Part V: Developing Spiritual Discipline

     Think about this!  Does a successful bank robber just start robbing banks?  Does the person who has the courage to climb Mt. Everest just wake up one day and do it?  No!  They spend years thinking and practicing such activity, until they master that which they desire to accomplish.  The more they give themselves to such thought patterns, the more strongly their souls become reinforced to be able to successfully do such activities.  

     We have underestimated the power of meditation.  Whether for good or bad, we are molded in our personality and conduct by what we continually think upon.  This is the very reason meditation is so important.   

     The first step in meditation is memorization.  The author Dennis Burke says,

  “Some Eastern religions teach that meditation is allowing your mind to become completely blank and empty, but that is far from true biblical meditation.  To meditate is to fill your thoughts with the thoughts of God, to be consumed with the things God has said.  When you become consumed with what He has said, it becomes effortless to do the things He said to do.”

     If we want to have true success, then we must see life from God’s perspective.  This is what God was saying to Joshua.  Joshua was confronted with enemies all around, but as He meditated upon what God said, he found the faith, power and wisdom to fulfill God’s word.  God said that they were to conquer the land.  If God said it, then He was providing the grace to accomplish the task; they just had to align their hearts with God’s desires. 

     We must memorize God’s word!  Faith to overcome is granted only as we hear God’s word and become so consumed with what He says that nothing can stop us.  Memorization is hiding the word of God in our hearts, so that when the need arises, we will see every situation from God’s perspective.  We will speak His word, not our fears, insecurities and selfish desires.  This is what Paul was saying to the Colossians, when he told them to set their minds on heavenly things.  He wasn’t telling them to spend time staring into empty space, but to look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of their faith.  He was telling them to come into agreement with their Great High Priest by renewing their minds to His word. 

     This brings us to the next step of meditation, which is confession.  In addition to memorization the word meditate means to confess.  We must learn to discipline ourselves to say what God’s word says.  So many believers have learned to believe their circumstances instead of believing the word of God.  

     The Greek word for confession is homologia and it means to say the same as.  It is coming into agreement with the High Priest of our confession (Hebrews 3:10).  This is not to be a mechanical recitation, but a growing relationship with the word of God.  Our faith will grow as we learn to say what God’s word says about our circumstances and us.  The word of God gives us many great promises that we must embrace with our whole hearts and confess with our mouths.  As we do this, we will walk in a greater reality of Christ in us.  Faith is learning how to allow Christ to fully live in us.  It is a day-by-day walk of continually communicating and abiding in Him, through His words to us.  

     This brings us to the last step of meditation, which is application.  Memorizing the word of God and confessing the word of God, feeds the inner man, so that we can be doers of the word.  All successful athletes have daily programs of food and exercise.  As a disciple, we must have a daily program to take in the spiritual nutrients we need for running.  The end result should be a demonstration of the word in us. 

     Jesus said that a disciple is one who bears fruit (John 15:8).  Fruit is something that others will be able to taste.  Our lives are not about what we know, but about what we do.  The word of God must take such deep root in our hearts that we literally become a reflection of His word.  Our lives may be the only Bible anyone ever reads. 

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