I will meditate on Your precepts, and contemplate Your ways. Psalms 119:15 (NKJV)
Meditation is one of the most powerful ways to encourage yourself!
Everyone meditates, although few do it on purpose. Without even realizing it, we often meditate on the future. Biblical meditation is different. It’s about picturing the future—filled with God’s promises—in your mind. Memory looks back into your past, but the type of meditation I’m talking about looks ahead into your future.
Television, books and social media often feed us our content for meditation. For example, maybe you’re struggling with a job situation and you start focusing on newscasts about the poor economy, or while watching documentaries on cancer, you begin to fear you’ll become one of the statistics they’re quoting. You have mentally moved into your future and are meditating on the worst possible scenario.
Worrying is negative meditation. It causes you to think about the future and picture scenes of defeat. As you continue meditating like that, you start giving into what you might think is reasonable. But consider this: reasonable people always fit themselves to their surroundings. They don’t bring change; they accept the negative. But unreasonable people push against the status quo. Their faith in God’s grace flows out of them and changes everything!
I’m not saying it’s unreasonable to watch shows on different topics or watch the news, but don’t meditate on it. Be informed, but also recognize that you are blessed and are an overcomer.
We need to decide what to focus on. Do you spend time in the Word of God daily, encouraging yourself in what He says about your future?