Showing posts with label Meditation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Meditation. Show all posts
8/30/2014
Biblical Meditation
Benefits of Biblical Meditation
Psalm 1 shows a way to seek God for the prayers on His heart.
Psalm 1 “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful;” This is a clear warning of what not to do. If you do not walk with God, where will you get your counsel? If you do not stand for God, who and what will you stand for? If you sit in the seat of the scornful, you will become a scoffer and soon youwill walk, stand and sit with those who oppose God. Invitation: walk, stand and sit with God. What is your response?
WALK: Seek to walk in God’s counsel for the prayer time by meditating in the Word first as the source of your prayers. “Can two walk together unless they are agreed?” Amos 3:3 Respond to what you receive during the quiet time of meditation in the Word.
Come into some kind of honest agreement with God about what you receive. How could you pray for someone else what you are unwilling to do yourself? Agreement with God’s will suggests answered prayer. (1 John 5:14,15)
STAND: You stand for and with God protected, equipped in the armor of God. (Ephesians 6:10-18) You stand for the things God stands for – For example, His Word, His commands as sanctity of life, His words on marriage. You stand with God and pray for those who practice alternate life become your concerns; His prayers, your prayers.
SIT: You sit with the Lord at His table to receive the Word, then sit with Him at the place of prayerin submitted authority as the Word goes forth.As you sit on a regular basis, the Word becomes the bread of life to you. You learn to recognizeGod’s voice through the Word and sense the direction the Holy Spirit gives as Teacher. The table of the Lord is where your soul is restored and your spirit strengthened; it is a place of counsel, dialogue, fellowship, a place of delight.
Psalm 1:2
“But his delight is in the law (Word) of the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night.”
To meditate day and night requires a conscious choice to keep God’s Word before your face, and in your heart. Choose to delight yourself in God’s Word. This is not impossible as you meditate negatively day and night without realizing it when you worry or complain. How much more will the Holy Spirit help you meditate on the Word if you ask?
Benefit: v3 “He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper.” Whatever
this meditator does shall prosper because He is in fellowship and agreement with God. He walks, stands and sits in alignment with God, therefore what he does will prosper. Prosper here means a breaking forth. This means you will find the breakthroughs you need. The intercessor who becomes rooted and grounded in the Word has a constant source of spiritual water from the washing of the Word, and draws strength from the wells of salvation within each believer. (Ephesians 5:26, Isaiah 12:1)
The prayer time prospers because it is supernaturally sourced and directed. There is fruit from the prayer meeting that endures.
The intercessor is refreshed and strengthened from the Word; their leaf does not wither. This is a classic meditation scripture, perfect for a prayer meeting or as a private devotionalwith prayer. The context of the final three verses contrast the lack of blessing for the unsaved and can touch your heart to pray for the lost. There is a separate Psalm 1 meditation for this.
Application:
Meditate to hear from God, go back through Scripture and reread it. This can be as simple as your attention being drawn to a word, a phrase. Let God peak to you through your thoughts and impressions
Receive and Respond personally to what God is saying to you through the Word. He knows your every thought. Be honest; He will meet you where you are.
Share: If in a group, share briefly just to get the full prayer picture and so others can pray with you and you with them. Pray out simply what you receive, pray with others about what they received. Pray for the Church, the Body of Christ and you will touch believers around the world and be blessed yourself. http://www.asknetwork.net/teaching_resources.html
11/05/2013
Meditate on The Word: A Prayer From Jerome
Lord, thou hast given us thy Word for a light to shine upon our path; grant us so to meditate on that Word, and to follow its teaching, that we may find in it the light that shines more and more until the perfect day; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
-Jerome
9/07/2013
Overcome Distractions by A.W. Tozer
But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. — Matthew 6:6
Among the enemies to devotion none is so harmful as distractions.
Whatever excites the curiosity, scatters the thoughts, disquiets the heart, absorbs the interests or shifts our life focus from the kingdom of God within us to the world around us—that is a distraction; and the world is full of them. Our science-based civilization has given us many benefits but it has multiplied our distractions and so taken away far more than it has given....
The remedy for distractions is the same now as it was in earlier and simpler times, viz., prayer, meditation and the cultivation of the inner life. The psalmist said “Be still, and know,” and Christ told us to enter into our closet, shut the door and pray unto the Father.
It still works....
Distractions must be conquered or they will conquer us. So let us cultivate simplicity; let us want fewer things; let us walk in the Spirit; let us fill our minds with the Word of God and our hearts with praise. In that way we can live in peace even in such a distraught world as this. “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you.” (Set Of The Sail: Directions for Your Spiritual Journey, pp. 129-132)
- A.W. Tozer
6/14/2013
A Quote From Donald Whitney on Meditation
"You are the cup of hot water and the intake of Scripture is represented by the teabag. Hearing God's Word is like one dip of the tea bag into the cup. Some of the tea's flavor is absorbed by the water, but not as much as would occur with a more thorough soaking of the bag. In this analogy, reading, studying, and memorizing God's Word are represented by additional plunges of the tea bag into the cup. The more frequently the tea enters the water, the more effect it has. Meditation, however, is like immersing the bag completely and letting it steep until all the rich tea flavor has been extracted and the hot water is thoroughly tinctured reddish brown”
(Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life, 44).
- Donald Whitney
7/26/2011
The Reflective Life by Jack Deere
(This article was copied from Jack Deere's blog on the Wellspring Church website.)
Socrates said that the unexamined life is not worth living (Apology 38a). The unexamined life will also get us in trouble. About 120 years earlier, one of the Hebrew prophets said the same thing. Haggai said, “Give careful thought to yours ways” (1:5, 7). It’s rare to find anyone who pays attention to Socrates or Haggai. When is the last time you gave careful thought to your ways? When is the last time you gave careful thought to the ways of God? How do you do that? I’ll tell you how I do it. I keep three journals: a prayer list, daily events, and daily meditation.
1.Prayer List
1.There are three sources for regular conversations with God: whatever is on my heart, the prayers of Scripture, and my own personal list. God frequently speaks to us while we’re praying.
2.My current list:
1.i. Thanks/praise
2.ii. Confession
3.iii. Family
4.iv. Dreams
1.Give us the right interpretation.
2.Warning dreams: don’t let these happen
3.Good dreams: let these happen
5.v. Extended family
6.vi. Immediate needs
7.vii. Wellspring and our services
8.viii. Congregation
9.ix. Questions for the Lord
10.x. Upcoming conferences
11.xi. Friends who don’t go to Wellspring
12.xii. Enemies
13.xiii. My disciples
14.xiv. My men’s group
15.xv. VIP group (people I know that don’t yet know the Lord)
16.xvi. Record answers with date and “thank you” in red.
3.Problems with a list:
1.i. Can limit us.
2.ii. Can burden us. When my list gets too big, I file it and start over with a smaller one.
3.iii. Can get mechanical.
2.Journal of daily events.
1.The disciples took notes:
1.i. Luke 1:1-4
2.ii. Rev. 1:19
3.iii. Luke 2:19, 51, “But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.”
4.iv. We take notes because we treasure what the Lord does and what He gives us.
2.What not to write
1.i. Don’t record all the details of the day.
2.ii. Don’t give our journals the authority of the Bible.
3.What to write
1.i. I start by recording my wake up time, my weight, and whether I worked out and/or did cardio. If I’m recording it means I am paying attention to my life and trying to move forward. When I don’t record, I’m just going with the flow, trying to survive.
2.ii. Anything that stands out or is meaningful to me.
3.iii. Anything that I think God may be showing me that day.
4.iv. Some days I may only record two lines. I don’t let writing in my journal become a burden. It is simply a tool to help me reflect on my life.
5.v. I write honestly with no intention of showing my journal to anyone. It is password protected.
3.Journal of meditation on the ways and works of God that are illumined to us in Scripture. NB. This journal sometimes overlaps with my journal of daily events. You may only want to keep one journal for both.
1.Writing causes us to read expectantly not passively.
2.An example from my meditation: 8/16/10 (Phil. 3:7-11). Paul lost “all things” for the sake of Christ. In order to “gain Christ,” that is, to move to the next level of friendship, you always have to lose something, to give up something that has been holding you back. You have to risk something for nothing more than a closer relationship to Jesus. If you risk the loss for anything other than this your motive is ulterior and you lose. “not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ”—real righteousness begins in the heart with faith, not with the external performance. By faith in Christ, Mary sat at Jesus’ feet and did nothing other than listen to Him. Righteousness is first established in the heart through faith and then it is manifested in external behavior. Paul quotes Ps. 116:10 in 2 Cor. 4:13 to this effect, “I believed, therefore I spoke” (Study the contexts of these two texts, both are about suffering and death). Jesus was rewarded for heart attitudes in Heb. 1:8-9. Faith increases by feeding the heart Scripture, which God illuminates so that we can interpret our experience by Scripture. Our experience increases our faith when we understand our experience by the light of illuminated Scripture. Sometimes God interprets our experience by speaking to us directly from heaven, but mostly it is spoken to us when God illuminates His written word. God has locked the explanation of our individual lives, the interpretation of our experience, in the Bible. “These things happened as examples to us.” Or “how shall a young man cleanse his way.” Or “it is the glory of God to conceal a matter and the glory of kings to search it out.” On another note, what happens to leaders is used by God to produce life in their followers (2 Cor. 4:12). This is why Paul is always telling his story, talking about his struggles. Whatever is going on in his life is meant to strengthen the faith of others.
