The Power of Imagination

When we think of meditation, a lot of us think of chanting and things affiliated with other religions--but at its core, that's not what it is. Meditation can simply be calming the mind by disciplined focus on some external stimulus, like your breath, your heart, or the ambient sounds around you... and if your mind is scattered and flitting from topic to topic, there is certainly great physiologic value in this, as it will get you out of "fight or flight" and into the parasympathetic "rest and digest" state. Also, if your mind is too loud, it makes it all but impossible for you to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit--so quieting your mind through this form of meditation is valuable for that reason as well.

Biblically, though, meditation is more than just quieting your "monkey brain." That just gets you back to neutral. Rather, biblical meditation involves focused thought upon an idea long enough for you to get a picture in your mind of what you're contemplating. We all do this all the time; it's just a matter of what we're thinking about. Andrew Wommack likes to say that if you know how to worry, you know how to meditate. Worry is meditation upon something negative. Paul tells us what we should be meditating on in Philippians 4:8: "whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy--meditate on these things."

The reason this is so important is because scripture tells us that our thoughts determine what we believe, just like planting seeds will determine what kind of harvest we get. Proverbs 23:7 says, "for as a man thinks in his heart, so is he." We can act contrary to what we truly believe for a short period of time, but what we think in our hearts is who we really are, and it will come out eventually. This is why Jesus said that the most important parable He ever taught was the Parable of the Sower (Matt 13:3-23). In the parable, the "seed" is the Word of God, and soil is the hearts of the listeners. It's the state of the soil which determines how well that seed will grow and produce a harvest. There are other possible seeds besides God's word, though--in the parable, there were thorns and tares in one type of soil, too. Jesus later defines these for us as "the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches" (Matt 13:22), which can choke the Word such that it becomes unfruitful. Those sound like typical sources of worry to me.

Think of thoughts in general--any type of thought--as a potential seed that can eventually bear a harvest if you plant it and cultivate it (or meditate upon it until you can see it in your mind). A stray thought here or there can't do this any more than a seed can without the right environment for it to grow--which is why we're told in scripture to take our thoughts captive (2 Cor 10:5). Think of this like weeding the 'garden' of your heart. If you don't want the harvest, then pluck up the plant before it can bear fruit--or, better yet, avoid exposing yourself to the seed in the first place, if you can control it. This isn't always possible, but we can choose what we watch, what we listen to, what kind of church we go to (one that preaches faith or unbelief), and what kind of people we spend time with. "Bad company corrupts good character" (1 Corinthians 15:33)--so if you surround yourself with people who are negative, complaining, undisciplined, or any other negative character trait, most likely it'll rub off on you eventually. Those people influence how you think, and unwittingly this plants "seeds" in your heart that will eventually bear a harvest, if they are allowed to do so.

It takes discipline to control our imaginations, of course. Just like the Second Law of Thermodynamics describes entropy in the universe (which means that left to themselves, all systems go from order to disorder), so the tremendous power available in our minds will accomplish nothing if we don't focus it appropriately. Worse, if we use our imaginations for an actively destructive purpose like worrying, we might end up with exactly what we're essentially "believing" for. A medical example of this is the placebo versus the nocebo effect: about 30% of people (probably those who are most "suggest-able") in clinical trials will typically get better even if they're given a sugar pill rather than the actual medication being tested, because they believe it will help them. Their minds make it work. The nocebo is the same principle in reverse: if you believe something will make you worse, it very well might, even if the substance itself is neutral.

This is the whole concept behind affirmations, or positive confessions: say something long or oft