Like most folks I receive many forwarded videos from friends and family on my cell phone. I came across a video that a friend sent and so I hit the play button and listened. The clip was of a doctor giving advice on heart health.
“Hmm”, I thought, “this might be something worth watching. As I watched and listened, the doctor talked about what most of us all familiar with. He touched on healthy eating habits and making it a point to exercise regularly.
About mid way through the video I reached out to hit the stop button. Time was of the essence and I didn’t want to keep watching something I already knew about. But it was just in that he mentioned something that caught my attention. He said to have and maintain good heart health, devote at least 30 minutes of your day to meditation.
The more I listened to this doctor, the more I liked him. He was discussing heart health but I believe he was also addressing spiritual health as well. He gave some practical advice on how to meditate. For instance, he suggested taking time to be quiet or pray. For a number of people in this day and age being quiet or still for 30 minutes would be incredibly challenging. But if being quiet or focusing on the Lord and His peace for at least 30 minutes a day could benefit our hearts maybe it's something we should consider.
Research shows that if a person lives to be 80 years old, their heart would have beaten over three billion times. That is too great a value to ignore. Our hearts work hard, never taking a break or asking for time off. They just keep beating and beating till they can’t beat anymore. Surely we can appreciate this organ more than we do!
According to the Oxford Dictionary, one meaning for meditation is to think deeply about something. In Joshua 1:8 the Lord tells Joshua to meditate on His instructions and to do all that He says because that is what will bring him success in all that he does. The old testament portion of the Bible was translated from the Hebrew language and when you look up the meaning for meditate it is multilayered. It means to speak, utter, mutter, study, imagine or ponder. The Lord was telling Joshua that if he meditated – studied, muttered, imagined or pondered the instructions of God – he would be successful in all he did. Joshua’s life reflected exactly that. Could heart health/success be included in this as well?
In the contemporary English Bible, Psalm 1:2 says that the blessed person “finds happiness in the Teaching of the Lord, and they think about it day and night. If happiness can be found in meditating on the Lord and His words then surely the heart could benefit from it as well. To meditate on the Lord, one needs to have a relationship with Him.
If you would like to start this heart health journey with meditating on the Lord please say this prayer after me, “Heavenly Father, I confess that Jesus is Lord, and I believe in my heart that you raised Him from the dead. I repent of my sin. Forgive me, wash and cleanse me. I thank You that as I meditate on You and Your words I am positioning myself to be a success in all that I do including having a healthy heart – in Jesus’ name. Amen.