Socrates said that the unexamined life is not worth living (Apology 38a). The unexamined life will also get us in trouble. About 120 years earlier, one of the Hebrew prophets said the same thing. Haggai said, “Give careful thought to yours ways” (1:5, 7). It’s rare to find anyone who pays attention to Socrates or Haggai. When is the last time you gave careful thought to your ways? When is the last time you gave careful thought to the ways of God? How do you do that? I’ll tell you how I do it. I keep three journals: a prayer list, daily events, and daily meditation.
1.Prayer List
1.There are three sources for regular conversations with God: whatever is on my heart, the prayers of Scripture, and my own personal list. God frequently speaks to us while we’re praying.
2.My current list:
1.i. Thanks/praise
2.ii. Confession
3.iii. Family
4.iv. Dreams
1.Give us the right interpretation.
2.Warning dreams: don’t let these happen
3.Good dreams: let these happen
5.v. Extended family
6.vi. Immediate needs
7.vii. Wellspring and our services
8.viii. Congregation
9.ix. Questions for the Lord
10.x. Upcoming conferences
11.xi. Friends who don’t go to Wellspring
12.xii. Enemies
13.xiii. My disciples
14.xiv. My men’s group
15.xv. VIP group (people I know that don’t yet know the Lord)
16.xvi. Record answers with date and “thank you” in red.
3.Problems with a list:
1.i. Can limit us.
2.ii. Can burden us. When my list gets too big, I file it and start over with a smaller one.
3.iii. Can get mechanical.
2.Journal of daily events.
1.The disciples took notes:
1.i. Luke 1:1-4
2.ii. Rev. 1:19
3.iii. Luke 2:19, 51, “But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.”
4.iv. We take notes because we treasure what the Lord does and what He gives us.
2.What not to write
1.i. Don’t record all the details of the day.
2.ii. Don’t give our journals the authority of the Bible.
3.What to write
1.i. I start by recording my wake up time, my weight, and whether I worked out and/or did cardio. If I’m recording it means I am paying attention to my life and trying to move forward. When I don’t record, I’m just going with the flow, trying to survive.
2.ii. Anything that stands out or is meaningful to me.
3.iii. Anything that I think God may be showing me that day.
4.iv. Some days I may only record two lines. I don’t let writing in my journal become a burden. It is simply a tool to help me reflect on my life.
5.v. I write honestly with no intention of showing my journal to anyone. It is password protected.
3.Journal of meditation on the ways and works of God that are illumined to us in Scripture. NB. This journal sometimes overlaps with my journal of daily events. You may only want to keep one journal for both.
1.Writing causes us to read expectantly not passively.
2.An example from my meditation: 8/16/10 (Phil. 3:7-11). Paul lost “all things” for the sake of Christ. In order to “gain Christ,” that is, to move to the next level of friendship, you always have to lose something, to give up something that has been holding you back. You have to risk something for nothing more than a closer relationship to Jesus. If you risk the loss for anything other than this your motive is ulterior and you lose. “not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ”—real righteousness begins in the heart with faith, not with the external performance. By faith in Christ, Mary sat at Jesus’ feet and did nothing other than listen to Him. Righteousness is first established in the heart through faith and then it is manifested in external behavior. Paul quotes Ps. 116:10 in 2 Cor. 4:13 to this effect, “I believed, therefore I spoke” (Study the contexts of these two texts, both are about suffering and death). Jesus was rewarded for heart attitudes in Heb. 1:8-9. Faith increases by feeding the heart Scripture, which God illuminates so that we can interpret our experience by Scripture. Our experience increases our faith when we understand our experience by the light of illuminated Scripture. Sometimes God interprets our experience by speaking to us directly from heaven, but mostly it is spoken to us when God illuminates His written word. God has locked the explanation of our individual lives, the interpretation of our experience, in the Bible. “These things happened as examples to us.” Or “how shall a young man cleanse his way.” Or “it is the glory of God to conceal a matter and the glory of kings to search it out.” On another note, what happens to leaders is used by God to produce life in their followers (2 Cor. 4:12). This is why Paul is always telling his story, talking about his struggles. Whatever is going on in his life is meant to strengthen the faith of others.
1/15/2011
Scraps of Thoughts on Daily Prayer by Tim Keller
There are three kinds of prayer I try to find time for every day - meditation (or contemplation), petition, and repentance. I concentrate on the first two every morning and do the last one in the evening.
Meditation is actually a middle ground or blend of Bible reading and prayer. I like to use Luther's contemplative method that he outlines in his famous letter on prayer that he wrote to his barber. The basic method is this - to take a Scriptural truth and ask three questions of it. How does this show me something about God to praise? How does this show me something about myself to confess? How does this show me something I need to ask God for? Adoration, confession, and supplication. Luther proposes that we keep meditating like this until our hearts begin to warm and melt under a sense of the reality of God. Often that doesn't happen. Fine. We aren't ultimately praying in order to get good feelings or answers, but in order to honor God for who he is in himself.
There are two kinds of Bible reading that I try to do. I read the psalms through every month using the Book of Common Prayer's daily office. I also read through the Bible using Robert Murray M'Cheyne's reading calendar. I take the more relaxed version - two chapters a day, which takes you through the Old Testament every two years and the New Testament every year. I do the M'Cheyne reading and some of the psalms in the morning, and read some Psalms in the evening. I choose one or two things from the psalms and M'Cheyne chapters to meditate on, to conclude my morning devotions.
Besides morning prayer (M'Cheyne, Psalms, meditation, and petition) and evening prayer (Psalms and repentance) I try as often as possible to take five minutes in the middle of the day to take a spiritual inventory, either by remembering the more spiritually radioactive ideas from my morning devotion, or by a quick look at my most besetting sins and idols. I do that to see whether so far that day I've given in to bad attitudes such as pride, coldness and hardness of heart, anxiety, and unkindness. If I see myself going wrong, the mid-day prayer can catch it. The problem with mid-day prayer is finding a time for it, since every day is different. All I need is to get alone for a few minutes, but that is often impossible, or more often than not I just forget. However, I carry a little guide to mid-day prayer in my wallet which I can take out and use.
The last form of prayer that I do daily is prayer with my wife, Kathy. About nine years ago Kathy and I were contemplating the fact that we had largely failed to pray together over the years. Then Kathy exhorted me like this. "What if our doctor told us that we had a serious heart condition that in the past was always fatal. However, now there was a pill which, if we took it every night, would keep us alive for years and years. But you could never miss a single night, or you would die. If our doctor told us this and we believed it, we would never miss. We would never say, 'oh I didn't get to it.' We would do it. Right? Well, if we don't pray together every night, we are going to spiritually die." I realized she was right. And for some reason, the penny dropped for us both, and we can't remember missing a night since. Even if we are far away from each other, there's always the phone. We pray very, very simply - just a couple of minutes. We pray for whatever we are most worried about as a couple, anyone or anything on our hearts that day. And we pray through the needs of our family. That's it. Simple, but so, so good.
It is very hard to stick with this regimen, especially when I'm traveling. But every so often I buckle down for a 40-day period in which I push myself to do every one of my stated times of prayer every day. This creates habits of mind and heart that stick with me, so that even when there are very busy times, I find I am able to stick with some of my disciplines, and I don't find myself getting cold and hard toward God.
Robert Murray M'Cheyne was reputed to have said to ministers, "what your people need most from you is your personal holiness."
Meditation is actually a middle ground or blend of Bible reading and prayer. I like to use Luther's contemplative method that he outlines in his famous letter on prayer that he wrote to his barber. The basic method is this - to take a Scriptural truth and ask three questions of it. How does this show me something about God to praise? How does this show me something about myself to confess? How does this show me something I need to ask God for? Adoration, confession, and supplication. Luther proposes that we keep meditating like this until our hearts begin to warm and melt under a sense of the reality of God. Often that doesn't happen. Fine. We aren't ultimately praying in order to get good feelings or answers, but in order to honor God for who he is in himself.
There are two kinds of Bible reading that I try to do. I read the psalms through every month using the Book of Common Prayer's daily office. I also read through the Bible using Robert Murray M'Cheyne's reading calendar. I take the more relaxed version - two chapters a day, which takes you through the Old Testament every two years and the New Testament every year. I do the M'Cheyne reading and some of the psalms in the morning, and read some Psalms in the evening. I choose one or two things from the psalms and M'Cheyne chapters to meditate on, to conclude my morning devotions.
Besides morning prayer (M'Cheyne, Psalms, meditation, and petition) and evening prayer (Psalms and repentance) I try as often as possible to take five minutes in the middle of the day to take a spiritual inventory, either by remembering the more spiritually radioactive ideas from my morning devotion, or by a quick look at my most besetting sins and idols. I do that to see whether so far that day I've given in to bad attitudes such as pride, coldness and hardness of heart, anxiety, and unkindness. If I see myself going wrong, the mid-day prayer can catch it. The problem with mid-day prayer is finding a time for it, since every day is different. All I need is to get alone for a few minutes, but that is often impossible, or more often than not I just forget. However, I carry a little guide to mid-day prayer in my wallet which I can take out and use.
