Meeting God daily keeps us from running on empty.  Meeting God daily keeps us connected and fruitful.  The writer of Psalm 1 creates some urgency to make every day a decision day:  will I meet God or not?  Will I delight in His Words or the word and way of someone else? 

When I was serving in a church in Texas during seminary, I was regularly blessed to hear an older women, Lily White, stand in our services and quote Psalm 1.  As she spoke I felt that every word had weight and pierced through the shallowness of our daily lives.  “Blessed is the man who does not walk int he counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers.  But his delight is in the law of the LORD and on his law he meditates day and night.  He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither.  Whatever he does prospers.  Not so the wicked!  They are like chaff that the wind blows away.  Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.  For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.”

To fail to choose God and His Word is presented by the Psalmist as a drift into a unrooted and unfruitful life.  The perishing life is progressive:  to walk in the counsel of the wicked is to be taken in by the words and way of seeing the world that constantly seeks to edit out God; to stand in the way of sinners is to increase one’s association, even flirt with the lifestyle of rebellion against God, so that one may blend into the crowd; to sit in the seat of mockers, is to have developed great comfortability even an unconsciousness of how removed one is from God-His character and His way.

The mocker is one who acts surprised when presented with a view of life that includes God, delights in His Word, and lives with an awareness of the full-bodied character of God which raises such a high view of Creation and people that injustice and lovelessness matters.  The mocker says, “Where’s God?  What can God do?  He can’t touch us?  It doesn’t matter how you live as long as you survive happily.”

Perhaps the mockers biggest problem is that the internal order for of belief and behaviour has been turned on its head.  No longer does conviction of what is true guide their behaviours.  Instead, truth through God’s revelation has been tossed in favour of their truth shaped by the behaviours the mocker has adopted and now must justify.  The mocker will not tolerate the discontinuity of belief in a God who cares when their behaviours and the related crowd and comfort are more important. 

We can all drift into the seat of the mocker–it is the fruit of a long series of choices.  However we are presented with the option of responding to God’s invitation to meet Him and to delight in His Word.  The consequence is dramatically different.  To delight in the Word of God brings us into a life that is rooted into God Himself.  When the season requires fruit our lives can bear it:  love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, goodness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).  When others are blowing dry in the wind of life, we can keep our leaves–display the evidence of an interior world that is connected to The Source of all life.

Meditation on the Word of God is the choice to meet God daily.  Christian meditation does not require us to empty our minds of the realities that face us: darkness, pain, suffering, awareness of injustice or even the evidence of grace to enjoy–beauty, nature, relationships, good food.  Christian mediation is the taking in and digestion of God’s Words in response to Him.  To delight in His Word is to chew it up and digest it as a message that connects what is most important-God, to life. 

Begin simply.  10-15 minutes a day.  We have been using the SOAP acrostice and a series of questions to help us connect God’s Word to our lives.  It’s His Word, ask Him to help you.

Scripture:  Open your Bible to the reading following your reading plan.  Take time reading and allow God to speak to you.  When you are done, look for a verse that particularly spoke to you that day, and write it in your journal.

Observation:  What do you think God is saying to you in this Scripture?  Ask the Holy Spirit to each you and reveal Jesus to you.  Paraphrase and write this scripture down in your own words, in your journal.  Is there a:  Sin to confess?  Promise to claim?  Attitude to change?  Command to keep?  Example to follow?  Prayer to pray?  Error to avoid?  Truth to believe?  Something to thank God for?

Application:  Personalize what you have read, by asking yourself how it applies to your life right now.  Perhaps is it instruction, encouragement, revelation of a new promise, or corrections for a particular area of your life.  Write how this Scripture can apply to you today.  Prayer:  This can be as simple as asking God to help you use this Scripture, or it may be a prayer for insight on what He may be revealing to you.  Remember, prayer is a two-way conversation, so be sure to listen to What God has to say!  Now, write it out.

Here are some question for personal examination built from Galatians 5:22-23.  (These can be found in Principle 7 of Celebrate Recovery)  I have found them useful at the end of my day, to meet God and review the day with Him.  Since God watches over the way of the righteous, I want to watch over my way as well.

• How did I show love to others?
• Did I act in an unloving way toward anyone?
• Did others see in me the joy of having a personal relationship with Jesus?  If not, why not?
• How was my serenity, my peace?  Did anything happen that caused me to lose it?  What was my part in it?
• Was I patient?  What caused me to lose my patience?  Do I owe anyone amends?
• Would anyone say that I was kind/good?  In what ways did I act unkind?
• How was my faithfulness?
• Did I keep my word with everyone?
• How was my gentleness and self-control?  Did I lose my temper, speak a harsh or unkind word to someone?