Meditation - He Walks with Me and Talks with Me

Once a converted, saved, growing, forgiven child of God learns how to see the Bible in a personal light and read all the precious old stories as if they really were written for him, then he is ready to discover the next step. He is ready to learn how he can talk to God and “hear” God’s answer just like all those people in the Bible did.

For Christians, this personal guidance from the Holy Spirit is second in value only to salvation, and Satan knows it. He is in the business of preventing souls from remaining in constant touch with the Father as Jesus was. It really is possible to be so connected. It was one of Jesus’ last requests: “That they may be one, just as We are one.” (John 17:22, italics supplied)

How? There is only one way to the Father, and that is to stow away in Jesus, so that where He goes, you go. One extremely vital part of this abiding life is personal meditation. It’s a way in which you, or any Christian, can go to God for guidance on personal problems or questions that the Bible doesn’t deal with specifically, or just to share the joys and trials of daily life and really hear an answer just for you, just in your own heart.

But this becomes a rather unnerving matter. Isn’t it possible to make up a conversation with God, inventing lines for Him that will feed your own will?

Yes, it is. The child of God who truly wants guidance, will carefully guard herself from such possibilities by making full use of the armor God freely provides. She must become, through patient, prayerful study, firmly grounded in what God has already said in His Word. This means both practicing scriptural meditation and careful, systematic study of the themes and teachings of the Bible. God is never going to give you guidance that disagrees with His already-recorded Word.

You also must not forsake the fellowship of other growing Christians, especially those more experienced in their life with Christ. If you are perplexed or in doubt about something, check it with someone you trust and know to have a vital, experienced relationship with God.

But most of all, trust your Lord. Jesus is more concerned with keeping you from deception than you could ever be and is quite capable of protecting you if you just ask. So always, before any meditation, pray a prayer something like this: “Dear Father, I believe that You love me and want more than anything to guide and bless my life. I know that You have something to say to me today, and I want to hear You and nothing else. Please fill me with the Holy Spirit, as you have promised to do. Forgive my sins, take away my own wishes and desires, my doubts and worries, and protect me also from the devil’s plans to harm me. I claim Your promise of wisdom, found in James 1:5, and the personal guidance You promise in Isaiah 30:21 and John 14:6 and 16:13. Help me to hear only Your message for me and to follow You throughout this day. Thank You for Your love. In Jesus’ name, amen.”

But in spite of all your prayer and preparation, and even though God is beside you and speaking to you, your meditations will still sometimes seem like mere imaginings, a child’s daydreams. Don’t be discouraged. Discouragement in itself is one of the devil’s plans to harm you. Tell God your fears, too, and never give up.

Above all, remember this: “And the kingdom of God is like unto a radio network with a perfect transmitter and a great many very faulty receivers.” No matter how perfect the transmitter (and it is), if I am not also a perfect receiver (and I am not, nor will I be until this world is ended and we are all put back on the same wavelength with God), there will sometimes be misunderstandings.

Never forget that, but don’t let it throw you, either. God will not let you continue in a mistaken understanding as long as you stay tuned in. Keep checking back. Keep yourself conscious of His presence with you every moment of the day. With a humble realization of the frailty of your reception, keep your mind and heart open to Him, and “your ears will hear a word behind you, ‘This is the way, walk in it,’ whenever you turn to the right or to the left.” (Isaiah 30:21) The High King of the universe has said it; never dare to doubt it. And the moment you are sure of His will, obey immediately. Hesitation will give the devil a chance to come up with all kinds of logical reasons why you shouldn’t do it, and you will end up uncertain all over again about what your

Teacher’s will really is.

It is also possible to go to the other extreme. Some have let one subjective experience define their spiritual lives—this despite the counsel of others and to their own eventual calamity.

A man we’ll call Bob was having an affair with the wife of another man we’ll call John. When John, having talked to no avail with his wife, confronted Bob, Bob assured John that he had prayed very much over this matter and that God had told him it was His will for Bob to leave his own wife and take John’s instead! The Bible says, “’The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick.” (Jeremiah 17:9) We all know it will go to any extreme to get its own way. Bob failed to put the Bible first above his own ideas, even ideas he might think he got from prayer and meditation. Some who have taken this route have never accepted correction. “God told me,” they insist. Let’s repeat it again: God will not set aside His revealed Word, least of all His own law, to suit you! We must keep a balance.