The last form of prayer that I do daily is prayer with my wife, Kathy. About nine years ago Kathy and I were contemplating the fact that we had largely failed to pray together over the years. Then Kathy exhorted me like this. "What if our doctor told us that we had a serious heart condition that in the past was always fatal. However, now there was a pill which, if we took it every night, would keep us alive for years and years. But you could never miss a single night, or you would die. If our doctor told us this and we believed it, we would never miss. We would never say, 'oh I didn't get to it.' We would do it. Right? Well, if we don't pray together every night, we are going to spiritually die." I realized she was right. And for some reason, the penny dropped for us both, and we can't remember missing a night since. Even if we are far away from each other, there's always the phone. We pray very, very simply - just a couple of minutes. We pray for whatever we are most worried about as a couple, anyone or anything on our hearts that day. And we pray through the needs of our family. That's it. Simple, but so, so good.
It is very hard to stick with this regimen, especially when I'm traveling. But every so often I buckle down for a 40-day period in which I push myself to do every one of my stated times of prayer every day. This creates habits of mind and heart that stick with me, so that even when there are very busy times, I find I am able to stick with some of my disciplines, and I don't find myself getting cold and hard toward God.
Robert Murray M'Cheyne was reputed to have said to ministers, "what your people need most from you is your personal holiness."
11/24/2010
How To Pray Better In Public And In Private, Too by Tim Keller
The post was copied from the Redeemer Presbyterian Church website. www.redeemer.com
Years ago when I wanted to become more skillful in public prayer, I was fortunate to come across the collects of Thomas Cranmer, the writer of the original Episcopal Book of Common Prayer. The “collects” (the stress is on the first syllable)that Cranmer wrote were brief but extremely ‘packed’ little prayers that tied together the doctrine of the day to a particular way of living. They were prayed by the minister on behalf of the people, or prayed in unison by the whole congregation.
As I have read them over the years they have brought me two great benefits. First, they have given me a basic structure by which I can compose good public prayers, either ahead of time, or spontaneously. Cranmer’s collects consist of 5 parts:
1. The address - a name of God
2. The doctrine - a truth about God’s nature that is the basis for the prayer
3. The petition - what is being asked for
4. The aspiration - what good result will come if the request is granted
5. In Jesus’ name - this remembers the mediatorial role of Jesus
See this structure in Cranmer’s famous collect for the service of Holy Communion:
1.Almighty God
2.unto whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid,
3.cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of thy Holy Spirit,
4.that we may perfectly love thee, and worthily magnify thy holy name,
5.through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
See how the prayer moves from a doctrinal basis (why we can ask for it) to the petition (what we want) to the aspiration (what we will do with it if we get it.) It is remarkable how this combines solid theology with deep aspirations of the heart and concrete goals for our daily life.
As time has gone on I have come to use Cranmer’s collects in my personal devotional time (this is the second benefit.) I take up one collect at the beginning of each new week. I read Paul Zahl’s volume The Collects of Thomas Cranmer (Eerdmans, 1999) that provides a very short explanation and meditation on the prayer. Then I pray that prayer to God reflectively every morning for the rest of the week as I begin my personal time with God. I commend this practice to you. Here are a couple of my favorites:
Blessed Lord, who has caused all holy Scripture to be written for our learning; grant that we may so hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them; that by patience and comfort of thy holy word we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of eternal life, which thou hast given us in our savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Almighty God, who dost make the minds of all faithful men to be of one will; grant unto thy people, that they may love the thing which thou commandest, and desire that which thou dost promise, that among the sundry and manifold changes of the world, our hearts may be surely fixed where true joys are to be found, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
God, which hast prepared to them that love thee such good things as pass all man’s understanding; Pour into our hearts such love toward thee, that we loving thee in all things, may obtain thy promises, which exceed all that we can desire; through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Almighty and everlasting God, who art always more ready to hear than we to pray, and art wont to give more than either we desire or deserve, pour down upon us the abundance of thy mercy, forgiving us those things whereof our conscience is afraid and giving unto us that which our prayer dare not presume to ask; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Almighty and everlasting God, give unto us the increase of faith, hope, and charity, that we may obtain that which thou dost promise, make us to love that which thou does command; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Years ago when I wanted to become more skillful in public prayer, I was fortunate to come across the collects of Thomas Cranmer, the writer of the original Episcopal Book of Common Prayer. The “collects” (the stress is on the first syllable)that Cranmer wrote were brief but extremely ‘packed’ little prayers that tied together the doctrine of the day to a particular way of living. They were prayed by the minister on behalf of the people, or prayed in unison by the whole congregation.
As I have read them over the years they have brought me two great benefits. First, they have given me a basic structure by which I can compose good public prayers, either ahead of time, or spontaneously. Cranmer’s collects consist of 5 parts:
1. The address - a name of God
2. The doctrine - a truth about God’s nature that is the basis for the prayer
3. The petition - what is being asked for
4. The aspiration - what good result will come if the request is granted
5. In Jesus’ name - this remembers the mediatorial role of Jesus
See this structure in Cranmer’s famous collect for the service of Holy Communion:
1.Almighty God
2.unto whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid,
3.cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of thy Holy Spirit,
4.that we may perfectly love thee, and worthily magnify thy holy name,
5.through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
See how the prayer moves from a doctrinal basis (why we can ask for it) to the petition (what we want) to the aspiration (what we will do with it if we get it.) It is remarkable how this combines solid theology with deep aspirations of the heart and concrete goals for our daily life.
As time has gone on I have come to use Cranmer’s collects in my personal devotional time (this is the second benefit.) I take up one collect at the beginning of each new week. I read Paul Zahl’s volume The Collects of Thomas Cranmer (Eerdmans, 1999) that provides a very short explanation and meditation on the prayer. Then I pray that prayer to God reflectively every morning for the rest of the week as I begin my personal time with God. I commend this practice to you. Here are a couple of my favorites:
Blessed Lord, who has caused all holy Scripture to be written for our learning; grant that we may so hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them; that by patience and comfort of thy holy word we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of eternal life, which thou hast given us in our savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Almighty God, who dost make the minds of all faithful men to be of one will; grant unto thy people, that they may love the thing which thou commandest, and desire that which thou dost promise, that among the sundry and manifold changes of the world, our hearts may be surely fixed where true joys are to be found, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
God, which hast prepared to them that love thee such good things as pass all man’s understanding; Pour into our hearts such love toward thee, that we loving thee in all things, may obtain thy promises, which exceed all that we can desire; through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Almighty and everlasting God, who art always more ready to hear than we to pray, and art wont to give more than either we desire or deserve, pour down upon us the abundance of thy mercy, forgiving us those things whereof our conscience is afraid and giving unto us that which our prayer dare not presume to ask; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Almighty and everlasting God, give unto us the increase of faith, hope, and charity, that we may obtain that which thou dost promise, make us to love that which thou does command; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
9/15/2010
A Prayer Life That Nourishes Your Relationship To God by Tim Keller
This post was copied from the Redeemer Presbyterian Church website www.redeemer.com
"Every year I look forward to the slower pace of the summer months because of the opportunity it gives me to re-invigorate my prayer life. It's not that I don't pray during the year, but rarely, in the press of hectic scheduling, am I able to consistently devote the hours necessary to reawaken the intimacy with God that not only I crave, but which is my only defense against burnout.
Just as the old discussion of quality time versus quantity time with your family is a red herring (there IS no quality time, except that which occurs in the midst of a large quantity of time), so with God. The richness of my experience of God in prayer only occurs in the midst of much time set aside to be with him. That said, there are several other things I do which might be helpful to some of you who also will have increased flexibility of time in the coming months, and who want to connect with God in a deeper way.
The main way I do this is to seek an increase in the amount of my meditation. It is no accident that the first two Psalms in the Psalter are not prayers per se, but rather meditations. In fact the very first Psalm, the doorway into the prayer book of the Bible, is a meditation on meditation. Why? We are being taught that while it is certainly possible for deep experiences of the presence and power of God to hap pen in innumerable ways, the ordinary way for 'going deeper' spiritually is through meditation. It is in meditation that we get into deeper self-surrender, then into higher, clearer faith-sights of his beauty, and finally into powerful, dynamic prayer for the world.
What is meditation?
In most Protestant traditions, the 'personal devotional' life consists of two parts: Bible study and prayer. But meditation is neither and both. The Puritan Richard Baxter wrote: "Solemn or stated meditation is distinguished from the study of the word, wherein our principle aim is to learn the truth; and also from prayer, whereof God himself is the immediate object. But meditation is the affecting of our own hearts and minds with love, delight, and humility toward the things contained [in the Word]."
An example of meditation is found in Psalm 103:1-2: "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits." Notice that this is not the same thing as prayer. He is not speaking directly to God, though it is clear that David is extremely aware of being in the presence of God. The object of the meditation is his own heart. David is 'talking to himself' - to his soul. But the subject of the meditation is truth about God - "forget not all his benefits."
