The State of Mind That Pleases God

God is pleased when we make thoughts of Him the center and priority of our days and nights. It is hard to believe that the one who says he loves God would not make pleasing Him a major goal for disciplining our lives for His pleasure. Our verses of devotion today gives us some insight into how we can please God in the inner world of our being. Both verses express the desire of the Psalmist to have his meditations acceptable to our God. Sometimes we forget that our worship of God occurs first in our hearts and it is the first place we should encounter God each and every day of our lives. Meditation is a communing with God in the language of His own written Word to us. We not only speak it back to Him in our songs and prayers, but we think it back as we ponder upon what He has said to us.

It is through our meditation of the Word we are trained to be more consistently cognizant of God’s presence in our lives. It trains us to think in the thought patterns of God’s Word, but it challenges our natural thinking and motives that is often in sharp contrast to God’s (Hebrews 4:12). It is through our meditation upon God’s Word that we also establish with God a special bond of mental intimacy where we become more keenly aware of His voice in the flow of our thoughts so that it may enable us to have the spiritual understanding for application of the Word in life’s decisions (Colossians 1:9, 10).

Paul Meier of the Minirth and Meier Clinic, in their research of seminary students, found that on the average it takes about 3 years of daily Scripture meditation to bring about enough change in a person’s thought patterns and behavior to produce what they called, “statistically superior mental health and happiness” (Meditating for Success, p.25).  Mental health and a wholesome sense of wellbeing is also a reward for God’s pleasure when we meditate upon Him through His Word to us. These benefits are not only spiritually healthy for us, but the supernatural working of God’s Word in us provides mental and physical health and healing to the body also. (Proverbs 16:24).

A man named Thomas A’ Kempis (1379 – 1471), wrote a famous book called “The Imitation of Christ,” recognized that having a clean mind through meditation was more than a human discipline, but it is asking God for the grace to help him to think on Him. This is a prayer for us also in recognizing that without Him we can do nothing (John 15:5), but with Him we can do all things He calls us to do (Philippians 2:13; 4:13).

Prayer: Give me O Lord, a steadfast heart which no unworthy thought can drag downward; an unconquered heart which no tribulation can wear out; an upright heart which no worthy purpose may tempt aside. Bestow on me also, O Lord God, understanding to know thee, diligence to seek thee, wisdom to find thee, and a faithfulness that may finally embrace Thee. (Thomas A’ Kempis 1379 -1471) Let us say, in Jesus’ name, amen and amen.
By Pastor Wayne Cockrell