Believing vs Asking/Speaking – What the Bible says about ”meditating on the word” 🙏🏾💡

Psalms 1:2; Joshua 1:8; Proverbs 22:17-21; Mark 11:23-34

Psalms 1:2 says “Blessed is the man who delights in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates, day and night”. The common worldly understanding of meditation is that we’re either actively thinking about something or emptying our minds of thought. Biblical meditation is however different: it’s neither about emptying our mind nor simply just thinking. Keep reading, I’ll explain.

• Joshua 1:8 helps us better understand what it means to meditate on God’s word day and night. Basically, meditation means the word of God does not depart from our mouth. Meditating on the word of God means confessing it, speaking it out loud, concerning our life and situations, vocalizing it etc. Job 22:28 – “You will also declare a thing, and it will be established for you; so light will shine on your ways.” 🗣🗣🗣 For more insights on this, read this post.

• Jesus corroborated this and brings it all together. In Mark 11:23-24, Jesus said: “whoever SAYS to this mountain and does NOT DOUBT IN HIS HEART BUT BELIEVES that those things he SAYS will be done, he will have whatever he SAYS! Therefore, whatever things you ASK when you PRAY, BELIEVE that you receive them, and you will have them” i.e. you will receive what you ASK and not just what you believe!!! Basically, believing is not enough! Faith goes beyond believing in your mind.
  • Did you notice that in those verses, Jesus referred 5x to what we speak and only 2x to what we believe? 💡

So yes, believe in your heart, do not doubt, have faith without which we cannot please God. But on evidence of the Bible, we are further required, day and night (i.e. constantly), to go a step further – to speak the words of God, which are life, to our situations; to mix the word of God, His promises, with our petitions/requests.

Unflinching belief, prayers, actions and confessing/declaring the words of God to our situations are the meditation combo. If you believe it enough, you must speak and do it enough! Open your mouth and speak it to life! There can be no conflict between what you believe, say and do.

There’s something powerful about speaking the unseen to life when you’re practicing it. Try it and see. 🙅🏾‍♂️🥊

To easier confess the words of God, we must have studied the Bible as a matter of habit and committed its words (including God’s promises) to heart. It’s never too late to start. So ask yourself, what have I been praying to God about, what Bible promises can I declare/claim concerning my requests which I can keep in mind and speak out audibly as I go through my day and during prayers?

If you’re still harboring any doubts, these two verses in the old and new testaments lay it all to rest:

• Isaiah 59:21 – “As for Me,” says the Lord, “this is My covenant with them: My Spirit who is upon you, and My words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your descendants, nor from the mouth of your descendants’ descendants,” says the Lord, “from this time and forevermore.”
  • Did you catch that? When you declare the words of God, the Holy Spirit goes with them! Wow! This is why in Isaiah 55:11, God promises that His word shall not return void, but it shall accomplish its purpose, and it shall prosper in the thing for which it was sent. 🙅🏾‍♂️

• John 15:7 – “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you”.

Read, memorize and speak out / declare the words of God concerning your situation or what you’re believing Him for – the words of God are spirit and life (John 6:63). This is a covenant!

To conclude, it is important to be careful in our understanding of this covenant because very often you hear of this “name it and claim it” practice/culture. That’s not what God is about. He’s not some genie in a bottle that’s there to grant us all our heart’s desires. We must first study to know the will of God for our lives. It is what is in His will for us that He promises to give us. He does desire to prosper us and help us, but not when we’re continuously living in willful disobedience to His word and commandments (including keeping the Sabbath day holy); not when we’re lacking in diligence, hardwork and a spirit of excellence; not when we’re robbing Him of the tithe and offerings; not when we’re ignoring the needs of the helpless; not when our requests are purely for selfish motives; not when we havent sought first to do the things that please God etc. His will is stated first in His word; let that be your starting point. 🙌🏾🙏🏾

“Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.“

1 John 5:14-15 NKJV