Obviously, David has not intellectually forgotten that God has forgiven his sins, redeemed his life, and so on (Ps.103:2ff.) Rather, he is taking Biblical truths and driving them into his own heart until it is affected, delighted, and changed by them. Peter Toon has written that meditation is the descent of the mind with Biblical truth into the inmost heart until the whole being yearns for God.
The kind of meditation we see in the Psalms is neither the anti-rational 'spirituality' of New Age religion, nor is it the over-rational 'spirituality' of much modern evangelical religion. On the one hand, New Age religion takes its cues from Eastern philosophy and thinks of meditation as a calm, serene emptying of the mind of all rational thought. David's meditation, however, is furiously rational. "Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me?" he says in Psalm 42, literally arguing and reasoning with his heart. On the other hand, much evangelical religion is afraid of any mystical, experiential element. It conceives of a 'devotional life' as only the study of the Bible and then prayer for the strength to practice it. David's meditation, however, is deeply mystical. "One thing I seek - to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord" (Ps.27:4). He is looking for a transformation of the affections of his heart as he prays.
Jonathan Edwards speaks of this very thing in his own practice of meditation. "In reading [the Scripture] I seemed often to see so much light, that I could not get along in reading - almost every sentence seemed to be full of wonders....I...found, from time to time, an inward sweetness, that used, as it were, to carry me away in my contemplations. I felt alone... sweetly conversing with Christ, and wrapped and swallowed up in God. The sense I had of divine things, would often of a sudden as it were, kindle up a sweet burning in my heart; an ardor of my soul, that I know not how to express..." Notice how his meditation ("contemplations") on the Word led into a deep sense of intimacy in prayer. That is why a Psalm on meditation begins the Biblical book on prayer.
How to meditate
Of course, the best way to learn to do anything is to watch a "master" at work. If you read Psalms 1, 42, 77, 103, and 119 you get this very thing. However, we all need to begin as beginners. There is no better 'Beginner's Guide to Meditation' than the model that Martin Luther gave in his letter "A Simple Way to Pray" written to his barber, Peter Beskendorf, in 1535. Luther directed that we should "warm the heart up" through meditation before we prayed. Based on Luther's insights, I use the following outline for a short (30 minutes or less) time of Bible reading, meditation, and prayer. After reading a portion of the Bible slowly, and choosing one or two things or insights that especially helped me, I take each insight and ask the following questions:
1.Adoration - How can I love and praise God on the basis of this? What do I see here that I can praise him for?
2.Repentance - How do I fail to realize this in my life? What wrong behavior, harmful emotions or attitudes result when I forget this?
3.Gospel Thanks - How can I thank Jesus as the ultimate revelation of this attribute of God (#1) and the ultimate answer to this sin or need of mine (#2)?
4.Aspiration- How does this show me what I should or can be and do? How would I be different if this truth were powerfully real to me?
After I have thought out and at least sketchily written out answers to each question, then I proceed to pray my praises, confessions, and supplications to God directly. Often, as you are meditating, or as you are praying, you may feel your heart warm or even melt with a spiritual sense of the reality of God. Sometimes, of course, nothing happens at all! And very rarely, you can have life-changing experiences of the presence of God that you never forget. The number and power of these encounters are completely out of your control. The Spirit blows wherever he pleases (Jn 3:8). But it has only been with the practice of meditation that my own experience of God's reality has become at all regular and progressively deeper.
"Blessed is the man [whose] delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night." (Psalm 1:1,3)"
"Every year I look forward to the slower pace of the summer months because of the opportunity it gives me to re-invigorate my prayer life. It's not that I don't pray during the year, but rarely, in the press of hectic scheduling, am I able to consistently devote the hours necessary to reawaken the intimacy with God that not only I crave, but which is my only defense against burnout.
Just as the old discussion of quality time versus quantity time with your family is a red herring (there IS no quality time, except that which occurs in the midst of a large quantity of time), so with God. The richness of my experience of God in prayer only occurs in the midst of much time set aside to be with him. That said, there are several other things I do which might be helpful to some of you who also will have increased flexibility of time in the coming months, and who want to connect with God in a deeper way.
The main way I do this is to seek an increase in the amount of my meditation. It is no accident that the first two Psalms in the Psalter are not prayers per se, but rather meditations. In fact the very first Psalm, the doorway into the prayer book of the Bible, is a meditation on meditation. Why? We are being taught that while it is certainly possible for deep experiences of the presence and power of God to hap pen in innumerable ways, the ordinary way for 'going deeper' spiritually is through meditation. It is in meditation that we get into deeper self-surrender, then into higher, clearer faith-sights of his beauty, and finally into powerful, dynamic prayer for the world.
What is meditation?
In most Protestant traditions, the 'personal devotional' life consists of two parts: Bible study and prayer. But meditation is neither and both. The Puritan Richard Baxter wrote: "Solemn or stated meditation is distinguished from the study of the word, wherein our principle aim is to learn the truth; and also from prayer, whereof God himself is the immediate object. But meditation is the affecting of our own hearts and minds with love, delight, and humility toward the things contained [in the Word]."
An example of meditation is found in Psalm 103:1-2: "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits." Notice that this is not the same thing as prayer. He is not speaking directly to God, though it is clear that David is extremely aware of being in the presence of God. The object of the meditation is his own heart. David is 'talking to himself' - to his soul. But the subject of the meditation is truth about God - "forget not all his benefits."
Obviously, David has not intellectually forgotten that God has forgiven his sins, redeemed his life, and so on (Ps.103:2ff.) Rather, he is taking Biblical truths and driving them into his own heart until it is affected, delighted, and changed by them. Peter Toon has written that meditation is the descent of the mind with Biblical truth into the inmost heart until the whole being yearns for God.
The kind of meditation we see in the Psalms is neither the anti-rational 'spirituality' of New Age religion, nor is it the over-rational 'spirituality' of much modern evangelical religion. On the one hand, New Age religion takes its cues from Eastern philosophy and thinks of meditation as a calm, serene emptying of the mind of all rational thought. David's meditation, however, is furiously rational. "Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me?" he says in Psalm 42, literally arguing and reasoning with his heart. On the other hand, much evangelical religion is afraid of any mystical, experiential element. It conceives of a 'devotional life' as only the study of the Bible and then prayer for the strength to practice it. David's meditation, however, is deeply mystical. "One thing I seek - to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord" (Ps.27:4). He is looking for a transformation of the affections of his heart as he prays.
Jonathan Edwards speaks of this very thing in his own practice of meditation. "In reading [the Scripture] I seemed often to see so much light, that I could not get along in reading - almost every sentence seemed to be full of wonders....I...found, from time to time, an inward sweetness, that used, as it were, to carry me away in my contemplations. I felt alone... sweetly conversing with Christ, and wrapped and swallowed up in God. The sense I had of divine things, would often of a sudden as it were, kindle up a sweet burning in my heart; an ardor of my soul, that I know not how to express..." Notice how his meditation ("contemplations") on the Word led into a deep sense of intimacy in prayer. That is why a Psalm on meditation begins the Biblical book on prayer.
How to meditate
Of course, the best way to learn to do anything is to watch a "master" at work. If you read Psalms 1, 42, 77, 103, and 119 you get this very thing. However, we all need to begin as beginners. There is no better 'Beginner's Guide to Meditation' than the model that Martin Luther gave in his letter "A Simple Way to Pray" written to his barber, Peter Beskendorf, in 1535. Luther directed that we should "warm the heart up" through meditation before we prayed. Based on Luther's insights, I use the following outline for a short (30 minutes or less) time of Bible reading, meditation, and prayer. After reading a portion of the Bible slowly, and choosing one or two things or insights that especially helped me, I take each insight and ask the following questions:
1.Adoration - How can I love and praise God on the basis of this? What do I see here that I can praise him for?
2.Repentance - How do I fail to realize this in my life? What wrong behavior, harmful emotions or attitudes result when I forget this?
3.Gospel Thanks - How can I thank Jesus as the ultimate revelation of this attribute of God (#1) and the ultimate answer to this sin or need of mine (#2)?
4.Aspiration- How does this show me what I should or can be and do? How would I be different if this truth were powerfully real to me?
After I have thought out and at least sketchily written out answers to each question, then I proceed to pray my praises, confessions, and supplications to God directly. Often, as you are meditating, or as you are praying, you may feel your heart warm or even melt with a spiritual sense of the reality of God. Sometimes, of course, nothing happens at all! And very rarely, you can have life-changing experiences of the presence of God that you never forget. The number and power of these encounters are completely out of your control. The Spirit blows wherever he pleases (Jn 3:8). But it has only been with the practice of meditation that my own experience of God's reality has become at all regular and progressively deeper.
