Transformative Meditation: Engaging with God's Word Daily

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God says if we will do it he will guarantee us success in everything that we do not just the thought life I'm just gonna illustrate it in the area of the thought life tonight but God talks about this in every area of our life and he says this in Joshua 1:8 this book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth but thou shalt meditate therein day and night. [00:00:00]

David in Psalm 1 said the same thing how happy is the man that walks not in the counsel of the ungodly you know what that means that means when you're in trouble you don't go to some ungodly person for your advice back to proverbs says confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble is like a broken tooth or a foot out of joint. [00:00:53]

But his delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law doth he meditate day and night and he shall be like a tree planted by rivers of water that bringeth forth his fruit in his season his leaf also shall not wither and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper but the ungodly are not so. [00:05:27]

When you lie down when you rise up when you sit in your house when you walk in the way when's that all the time bless you because that's what I thought it's all the time see he made four statements and then we just symbol that means all the time so I thought no wonder I have such terrible thoughts in my thought life. [00:12:32]

I was in college at the time and I played college football and I decided I'm just gonna keep my mind on God all day long well I made it through my classes fine didn't hear a word my professor said just kept my mind on God some of you aren't even meditating in your class and you don't hear a word she says right we're sleeping or something else. [00:13:30]

The only way this would work for me is if I became a monk but I'm not the monk type I've always liked girls and I go away and I say you know this whole thing is so theoretically it won't work but now let's back up a minute when you lie down when's that you go to bed at night when you rise up you get up in the morning. [00:17:12]

It's the times during the day when you don't necessarily have anything important to think about so I wanted to prove whether this was right or not and I got 10 sophomore guys together 20 I mean it was 20 of us and I went in a blackboard and I drew a circle on the blackboard and I made a mark on the circle this is when you go to bed at night. [00:17:48]

Music do you know that God's solution is music God's solution is music why would God solution be music here's what I did I took my three favorite hymns at the time and when lust or temptation would start into my mind and by the way when that starts into your mind is that sin no it's a temptation was Jesus tempted sure he was tempted it wasn't sin. [00:24:06]

You know you can't sing how great thou art to God and think about some impure thought about another person you have to either stop singing and then go on and think about it or by the time that you have sung through that what does music involve your mind or your emotions both it involves both and what happens is that God takes your mind and he gets you to focus it on God. [00:25:49]

God's design is that the more you expose yourself to what is right the more sensitive you are to darkness what did God tell Eve not to do don't need to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil when my oldest daughter was nine years old she came to me and she wanted a transistor radio for her they that was the big thing we lived in Chicago. [00:39:23]

Meditation is the spiritual and mental process of digesting scripture so that it actually becomes a living part of my life these are just words in fact this is just ink have you ever read the word and five minutes later you walk away from you can't remember a thing you read oh boy if you've got that short of a memory how in the world are you gonna take something that you read. [00:46:05]

When all kinds of trials and temptations crowd into your lives my brothers don't resent them as intruders but welcome them as friends realize they come to test your faith and to produce and you the quality of endurance and let that process go on until that endurance is fully developed and then you will become a man of mature character with the right sort of independence. [00:52:08]

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