The Reward of Meditation

“O how I love Your law!
It is my meditation all the day.
Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies,
For they are ever mine.
I have more insight than all my teachers,
For Your testimonies are my meditation.
I understand more than the aged,
Because I have observed Your precepts.” Psalm 119:97-100

He won three gold medals in the 1994 Winter Olympics. Johann Olav Koss’ remarkable feat was the result of a minimum of six hours training per day, a devotion even his competitors admired. Koss captured the gold and the hearts of his countrymen because he knew that hard work paid dividends. The innumerable hours of solitary rigors would eventually be rewarded.

Meditation is a deficient discipline in most because they fail to see future benefits. It is viewed in a strangely passive light, though it calls for active engagement of mind and spirit. Meditation is the training ground for wisdom and insight. The progressive intake of Scripture, combined with sensitivity to the Holy Spirit, renews the mind, priming it for godly decisions in tough matters.

Meditation sifts the heart. Problem areas, sins that perhaps we didn’t even know lurked within, are surfaced through the work of the Holy Spirit. This may be painful; but when accompanied by true repentance, it liberates us to live holy, pure lives. Meditation accelerates obedience. God speaks quietly to our hearts so we can obey and reap the rewards.

Listen and let God cull the chaff. Wait patiently and obey His prompting. The rewards are bountiful.