"Blessed is the man [whose] delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night." (Psalm 1:1,3)"
1/28/2010
11/23/2009
Meditative Prayer: Filling The Mind
Meditative Prayer: Filling the Mind
Winfield BevinsActs 29 Pastor - Outer Banks, North Carolina
"We have some idea, perhaps, what prayer is, but what is meditation? Well may we ask, for meditation is a lost art today, and Christian people suffer grievously from their ignorance of the practice. Meditation is the activity of calling to mind, and thinking over, and dwelling on, and applying to oneself, the various things that one knows about the works and ways and purposes and promises of God."—J.I. Packer
Let God Speak to You
In personal prayer we speak to God, but in meditative prayer we allow God to speak to us through his word and his Spirit. Never before has there been such a need to rediscover the quiet art of meditative prayer.
If we are not careful, the many distractions of this world will drown out the quiet voice of God within our hearts and make us numb to our spiritual needs. We need to find a quiet place to be with God and hear his word. In stillness and solitude God speaks to our hearts and fills us with the refreshing presence of his Spirit.
Emptying vs. Filling the Mind
What do we mean by meditative prayer? Is there such thing as Christian meditation? Isn't meditation non-Christian? According to Richard Foster, "Eastern meditation is an attempt to empty the mind. Christian meditation is an attempt to fill the mind" (Celebration of Discipline). Rather than emptying the mind we fill it with God's word. We must not neglect a vital part of our Judeo-Christian heritage simply because other traditions use a form of meditation. Christian meditation has its roots in the Hebrew tradition of the Bible.
There are numerous Biblical references to prayerful meditation:
•"This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night" (Joshua 1:8).
•"But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night" (Psalm 1:2).
•"I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways" (Psalm 119:15).
•"I will lift up my hands toward your commandments, which I love, and I will meditate on your statutes" (Psalm 119:48).
•"O how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day" (Psalm 119:97).
•"My eyes are awake before the watches of the night, that I may meditate on your promise" (Psalm 119:148).
•"I remember the days of old; I meditate on all that you have done; I ponder the work of your hands" (Psalm 143:5).
To be continued. ( This article was taken from the Resurgence blog.)
Winfield BevinsActs 29 Pastor - Outer Banks, North Carolina
"We have some idea, perhaps, what prayer is, but what is meditation? Well may we ask, for meditation is a lost art today, and Christian people suffer grievously from their ignorance of the practice. Meditation is the activity of calling to mind, and thinking over, and dwelling on, and applying to oneself, the various things that one knows about the works and ways and purposes and promises of God."—J.I. Packer
Let God Speak to You
In personal prayer we speak to God, but in meditative prayer we allow God to speak to us through his word and his Spirit. Never before has there been such a need to rediscover the quiet art of meditative prayer.
If we are not careful, the many distractions of this world will drown out the quiet voice of God within our hearts and make us numb to our spiritual needs. We need to find a quiet place to be with God and hear his word. In stillness and solitude God speaks to our hearts and fills us with the refreshing presence of his Spirit.
Emptying vs. Filling the Mind
What do we mean by meditative prayer? Is there such thing as Christian meditation? Isn't meditation non-Christian? According to Richard Foster, "Eastern meditation is an attempt to empty the mind. Christian meditation is an attempt to fill the mind" (Celebration of Discipline). Rather than emptying the mind we fill it with God's word. We must not neglect a vital part of our Judeo-Christian heritage simply because other traditions use a form of meditation. Christian meditation has its roots in the Hebrew tradition of the Bible.
There are numerous Biblical references to prayerful meditation:
•"This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night" (Joshua 1:8).
•"But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night" (Psalm 1:2).
•"I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways" (Psalm 119:15).
•"I will lift up my hands toward your commandments, which I love, and I will meditate on your statutes" (Psalm 119:48).
•"O how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day" (Psalm 119:97).
•"My eyes are awake before the watches of the night, that I may meditate on your promise" (Psalm 119:148).
•"I remember the days of old; I meditate on all that you have done; I ponder the work of your hands" (Psalm 143:5).
To be continued. ( This article was taken from the Resurgence blog.)
11/01/2009
Lection Divina - "Divine Reading"
(This article was taken from the Redeemer Presbyterian Church website.)
Lectio Divina, or "Divine Reading" involves meditative listening to the reading, out loud and slowly, of a short passage or a few isolated verses of Scripture. It can be down on your own or with a group. Those who listen are encouraged to set aside analysis, and what they "know" already about the passage, seeking instead to open themselves to God's Word, listen with their hearts and receive it expectantly and passively. They then attend to what they receive from God. God's Word is received personally, as an individualized gift to each person.
Lectio Divina, on your own:
Choose a short Scripture passage for your meditation, and it is to be read out loud slowly. Quiet yourself and ask the Holy Spirit to guard and guide your meditation.
First reading. One minute silent reflection before God. Take notice of whatever captures your attention in the passage or in your inner experience.
Second reading. One minute silent reflection. Listen for a single word or phrase that particularly strikes you.
Third reading. 3-5 minutes silent reflection. Listen to how the passage seems to touch your life experience.
Fourth reading. 3-5 minutes silent reflection. What do you feel the passage might be inviting you to do? What is God inviting you to be? How is God inviting you to change? Spend some time in prayer over what you received from God's Word, and give thanks for His gift to you.
Lectio Divina, with a group:
Begin
One participant opens with a brief, spoken prayer.
Read
Another participant reads the passage aloud, slowly.
Reflect
After one minute of silence each participant writes down an answer to the question: "What word/phrase caught my attention?"
Share
Each participant shares his/her word or phrase without comment.
Read
Another participant reads the same passage aloud from a different translation.
Reflect
After 3-5 minutes silence each participant writes down an answer to the question: "Where does this passage touch my life experience?"
Share
Each participant shares his/her answer in turn, without comment.
Read
A third participant reads the passage aloud from yet another translation.
Reflect
For 3-5 minutes participants write an answer to the question: "From what I have heard and shared, what is God inviting me to be? How is He inviting me to change?"
Share
Each participant shares, beginning: "I believe God wants me to..."
Pray
Each participant then prays aloud for the person on his/her right, praying only for what that person expressed in the prior step. (option: each person continues to pray for that person throughout the day or evening.)
Notes for Group Lectio Divina:
Leader preparation: Select a short passage of scripture. Having 3 translations available will add richness, but this is optional. Allow ~ 25 minutes for a group of five, longer with more participants. A digital timer or stop watch is helpful.
Group preparation: None, except access to pen and paper.
Source: Material adapted from Sacred Companions by David Benner, 2002 by John Smed, Grace Vancouver. Materials used with permission, Redeemer Prayer Conference, June 2006.
Lectio Divina, or "Divine Reading" involves meditative listening to the reading, out loud and slowly, of a short passage or a few isolated verses of Scripture. It can be down on your own or with a group. Those who listen are encouraged to set aside analysis, and what they "know" already about the passage, seeking instead to open themselves to God's Word, listen with their hearts and receive it expectantly and passively. They then attend to what they receive from God. God's Word is received personally, as an individualized gift to each person.
Lectio Divina, on your own:
Choose a short Scripture passage for your meditation, and it is to be read out loud slowly. Quiet yourself and ask the Holy Spirit to guard and guide your meditation.
First reading. One minute silent reflection before God. Take notice of whatever captures your attention in the passage or in your inner experience.
Second reading. One minute silent reflection. Listen for a single word or phrase that particularly strikes you.
Third reading. 3-5 minutes silent reflection. Listen to how the passage seems to touch your life experience.
Fourth reading. 3-5 minutes silent reflection. What do you feel the passage might be inviting you to do? What is God inviting you to be? How is God inviting you to change? Spend some time in prayer over what you received from God's Word, and give thanks for His gift to you.
Lectio Divina, with a group:
Begin
One participant opens with a brief, spoken prayer.
Read
Another participant reads the passage aloud, slowly.
Reflect
After one minute of silence each participant writes down an answer to the question: "What word/phrase caught my attention?"
Share
Each participant shares his/her word or phrase without comment.
Read
Another participant reads the same passage aloud from a different translation.
Reflect
After 3-5 minutes silence each participant writes down an answer to the question: "Where does this passage touch my life experience?"
Share
Each participant shares his/her answer in turn, without comment.
Read
A third participant reads the passage aloud from yet another translation.
Reflect
For 3-5 minutes participants write an answer to the question: "From what I have heard and shared, what is God inviting me to be? How is He inviting me to change?"
Share
Each participant shares, beginning: "I believe God wants me to..."
Pray
Each participant then prays aloud for the person on his/her right, praying only for what that person expressed in the prior step. (option: each person continues to pray for that person throughout the day or evening.)
Notes for Group Lectio Divina:
Leader preparation: Select a short passage of scripture. Having 3 translations available will add richness, but this is optional. Allow ~ 25 minutes for a group of five, longer with more participants. A digital timer or stop watch is helpful.
Group preparation: None, except access to pen and paper.
Source: Material adapted from Sacred Companions by David Benner, 2002 by John Smed, Grace Vancouver. Materials used with permission, Redeemer Prayer Conference, June 2006.
Meditation: Not So Mysterious by Jan Johnson
(The article was taken from the Redeemer Presbyterian Church website,)
Meditation: Not So Mysterious
Two ways to move Scripture off the page and into your life
Ever get sick and tired of old habits that won't go away? You find yourself whining when you should be grateful. You trash someone in your mind when you should care about his needs. You feel lazy when there are so many exciting things to do. What does it take to have the heart of Christ, to obey the commands that seem so difficult?
