The Habit of Winners 

We want to win. So, we find someone who is a winner and analyze their lives for keys to winning. We seek wisdom from parents, mentors, and others who help shape our understanding of what winning means and how winning works. And then we get busy competing in the arena of life, fighting for wins.  

Thankfully, God our Father has given us Scripture in which the guess work of winning can be removed. Living in the OVERFLOW will train and equip us to confidently win with no fear that our definitions and techniques will ever be defeated or proven wrong. Like selling a product or service that is, by far, the irrefutable industry leader, Kingdom beliefs and practices can generate incredible peace and confidence. 

However, some Kingdom practices can seem bizarre, even paradoxical, to winning. I think meditation/reflection/abiding is one of those Kingdom practices that can easily be relegated to a religious exercise that, while nice, has little to no impact in the harshness of the arena of life.  

While I understand that can be an easy perception, biblical reflection/meditation is anything but flaccid and impotent. Simply said, biblically…  

winners meditate. 

If you want to crack open the lives of biblical men and women who accomplished incredible Kingdom work and lived full, rich lives, you will find a common practice of meditation. We already saw last week that no less than King David himself meditated and encouraged others to do the same. 

Now we go back before David to Joshua and consider the role of mediation on his success. I feel like I need to provide a steady stream of examples because you need to be convinced of the power impact of reflection. I work with MANY people who study but do not reflect. Oftentimes in study our goal is to gain knowledge of a topic. However, in reflection our goal is to allow the Holy Spirit freedom to affect us as He pleases with what He shows us.  

Reflection is immersion, submersion, and soaking in intimacy in such a way that we are affected. We can debate the merits of baptism by sprinkling or by immersion, but if your Bible “study” is sprinkled and not immersed, you will severely limit the impact, power, and excitement that can easily be yours.  

In Joshua 1, Moses, the great leader and liberator of Israel, is dead. Joshua is next man up. You can imagine the pressure. The pressure to not only follow Moses but also to lead Israel into the Promised Land. I have no idea how daunting your life is, and your life may be very daunting, so too was Joshua’s. He was given the high calling of leading after Moses, leading into the Promised Land, and leading his people into military victory.  

In preparation for his calling, he was trained to meditate. In all the emotional and physical swings that Joshua’s life would have, THE technique/discipline/practice that was going to secure his win and Kingdom faithfulness was meditation.  

This is a chunk of text but needs to be read in full to get the effect. This is Joshua 1:1-9,  

¹ Now it came about after the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, that the Lord spoke to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ servant, saying, ²“Moses My servant is dead; now therefore arise, cross this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them, to the sons of Israel. ³Every place on which the sole of your foot treads, I have given it to you, just as I spoke to Moses. ⁴From the wilderness and this Lebanon, even as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and as far as the Great Sea toward the setting of the sun will be your territory. ⁵No man will be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you; I will not fail you or forsake you. ⁶Be strong and courageous, for you shall give this people possession of the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. ⁷Only be strong and very courageous; be careful to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may have success wherever you go. ⁸This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success. ⁹Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go (bold added). 

Notice that the LORD is the one who chose, and anointed Joshua. The LORD said that He has given Joshua every bit of ground upon which he will stand. No man will be able to stand before his leadership. No enemy will defeat them. The LORD will never leave him.  

Now, three times the LORD implores Joshua at the outset of his ministry to be “strong and courageous.” Three times. Why, in light of these incredible promises of victory and presence, does the LORD need to continually say be strong and courageous? What is the opposite? Fear and weakness. Watch – in the living out of the will of the LORD Joshua is going to feel fear, timidity, insecurity, doubt, and every other kind of negative emotion that challenges the truth of his calling.  

The LORD NEVER tells Joshua just to “get over” those emotions. He never dismisses them or blows them off. The LORD knows they are real and that Joshua will experience them. He also knows that if he does not equip Joshua with a technique more powerful than his negativity, Joshua will not survive. Joshua will not survive because the sheer force of negativity is easily sufficient to sink the most confident of lives. So the LORD exhorts Joshua to steadily practice one discipline, one practice that will secure his win and effectively buffer the emotional and physical trials he will endure.  

Meditate.  

Ha! Yes. Meditate. Reflect. Soak. Abide. Be still. Allow truth and intimacy and the words of the LORD to truly penetrate the THICKNESS of the bricks around your heart.  

Med.I.Tate. 

To the degree that your perception of meditation is one of a man or woman wasting time in a silent room chanting some useless mantra effectively keeping you from learning the skill, that image needs to be blown up!  

The true image of meditation is of warrior Joshua, preparing for his day of fulfilling the call of the LORD Himself on Joshua’s life, being still, immersing himself in the love, faithfulness, and power the One who leads him! Soaking in previous victories. Reflecting on truth. Allowing the LORD to reach deeper in him than the source of his fear and timidity. Emboldening him for the day. Resting all his daily tasks into the capable hands of the LORD.  

And standing, filled, ready to live in the OVERFLOW and experience Kingdom wins.  

This. Is. OVERFLOW. And this is meditation. Be still. Allow the Holy Spirit to train you in silence and stillness. This is NOT emptying your mind. This is allowing the Holy Spirit to fill your mind with truth and wonders and blessings that are deeper than the deepest worn grooves of worldliness and thought patterns you have.  

One question remains…are you convinced?