GOD’S MEDICINE FOR GOOD
SUCCESS:
SCRIPTURE; Joshua 1:8
“Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be
sure to obey everything written in it.
Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do!”
Meditation is somewhat like taking medicine. The more consistent we are with the protocol
given by the doctor, the better results we will have! It’s interesting that if the doctor says take
this medicine 3 times a day, it is for sure we will do our best to do exactly
what the Doc says, usually without question or giving it a second thought!
God was giving a similar prescription to Joshua, only he was told
to take the word of God 24/7 for great results!
I once heard someone say, he made it a daily habit of taking the
“Gos-Pill” and meditating on it which caused him to have great success in all
areas of life. If the need was
financial, he had taken time to source out what God said about money, work
ethic, honor, etc. If it was a sickness
that cropped up, he studied how Jesus went about healing and restoring people
because He was moved with compassion and he meditated on those words until he
saw himself receiving healing as well!
Based on what he said, it is important to be intentional until
the word of God you put in your heart becomes bigger than the issue you are
dealing with.
Prov. 4:23 Guard (attend to) your heart with all diligence, for
out of it come the issues or boundaries of life! In other words, be careful what you let in!
Another translation says:
Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it!
Jesus referred to our hearts as the soil of our spirit that we
can make deposits into!
Matthew 12:35
“A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him,
and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him!”
We have the choice to take Gos-Pills and store God’s wisdom
inside so that when situations arise, we already have God’s medicine inside of
us from meditating on the Word and
internalizing it, then we can expect not just any kind of success but as
Joshua 1 says, good success or good results!
What does the word Meditate mean?
To muse and be absorbed in thought
To deeply focus one’s mind (The Hebrew word for mind is:
Conception or to conceive)
To reflect and rehearse in one’s mind
To ponder and converse with one’s self
To imagine
To speak out, utter or pray
There is such value in meditating, pondering, and conversing with
one’s self before speaking to others or making decisions. We can see from the
following Scripture: it can change our future and the future of others as well!
Matthew 1:19
“Because Joseph to whom Mary was engaged was a righteous man, and
did not want to disgrace her publicly, he decided to break the engagement
quietly. But after he had pondered (or
meditated) on these things, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream…… (and
gave him God instructions!)
Joseph had been given some shocking news by his bride to be;
something mind jolting and out of the ordinary…But, because Joseph pondered before making a decision,
that “seemed” at the time to be the correct one based on the Law, God’s plans
weren’t thwarted and we and all of mankind have benefited from his taking time
to muse before moving!
Also, one powerful translation about Joshua says, “God commanded
Joshua to MEDITATE on God’s word and IMAGINE it day and night so he would have
good success.”
You can imagine Joshua rehearsing in his mind all the times God
had given victory to his people. He
probably would visualize it and feel what it would be like for him to have the
same results!
God kept telling him, “Be courageous! sort of “You’ve got this!”
Keep rehearsing the victories!
David said in Psalms 1”Blessed is the one who does not walk in
step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the
company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law (Word) of the Lord and who MEDITATES on his
law day and night, that person is like a tree planted by streams (rivers) of
water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither—whatever
they do prospers.”
The one red flag to all this success David said, is that you stay
mindful of where you get your information.
Again, the tree gives us a beautiful word picture. The taller the tree, the deeper or stronger
the roots will be. The trees in this
Psalm are surrounded by living water which again symbolize the Word of God. The
emphasis God puts on meditation is significant. The more we internalize and
meditate on God’s truths, the deeper and stronger our convictions become that
causes faith to be released with greater results.
Visuals were a big part of Jesus’ teaching ministry.
Matthew 13:32
“If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, (which is less
than or smaller than all seeds), you can say to this mountain, move from here
to there and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
Jesus was giving his followers a word picture! Can’t you just hear them thinking, “You mean
if I have faith as tiny as that little thing, I can change something that
humongous?” Jesus could have stopped at,
“it will move from here to there,” but he added: Nothing will be impossible!
One definition of faith is: Seeing as a real fact what has not
been made real to our senses.
As we meditate on a word from the Lord, and utter, speak and say
what God says about it, Jesus said that tiny seed of faith has the power to
bear fruit and change circumstances.
Remember, Jesus said we are to say to the mountain——-move!
It is important to be mindful this is the way the Kingdom of God
operates in our lives through spoken words.
By meditation and visualizing as reality what God has promised us
in his word, more doors can be opened for answered prayers!
Hebrews 11:2
“This is how people in times past gained approval. They framed their world with their faith.”
After we continue meditating and put faith into practice by
giving God’s Word first place in situations, it will over time become second
nature. The first thing that will kick
in when something comes up will be our faith and not fear! We will be talking to mountains instead of
mountains talking to us!
We all have mind Data Banks we draw from.
I was listening to a Doctor on a TV Program that described
negative thinking as: ANTS
AUTOMATIC
NEGATIVE
THOUGHTS
He said they show up without us even thinking about it until we
intentionally put new information into our Data Bank!
As believers, we can build a new program into our Data Bank to
draw from based on meditating, imagining and pondering God’s Word which I
describe as: APTS
AUTOMATIC
POSITIVE or PROMISE
THOUGHTS
So instead of running our mind program on ANTS and losing out by
default, we can run on APTS and be on God’s winning team!
In closing, the Apostle Paul encouraged one of his proteges,
Timothy, with similar faith practices to help him navigate through unsettling
times like what is being experienced today:
1 Timothy 4:15. “Meditate on these things, give yourself entirely
to them that your progress will be seen by all.”
Progress seen by all through meditation: What a powerful promise!
