knows my deepest desires that drive my actions and thoughts and ideas. And He still loves me.

But He gives us a way out: He changes us. He asks us to cry out to Him and ask Him for guidance, direction and help. He is our shepherd, and he calls us by name. He doesn’t want us to get eaten by wolves. He doesn’t want us to fall off a cliff. He doesn’t want us to wander and get lost.

So my prayer for me and my prayer for you is this:

Ask the Lord to help your meditations be pleasing to Him. If you know what you’re contemplating doing or saying or not doing or not saying is not pleasing to Him, ask Him to deliver you from that way of thinking and renew a right spirit within you.

Trust that God is good all the time and only wants what is best for His children. Trust that His boundaries are good and that He wants to protect us from certain things until the right context, the right time. Trust that He’s preparing you for good works, and can and will accomplish within you more than you could ever ask, think or imagine.

Trust Him.

Ask Him to help you want to want Him. Want to need Him. Know that you need Him.

Ask Him to help you know that He satisfies. That He is more than enough.

He is more than enough.

Lord, change the meditations of my heart: get them off my myself. Help me be outwardly focused and not trapped in an inwardly-focused way of thinking.

xxx

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