Meditation Under Extreme Stress...Is It Possible?

[Timl1980]

 

 

I would have said no...and I would have been wrong...dead wrong.

 

Not only is it possible, friends...I am going to give you a scriptural example of how it can actually save your life.

 

First, what is meditation? One definition is as follows:

 

Meditation is a practice that involves focusing one’s attention on a particular object, thought, or activity to achieve a mentally clear and emotionally calm and stable state

 

In my mind, to my limited understanding...meditation had to be practiced in a quiet space...at a time of calm and peace.

 

I have learned something vastly different...and it has humbled me immensely.

 

If you open to the book of Psalms, and turn to Chapter 63, we will read a set of very familiar verses...verses that I'm sure have comforted all of us at one time or another...but verses that now bring a vastly different sense of meaning to me, and hopefully to you as well.

 

Verses 6-8: “I remember you while upon my bed; I meditate on you during the watches of the night.7 For you are my helper, And I shout joyfully in the shadow of your wings.8 I cling to you; Your right hand keeps fast hold on me.”

 

“I meditate on you during the watches of the night...” David's words have often touched me through this verse, mostly because there have been times when I have woken up in the night and been unable to get back to sleep. During some of those times, I remembered David's words...and I would lay in my bed and think about Jehovah...thanking him for everything he has provided.

 

Not once did I think about the CONTEXT of his words...not once did it ever occur to me that these were not “restful” watches David was referring to.

 

To get the context, please turn over to 1 Samuel 23:13-15: “At once David rose up with his men, about 600 in number, and they left Keiʹlah and moved about wherever they could. When Saul was told that David had escaped from Keiʹlah, he did not go out after him.14 David stayed in the wilderness in places difficult to approach, in the mountainous region of the wilderness of Ziph. Saul searched for him constantly, but Jehovah did not give him into his hand.15 David was aware that Saul had gone out to seek his life while David was in the wilderness of Ziph at Hoʹresh.”

 

Friends, David was running for his very life...Saul was searching for him...hunting him ruthlessly...bent on killing David and all his men.

 

Just imagine how frightened David was...he couldn't rest...they had to be on the watch...vigilant...ever wary that Saul and his men would find them. Saul wasn't going to give up...he wasn't about to quit until he saw David dead at his feet.

 

And yet, Jehovah wouldn't allow it.

 

Why? Was David protected JUST because he was Jehovah's anointed?

 

No, friends.

 

David was a servant of the Most High...he did what he could to get out of harm's way...he ran when necessary...he was brave when it mattered.

 

But more than that...in the midst of running for his very life...in the thick of being hunted and ran ragged by a powerful, deadly and enraged enemy...David used the times that he was on the watch WISELY...instead of being fearful at every single snap of a twig or rustle of leaves...he used those hours to do something no enemy of Jehovah would have expected...HE MEDITATED...and he meditated on Jehovah.

 

So please, my dear brothers and sisters...don't be scared of what Satan is doing. No matter what you are personally facing...no matter what you are currently going through...be like David!

 

Meditate on our all-powerful creator...cling to him...keep a firm grip on Jehovah's right hand...and allow him to pull you out and away from Satan's grasping fingers...and bring you straight into the new system!