How Should Christians Think About Meditation and Mindfulness?

The useful part

You see that language and the practices to which they refer all over the place. In a context like that, a lot of people, Christian and non-Christian, have felt how that constant distraction is actually robbing us of some real good things and some necessary things. Bingham A Heart Aflame for God explores spiritual formation practices that are consistent with the 5 solas, presenting the riches of the Reformed tradition for 21st-century evangelicals.

How it works

• How does this promise, this picture of Christ, this facet of God's reality intersect with my life and comfort me, challenge me, refresh me, reorient my thinking and my way of engaging with others?
• How to Choose God's Word over Everything Else Begging for Our Attention Uche Anizor March 17, 2026 We need to be ruthlessly honest about the kind of attention we give Scripture.
• Ex-Evangelicals and the Search for a Deeper Faith Matthew C.
• As Christians, I think there's a lot that we can see in that movement that's good and helpful.
• So we need to find ways to connect and reorient ourselves around things that matter.

What to take from it

The answers vary: some leave because they have been wounded by unwise or even abusive leaders, or maybe there is just a long, slow drifting away. Whereas the meditation commended in Scripture—in Psalm 1 and picked up by the Reformers and the English Puritans and others—is actually not so much a pushing out and a clearing space, but it's actually a filling and a focusing. It's taking God's promises as revealed in his Word, calling them to mind, thinking upon them, pondering them, turning them over, and asking,.

Example or evidence

• A lot of the practices that go under the heading of meditation are things that essentially try to manipulate physiology, like postures and breathing techniques, to try to push away all the distractions,...
• Related Articles 5 Steps to Help You Practice Meditation Matthew C.
• Bingham (PhD, Queen's University Belfast) is campus dean and associate professor of theology at Talbot Seminary Phoenix, Biola University.
• Bingham September 14, 2026 It is worth asking whether contemporary evangelicals have neglected or even forgotten the once-esteemed practice of meditation altogether.

Details worth keeping

It's the pace of life and the rate of change. So people are trying to recover and fight for that. Clearly, a lot of the things that the Bible calls us to, like the blessed man or blessed woman of Psalm 1 whose delight is in the law of the Lord and meditates upon it day and night, if you're going to be that person and if you're going to do those things, you cannot be constantly distracted by your smartphone.

Related coverage

• Psychologytoday: What do we really mean by mindfulness? Its Buddhist roots reveal a richer, more nuanced practice than the familiar idea of simply being present.
• Forbes: Are mindfulness and meditation the same psychological construct? Some say yes, others say no. Use AI to help define what you want. An AI Insider analysis and scoop.
• Crossway: It is worth asking whether contemporary evangelicals have neglected or even forgotten the once-esteemed practice of meditation altogether.
• Omanobserver: A dancer wearing a traditional costume performs during a "Convite," a traditional dance festival in Guatemala— AFP