A Mediation on Meditation
December 2025
By: Kevin McKay - Lead Pastor Grace Harbor Church
Do you ever struggle with feeling like you're not getting much out of reading scripture? Do your affections for God’s word often feel weak? Do you ever have a hard time actually putting the Bible into practice? If the answer is yes to any of these questions, then you should work on practicing biblical meditation.
Thomas Watson calls meditation a duty for anyone who wants to obey Jesus. Meditation, he says, “is a holy exercise of the mind whereby we bring the truths of God to remembrance, and seriously ponder upon them and apply them to ourselves.” To do that, he says we need to pull away from all distractions and be alone, so that we can give serious and ongoing thought to God’s Word.
Meditation is hard in the modern world - but to be honest it has always been hard. By nature, we are opposed to the things of God and are easily enticed by the pleasure and ease of this world. We're easily distracted and lazy - and way too busy. In addition to our own nature, we have a spiritual enemy who does everything he can to get in the way of us fixing our hearts and minds on God.
We need help. That’s what Thomas Watson gives us in his book, “Taking Heaven By Storm”. He gives us 6 topics of meditation and 3 motivations for meditating. My prayer is that these things will help us commune with God for our joy and His glory.
Topics of Meditation
First, Meditate seriously upon the corruption of your nature. Watson says sin cleaves to us like leprosy. It whirls about in us like a tumultuous sea. Meditating on this - pulls down our pride and causes us to walk humbly.
Second, Meditate seriously upon the death and passion of Christ. In the garden, Jesus was overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of sweating drops of blood. On the cross, He was nailed and humiliated, bearing the wrath of God in His death all because of our sins. Serious meditation of this produces repentance. When we consider how much our sins cost Christ, how can we not crucify our own flesh and put to death the sins that killed Him?!?
Third, Meditate on the evidence of heaven. Are you convinced you’re a sinner? Are you convicted of all sins in your life?? Are you willing to let Christ rule over all your desires - and put to death the desires of the flesh? Do you see the transforming work of the Holy Spirit in your life? To say yes to these questions is great evidence that you're on your way to glory.
Fourth, Meditate on the uncertainty of all earthly comforts. They come and go. Nothing that can be trusted is permanent. Health may turn to sickness; friends can move away or die; riches can take wings and fly away. Meditating on this uncertainty makes us look to the certainty of grace. That’s what keeps us from being deceived by the world.
Fifth, Meditate on God's severity against sin. Watson says, "Every arrow in God's quiver is shot against it. Sin burned Sodom and drowned the old world. Sin kindles hell. If when a spark of God's wrath flies into a man's conscience is so terrible, what is it when God stirs up all His wrath?" That should frighten us at the very core of our being. God's power and wrath are incomparable. Watson says, "All fire compared with the fire of God's wrath is painted and imaginary." Pull the mask off of sin by meditating on the sting of it when you're tempted by its temporary sweetness.
Sixth, Meditate on eternal life. Life is good. It's sweet. That's why we look on death with fear and sorrow. But eternal life is sweeter and better. That's the promise. When the sun appears in the morning, the glory of its light is so bright, that the star appear to vanish. As beautiful as they were at night - shining - they just disappear against the light of our sun. So too, this life will not compare to the glory of eternal life. Meditating on this is a comfort and encouragement to seek Christ in this life.
These are some of the topics of meditation for Watson that will no doubt benefit us as believers, but again, meditation isn’t easy. So Watson lays out 3 motivations for such meditation.
Motivation for Meditation
1. Meditation makes sermons more profitable. Watson says, "As the bee sucks the flower, so by meditation we suck out the sweetness of a truth. It is not the receiving of meat into the mouth, but the digesting of it which makes it nutritional. So it is not the receiving of the most excellent truths to the ear that nourishes our souls, but the digesting of them by meditation." This is why taking notes in the sermon can be so helpful. It allows you to go back over the truth again and again until it brings health to the soul.
2. Meditation also quickens the affections. Angry people are naturally good at meditation. It doesn’t take much work for us to replay what someone said or did that hurt us over and over again in our heads. You start thinking about their life compared to your life, and how they didn't even consider what you’re going through. This makes you think about how they’ve hardly ever done anything nice for you. Which makes you realize how selfish of a person they are. And on and on you go, getting madder and madder. That’s how meditation works when you’re mad. (So be careful when someone says they need to “vent”. It just stirs up more anger). But meditating on those six topics mentioned above will stir up holy affections like joy, thankfulness, and love.
3. Meditation reforms us. Psalm 119:59 says, "I thought about my ways and turned my steps back to your decrees." Watson writes, "If only people meditated on the damnableness of sin; if they only thought when they meddled with it that there is a rope at the end of it which will hang them eternally in hell, they would break off a course of sinning and become new creatures.” Meditation helps us put off sin, but it can also help us put on Christ. Behold him, and you will become more like Him.
Meditation is hard, but not because we lack the ability. It's hard because we have weak affections which are easily pleased and distracted by trivial matters and temporary pleasures. But meditation is worth the work. The fruit of it is eternal, and the benefits are immediate. For your good and God’s glory get away from all distractions with your Bible and spend some serious time in meditation.
