Philippians 4:1-9
4 Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stay true to the Lord. I love you and long to see you, dear friends, for you are my joy and the crown I receive for my work.
2 Now I appeal to Euodia and Syntyche. Please, because you belong to the Lord, settle your disagreement. 3 And I ask you, my true partner, to help these two women, for they worked hard with me in telling others the Good News. They worked along with Clement and the rest of my co-workers, whose names are written in the Book of Life.
4 Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again—rejoice! 5 Let everyone see that you are considerate in all you do. Remember, the Lord is coming soon.
6 Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. 7 Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.
8 And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. 9 Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you.
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Paul tells the Philippians to “keep putting into practice what you have learned.” And there is the promise that if I stay the course, the “God of peace will be with me!” In the King James version of the Bible, the word “meditate” is used as a way of saying that I am to keep putting into practice what I have learned. Meditation is a part of what we do as believers. The Psalms are full of instructions to meditate on God’s word. One way of defining meditation is that we focus on the word of God, and we ponder, or thing often about, what we have meditated upon. It’s only when I ponder, or think about what I meditate on that I am able to put it into practice.
And I have to will myself to keep doing it. Part of how i keep on keeping on is to focus on the promise–that I will experience God’s peace, and that God will be with me. As I meditate, I am finding both to be increasingly true.