Mohler: The Empty Promise of Meditation

Al Mohler has posted some great thoughts on how meditation has been entering the church.

Some quotes from the article:

The Bible does speak positively about meditation.  In the Psalms, David sings of meditating on the Law of God day and night.  The biblical concept of meditation is not without reference to thought and content.  To the contrary, it is about thinking that is directed by the Word of God — scripturally saturated thought.

This is almost the exact opposite of Eastern meditation, which sets the emptying of the mind as its goal.  The Eastern concept of emptying the mind is just not anything close to the biblical vision of filling the mind with the Word of God.

We live in a world so shaped by therapeutic concerns that most people never stop to wonder if God is dealing with them in their stress, their distress, their haunting thoughts, their cluttered minds. An attempt to empty the mind might well be an effort to listen to the self when we should seek to hear from God.

For an example see the February 2008 edition of the ‘Today’ devotional published by the Christian Reformed Church. Ugh.

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