Trying to be good doesn't work because such efforts are about us, not about Christ. What works better is connecting with God in deeper ways that allow God to "[work] in you to will and to act according to his good purpose" (Phil. 2:13).
One important–but overlooked–way to connect with God is meditating on Scripture. Joshua wrote: "Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it" (Josh. 1:8). As we invite God to move beyond the door of our inner being by meditating on Scripture, He works miraculous heart changes within us that lead to a more Christlike life.
The psalmists valued meditation; they mentioned it 16 times in Psalms. By inserting the word selah 71 times in Psalms, they encouraged resting in and reflecting on the Word. Though selah is sometimes dismissed as a mere musical notation, most commentators agree that it was used at points where the singer or psalm reader should pause to reflect.
But reflect on what? The objects of meditation include aspects of God's character (such as God's unfailing love, see Ps. 48:9), God's works (see Ps. 77:12), and God's precepts and ways (see Ps. 119:15). Beyond that, we are given little instruction. That's why I wasn't sure what to do in my early attempts to meditate. I turned to classic Christian writers for help. Just as there are many ways to pray and study Scripture, Christians throughout the ages have found many ways to meditate. Those who've gone before me have helped me connect with God in ways that have surprised me. Let's look at two specific approaches to meditation.
Spiritual Exercises
One of the best-known ways to ponder God's character, works, and ways is a format originated by Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuits. Loyola's methods, recorded in his book Spiritual Exercises, have been used for hundreds of years. He urged people to enter into Scripture with all five senses: sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell.
If this idea startles you (as it did me), consider A. W. Tozer's words:
The same terms are used to express the knowledge of God as are used to express knowledge of physical things. "O taste and see that the Lord is good" (Ps. 34:8). "All the garments smell of myrrh and aloes and cassia, out of ivory palaces" (Ps. 45:8). "My sheep hear my voice" (Jn. 10:27). "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God" (Mt. 5:8) . . . What can all this mean except that we have in our hearts organs by means of which we can know God as certainly as we know material things through our familiar five senses?
Using the five senses allows you to experience the text in a fresh way. For example, as you enter into the text of Mk. 10:17�22, you may take the role of the rich young ruler and see what he saw. In verse 21, Jesus "looked at him and loved him," then immediately challenged him to give up what he apparently loved best: his wealth. Years ago, I began meditating on that passage. Ever since, I have regularly had a sense of God looking at me, loving me, and then challenging me to give up ingrained habits I hold close: self-centered thoughts, judgmental attitudes, the need to be right. When nothing else has been able to persuade me to relinquish such things, that picture of Jesus' loving yet challenging gaze has resurfaced, and I have quietly acquiesced.
As I meditate on a passage, I often ask myself, What did the biblical scene look like? At first, this was difficult. But then I decided to pretend I was Cecil B. DeMille creating a scene for a biblical epic such as The Ten Commandments. When I meditated on the transfiguration of Christ, I tried to imagine Jesus' radiance. This passage required that I bring in Steven Spielberg too�adding the special effects of lightning-bright clothes. Then as I imagined the scene, I wondered (as a skilled movie director would), What was Jesus doing when His appearance changed? I peeked at the original script and found that Jesus was praying (Lk. 9:29). I immediately prostrated myself on the floor and said to God, "As I pray, change me, too. Make me the person You wish me to be."
Another meditation question I use is, How would I have behaved if I'd been a disciple standing by? As Jesus talked to Legion in that graveyard by the sea, how would I have responded to the screams of the demonized man and the smell of blood from his cut flesh (Mk. 5:5)? What would I have thought of my teacher, who was not intimidated by this naked, crazed man, but cared for him? Would I have wanted to run for the hills? Would I have gotten out of the boat to watch Jesus in action (which, according to the text, none of the disciples seems to have done)?
For meditation to work, you need to pay attention to the details of Scripture. Though this may seem similar to Bible study, meditation differs in technique. In Bible study, you dissect the text; in Scripture meditation, you savor it and enter into it. In Bible study, you ask questions about the text; in meditation, you let the text ask questions of you. In Bible study, you examine how biblical facts relate to each other; in meditation, you let God speak to you in light of the facts you've already considered. Meditation is about absorbing scriptural truth: seeing in our minds how God behaved in Scripture and being open to His leading to behave in the same way.
Lectio Divina
As I tried to meditate on the discourse and poetic texts, such as the New Testament letters and Old Testament poets and prophets, I found that another classical method helped me: lectio divina. This kind of meditation has been used widely among believers since the sixth century. Lectio divina consists of four parts: reading a passage, meditating on that passage, praying, and contemplating God. After the Scripture is read aloud, participants wait for a word, phrase, or image from the passage to emerge and stay with them. From this phrase or image, the participant asks, What does this passage say to me right now? (Bible study before meditating is important preparatory work because it asks, What did the passage say to listeners then? This keeps us from coming up with absurd answers to this question.)
Once while meditating on Mt. 11:20-30 (10 verses or fewer work best for lectio divina), I was struck by the word weary. I pondered that word for a while and began picturing weary people who needed Jesus for their rest. I was so grateful that Jesus was there for the weary. I read the passage aloud again, and this time I noticed the word gentle. I spent some time thinking about how much weary people need gentle people.
A few weeks later I found myself at a school reunion. I don't know why, but everybody there irritated me. I listened to the women at the next table yak endlessly, and I thought terrible things about them, such as, No wonder they couldn't stay married! At the same time, I was highly aware of my own judgmental attitude. I became so sick of myself that I got away and asked God to help me with this harshness. "Make me gentle," I prayed. The words of Mt. 11:28 immediately came to mind: "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." I pictured one of the women who had annoyed me and prayed, "O God, she is weary and burdened. Give her rest. Help her come to You."
I did that with a few others until I felt strong enough to return to the gathering. In the midst of parties and sight-seeing, I kept praying Mt. 11:28 for each person I met. My attitude changed completely. I felt merciful and genuine in my heart and started having fun! I would never have prayed this way if I hadn't spent time with Jesus meditating on that passage.
Danger Ahead?
Some evangelical Christians are wary of meditation because it's practiced in other religions. But it's important to remember that Christians do not meditate the same way that practitioners of Eastern religions do. The goals are different. In Eastern religions, participants empty their minds and fill them with nothing. In Christianity, we seek to surrender our hurried to-do lists, our worry about today's appointments, and our obsession with what others think of us and focus instead upon the words and images of Scripture.
Other Christians object to using the imagination in meditation. But since I read Richard Foster's words about "sanctifying the imagination" many years ago, I've asked God to purify my imagination along with my heart, mind, and will. Isn't it wiser to give the imagination to God to be retrained than to ignore it? If we don't, our imagination finds entertainment of its own and gets us into trouble. When activated by the images and truths of Scripture, the imagination supports the penetrating Word of God's ability to become active in our lives.
Doing Nothing?
But what if you meditate and "nothing" happens? What if God doesn't confront you with a verse or you don't get a personal insight? That's normal.
My long years of meditating on Zeph. 3:17 have helped during these times: "The Lord your God . . . will take great delight in you . . . [and] will rejoice over you with singing." When I don't receive any fresh insights while meditating, I imagine God delighting in me and singing over me. As I've tried to picture this scene, I remember how I used to rock my children and sing all three verses of "Great Is Thy Faithfulness" until they fell asleep. (A friend of mine pictures God as a father standing on the sidelines of a soccer game and cheering whether or not he makes a goal.) These quiet "nothing" moments of meditation are valuable because we can enjoy the company of God without yammering about our 455 prayer requests. To simply enjoy God's presence is a delightful thing.
Over the years, I've noticed that meditation often results in "accidental obedience." I meditate on a passage, and without realizing it, I am "careful to do" God's will (Josh. 1:8). I meditate on Jesus challenging the rich young ruler, and I begin giving up obsessions. I meditate on Jesus' gentleness with the weary, and I am gentle with those around me. I meditate on being loved by God, and I am conscious of God's love in ways I haven't been before. This accidental obedience–or spiritual formation–works a lot better than trying hard to be good. This way, God comes into my soul and sits with me, teaching me to abide in Him.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
About the author:
Jan Johnson is a writer and retreat speaker. As a trained spiritual director, she helps believers immerse themselves in God's Word. She also volunteers with a drop-in center for the homeless. Her book Listening to God (NavPress) includes 30 passages of Scripture and directions for meditating on them.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Used by permission of Pray! Magazine. Copyright © 2006, The Navigators. Used by permission of NavPress. All Rights Reserved. To subscribe, visit www.praymag.com or call (800) 691-7729.
Meditation: Not So Mysterious
Two ways to move Scripture off the page and into your life
Ever get sick and tired of old habits that won't go away? You find yourself whining when you should be grateful. You trash someone in your mind when you should care about his needs. You feel lazy when there are so many exciting things to do. What does it take to have the heart of Christ, to obey the commands that seem so difficult?
Trying to be good doesn't work because such efforts are about us, not about Christ. What works better is connecting with God in deeper ways that allow God to "[work] in you to will and to act according to his good purpose" (Phil. 2:13).
One important–but overlooked–way to connect with God is meditating on Scripture. Joshua wrote: "Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it" (Josh. 1:8). As we invite God to move beyond the door of our inner being by meditating on Scripture, He works miraculous heart changes within us that lead to a more Christlike life.
The psalmists valued meditation; they mentioned it 16 times in Psalms. By inserting the word selah 71 times in Psalms, they encouraged resting in and reflecting on the Word. Though selah is sometimes dismissed as a mere musical notation, most commentators agree that it was used at points where the singer or psalm reader should pause to reflect.
But reflect on what? The objects of meditation include aspects of God's character (such as God's unfailing love, see Ps. 48:9), God's works (see Ps. 77:12), and God's precepts and ways (see Ps. 119:15). Beyond that, we are given little instruction. That's why I wasn't sure what to do in my early attempts to meditate. I turned to classic Christian writers for help. Just as there are many ways to pray and study Scripture, Christians throughout the ages have found many ways to meditate. Those who've gone before me have helped me connect with God in ways that have surprised me. Let's look at two specific approaches to meditation.
Spiritual Exercises
One of the best-known ways to ponder God's character, works, and ways is a format originated by Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuits. Loyola's methods, recorded in his book Spiritual Exercises, have been used for hundreds of years. He urged people to enter into Scripture with all five senses: sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell.
If this idea startles you (as it did me), consider A. W. Tozer's words:
The same terms are used to express the knowledge of God as are used to express knowledge of physical things. "O taste and see that the Lord is good" (Ps. 34:8). "All the garments smell of myrrh and aloes and cassia, out of ivory palaces" (Ps. 45:8). "My sheep hear my voice" (Jn. 10:27). "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God" (Mt. 5:8) . . . What can all this mean except that we have in our hearts organs by means of which we can know God as certainly as we know material things through our familiar five senses?
Using the five senses allows you to experience the text in a fresh way. For example, as you enter into the text of Mk. 10:17�22, you may take the role of the rich young ruler and see what he saw. In verse 21, Jesus "looked at him and loved him," then immediately challenged him to give up what he apparently loved best: his wealth. Years ago, I began meditating on that passage. Ever since, I have regularly had a sense of God looking at me, loving me, and then challenging me to give up ingrained habits I hold close: self-centered thoughts, judgmental attitudes, the need to be right. When nothing else has been able to persuade me to relinquish such things, that picture of Jesus' loving yet challenging gaze has resurfaced, and I have quietly acquiesced.
As I meditate on a passage, I often ask myself, What did the biblical scene look like? At first, this was difficult. But then I decided to pretend I was Cecil B. DeMille creating a scene for a biblical epic such as The Ten Commandments. When I meditated on the transfiguration of Christ, I tried to imagine Jesus' radiance. This passage required that I bring in Steven Spielberg too�adding the special effects of lightning-bright clothes. Then as I imagined the scene, I wondered (as a skilled movie director would), What was Jesus doing when His appearance changed? I peeked at the original script and found that Jesus was praying (Lk. 9:29). I immediately prostrated myself on the floor and said to God, "As I pray, change me, too. Make me the person You wish me to be."
Another meditation question I use is, How would I have behaved if I'd been a disciple standing by? As Jesus talked to Legion in that graveyard by the sea, how would I have responded to the screams of the demonized man and the smell of blood from his cut flesh (Mk. 5:5)? What would I have thought of my teacher, who was not intimidated by this naked, crazed man, but cared for him? Would I have wanted to run for the hills? Would I have gotten out of the boat to watch Jesus in action (which, according to the text, none of the disciples seems to have done)?
For meditation to work, you need to pay attention to the details of Scripture. Though this may seem similar to Bible study, meditation differs in technique. In Bible study, you dissect the text; in Scripture meditation, you savor it and enter into it. In Bible study, you ask questions about the text; in meditation, you let the text ask questions of you. In Bible study, you examine how biblical facts relate to each other; in meditation, you let God speak to you in light of the facts you've already considered. Meditation is about absorbing scriptural truth: seeing in our minds how God behaved in Scripture and being open to His leading to behave in the same way.
Lectio Divina
As I tried to meditate on the discourse and poetic texts, such as the New Testament letters and Old Testament poets and prophets, I found that another classical method helped me: lectio divina. This kind of meditation has been used widely among believers since the sixth century. Lectio divina consists of four parts: reading a passage, meditating on that passage, praying, and contemplating God. After the Scripture is read aloud, participants wait for a word, phrase, or image from the passage to emerge and stay with them. From this phrase or image, the participant asks, What does this passage say to me right now? (Bible study before meditating is important preparatory work because it asks, What did the passage say to listeners then? This keeps us from coming up with absurd answers to this question.)
Once while meditating on Mt. 11:20-30 (10 verses or fewer work best for lectio divina), I was struck by the word weary. I pondered that word for a while and began picturing weary people who needed Jesus for their rest. I was so grateful that Jesus was there for the weary. I read the passage aloud again, and this time I noticed the word gentle. I spent some time thinking about how much weary people need gentle people.
A few weeks later I found myself at a school reunion. I don't know why, but everybody there irritated me. I listened to the women at the next table yak endlessly, and I thought terrible things about them, such as, No wonder they couldn't stay married! At the same time, I was highly aware of my own judgmental attitude. I became so sick of myself that I got away and asked God to help me with this harshness. "Make me gentle," I prayed. The words of Mt. 11:28 immediately came to mind: "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." I pictured one of the women who had annoyed me and prayed, "O God, she is weary and burdened. Give her rest. Help her come to You."
I did that with a few others until I felt strong enough to return to the gathering. In the midst of parties and sight-seeing, I kept praying Mt. 11:28 for each person I met. My attitude changed completely. I felt merciful and genuine in my heart and started having fun! I would never have prayed this way if I hadn't spent time with Jesus meditating on that passage.
Danger Ahead?
Some evangelical Christians are wary of meditation because it's practiced in other religions. But it's important to remember that Christians do not meditate the same way that practitioners of Eastern religions do. The goals are different. In Eastern religions, participants empty their minds and fill them with nothing. In Christianity, we seek to surrender our hurried to-do lists, our worry about today's appointments, and our obsession with what others think of us and focus instead upon the words and images of Scripture.
Other Christians object to using the imagination in meditation. But since I read Richard Foster's words about "sanctifying the imagination" many years ago, I've asked God to purify my imagination along with my heart, mind, and will. Isn't it wiser to give the imagination to God to be retrained than to ignore it? If we don't, our imagination finds entertainment of its own and gets us into trouble. When activated by the images and truths of Scripture, the imagination supports the penetrating Word of God's ability to become active in our lives.
Doing Nothing?
But what if you meditate and "nothing" happens? What if God doesn't confront you with a verse or you don't get a personal insight? That's normal.
My long years of meditating on Zeph. 3:17 have helped during these times: "The Lord your God . . . will take great delight in you . . . [and] will rejoice over you with singing." When I don't receive any fresh insights while meditating, I imagine God delighting in me and singing over me. As I've tried to picture this scene, I remember how I used to rock my children and sing all three verses of "Great Is Thy Faithfulness" until they fell asleep. (A friend of mine pictures God as a father standing on the sidelines of a soccer game and cheering whether or not he makes a goal.) These quiet "nothing" moments of meditation are valuable because we can enjoy the company of God without yammering about our 455 prayer requests. To simply enjoy God's presence is a delightful thing.
Over the years, I've noticed that meditation often results in "accidental obedience." I meditate on a passage, and without realizing it, I am "careful to do" God's will (Josh. 1:8). I meditate on Jesus challenging the rich young ruler, and I begin giving up obsessions. I meditate on Jesus' gentleness with the weary, and I am gentle with those around me. I meditate on being loved by God, and I am conscious of God's love in ways I haven't been before. This accidental obedience–or spiritual formation–works a lot better than trying hard to be good. This way, God comes into my soul and sits with me, teaching me to abide in Him.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
About the author:
Jan Johnson is a writer and retreat speaker. As a trained spiritual director, she helps believers immerse themselves in God's Word. She also volunteers with a drop-in center for the homeless. Her book Listening to God (NavPress) includes 30 passages of Scripture and directions for meditating on them.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Used by permission of Pray! Magazine. Copyright © 2006, The Navigators. Used by permission of NavPress. All Rights Reserved. To subscribe, visit www.praymag.com or call (800) 691-7729.
10/31/2009
Prayer and The Gospel by Tim Keller
(The following article was taken from the Redeemer Presbyterian Church website.)
Principles
One of the most basic things that the gospel does is change prayer from mere petition to fellowship and the praise of his glory. Galatians 4:6-7 teaches us that when we believe the gospel, we not only become God's children legally, but we receive the Spirit in order to experience our sonship. The Spirit leads us to call out passionately to God as our tender and loving Father. The Spirit calls out 'Abba' (4:7). In the very next verse Paul refers to this experience as "knowing God" (4:8). We do not just know and believe that God is holy and loving, but we actually experience contact with his holiness and his love in personal communion with him.
No one had a deeper insight into the gospel and prayer than Jonathan Edwards. Edwards concluded the most essential difference between a Christian and a moralist is that a Christian obeys God out of the sheer delight in who he is. The gospel means that we are not obeying God to get anything but to give him pleasure because we see his worth and beauty. Therefore, the Christian is able to draw power out of contemplation of God. Without the gospel, this is impossible. We can only come and ask for things- petition. Without the gospel, we may conceive of a holy God who is intimidating and who can be approached with petitions if we are very good. Or we may conceive of a God who is mainly loving and regards all positively. To approach the first "God" is fearsome; to approach the second is no big deal. Thus without the gospel, there is no possibility of passion and delight to praise and approach God.
Pathologies
There are two fairly common distortions of prayer that arise from a lack of orientation to the gospel in our prayer lives. We touched on them above. Here is a more practical description.
1. On the one hand, our prayer can have "light without heat."
There can be long lists of things that we pray for, and long lists of Bible verses we read, and long lists of things we thank him for. Yet there is no fire. Why? If we lose focus on the glory of God in the gospel as the solution to all our problems, then we devolve into a set of "grocery list" prayers, made rather desperately. When we are done, we only feel more anxious than before. The presence of God is not sensed because God is really just being used – he is not being worshipped.
Instead, we should always remember that the first thing we need is a new perspective on our needs and problems. We should always intertwine with repentance over our unbelief and indifference to God's grace. On the one hand, we must "pray into" ourselves that the thing we are asking for is not our Savior or God or glory! But, (on the other hand) after we repent and refine our desire, we should "pray into" ourselves that God is our Father and wants to give us good things, so we can ask in confidence. Also, intertwined with our petitions should be praise and marveling that we are able to approach God, and be welcomed in Christ.
This is gospel-centered prayer, rather than anxious petitioning. Our desires are always idolatrous to some degree, and when we pray without dealing with that first, we find our prayers only make us more anxious. Instead, we should always say, in effect, "Lord, let me see your glory as I haven't before, let me be so ravished with your grace that worry and self-pity and anger and indifference melt away!" Then, when we turn to ask God for admission to grad school or healing of an illness, those issues will be put in proper perspective. We will say, "Lord, I ask for this because I think it will glorify you – so help me get it, or support me without it." If the overall focus of the prayer is on God's glory and the gospel, our individual petitions will be made with great peace and confidence.
2. On the other hand, our prayer can have "heat without light."
Unlike the "light without heat" prayer, focused on anxious personal petitions, there is a kind of prayer which is its direct opposite – "heat without light." This is prayer with lots of "fire" and emotion. It focuses on boldly claiming things in Jesus' name. A lot of military and conflict imagery is usually used. Often the prayers themselves are said (either in your head or out loud) in a very unnatural, dramatic kind of voice and language.
Now, if (as stated above) prayer focuses on the gospel and glory of God, and if by the Spirit's help, that glory becomes real to us as we contemplate it, there will be passion, and maybe strong and dramatic emotion. But "heat without light" prayer always begins with a lot of drama and feeling automatically. I think that many people who pray like that are actually reacting against the very limp kind of prayer meetings that result from anxious personal petition. But they respond by simply trying to directly inject emotion and drama into prayer.
This kind of prayer is also not gospel-centered. Just as the anxious-petitioning is often legalistic and fails to base itself on God's grace, so the bold-claiming is sometimes legalistic and fails to base itself on God's grace. There is a sense that "if I pray long and without any doubts at all then God will surely hear me." Many people believe that they must suppress all psychological doubts and work up tremendous confidence if they are to get answered.
In addition, often personal problems are treated abstractly. People may say: "Lord, I ask you to come against the strongholds of worry in my life." Or "Lord, I claim the victory over bitterness," instead of realizing that it is faith in the gospel that will heal our worry and bitterness. Ironically, this is the same thing that the "anxious petitioner" does. There is no understanding of how to "bathe" the needs and petitions in contemplating the glory of God in the gospel until the perspective on the very petition is combined with joyful yet profound repentance, e.g. "Lord, I am experiencing such fear – but you are the stronghold of my life. Magnify your name in my sight. Let your love and glory ravish me till my fear subsides. You said you will never forsake me, and it is sheer unbelief that brings me to deny it. Forgive and heal me."
So, ironically, we see that "heat without light" prayer and "light without heat" prayer both stem from the same root. They come from works-righteousness, a conviction that we can earn God's favor, and a loss of orientation with respect to our free justification and adoption.
Practice
How can we very practically move toward a gospel-centered prayer life that aims primarily at knowing God? Meditation and communion.
This essential discipline is meditation on the truth. Meditation is a "crossing" of two other disciplines: Bible study and prayer. Meditation is both yet it is not just moving one to another – it is a blending of them. Most of us first study our Bible, and then move to the prayer list, but the prayer is detached from the Bible you just studied. But meditation is praying the truth (just studied) deep into your soul till it catches "fire." By "fire" we mean – until it makes all sorts of personal connections – with YOU personally, so it shapes the thinking, it moves the feelings, and it changes the actions. Meditation is working out the truth personally.
The closest analogy to meditating on the truth is the way a person eagerly reads a love letter. You tear it open and you weigh every word. You never simply say, "I know that" but "what does this mean? What did he or she really mean by that?" You aren't reading it quickly just for information – you want to know what lies deep in the clauses and phrases. And more important, you want the letter to sink in and form you.
Augustine saw meditation, "the soul's ascent into God," as having three parts: retentio, contemplatio, dilectio.
First, retentio means the distillation of the truths of Scripture and holding them centrally in the mind. This means study and concentration on a passage of scripture to simply understand it, so you see its thrust. "Retentio" is thus learning what a passage says. The many books on Bible study and interpretation can help us here.
Second, contemplatio, means "gazing at God through this truth." It is to pose and answer questions such as:
•what does this tell me about God; what does it reveal about him?
•how can I praise him for and through this?
•how can I humble myself before him for and through this?
•if he is really like this, what difference does this particular truth make to how I live today?
•what wrong behavior, harmful emotions, false attitudes result in me when I forget he is like this?
•how would my neighborhood, my family, my church, my friends be different if they saw it deeply?
•does my life demonstrate that I am remembering and acting out of this?
•Lord, what are you trying to tell me about you, and why do you want me to know it now, today?
Above all, the purpose of contemplatio is to move from a kind of objective analytical view of things to a personal dealing with God as he is. It is to deal with God directly, to stretch every nerve to turn this "knowing about" into knowing – to move from knowing a fact about him to actually "seeing" him with the heart – to adore, to marvel, to rest in, or to be troubled by, to be humbled by him. It is one thing to study a piece of music and another to play it. It is one thing to work on a diamond, cutting and polishing it; it is another to stand back and let it take your breath away.
Third, dilectio means delighting and relishing the God you are looking at. You begin to actually praise and confess and aspire toward him on the basis of the digested and meditated truth. If you have moved from learning to personal meditation, then, depending on your spiritual sharpness, the circumstances of your life at that time, and God's sovereign Spirit, you begin to experience him.
Sometimes it is mild, sometimes strong, and sometimes you are very dry. But whenever you are meditating ("contemplatio") and you suddenly find new ideas coming to you and flowing in, then write them down and move to direct praising and confessing and delighting. That is (as Luther would say) the "Holy Spirit preaching to you."
Principles
One of the most basic things that the gospel does is change prayer from mere petition to fellowship and the praise of his glory. Galatians 4:6-7 teaches us that when we believe the gospel, we not only become God's children legally, but we receive the Spirit in order to experience our sonship. The Spirit leads us to call out passionately to God as our tender and loving Father. The Spirit calls out 'Abba' (4:7). In the very next verse Paul refers to this experience as "knowing God" (4:8). We do not just know and believe that God is holy and loving, but we actually experience contact with his holiness and his love in personal communion with him.
No one had a deeper insight into the gospel and prayer than Jonathan Edwards. Edwards concluded the most essential difference between a Christian and a moralist is that a Christian obeys God out of the sheer delight in who he is. The gospel means that we are not obeying God to get anything but to give him pleasure because we see his worth and beauty. Therefore, the Christian is able to draw power out of contemplation of God. Without the gospel, this is impossible. We can only come and ask for things- petition. Without the gospel, we may conceive of a holy God who is intimidating and who can be approached with petitions if we are very good. Or we may conceive of a God who is mainly loving and regards all positively. To approach the first "God" is fearsome; to approach the second is no big deal. Thus without the gospel, there is no possibility of passion and delight to praise and approach God.
Pathologies
There are two fairly common distortions of prayer that arise from a lack of orientation to the gospel in our prayer lives. We touched on them above. Here is a more practical description.
1. On the one hand, our prayer can have "light without heat."
There can be long lists of things that we pray for, and long lists of Bible verses we read, and long lists of things we thank him for. Yet there is no fire. Why? If we lose focus on the glory of God in the gospel as the solution to all our problems, then we devolve into a set of "grocery list" prayers, made rather desperately. When we are done, we only feel more anxious than before. The presence of God is not sensed because God is really just being used – he is not being worshipped.
Instead, we should always remember that the first thing we need is a new perspective on our needs and problems. We should always intertwine with repentance over our unbelief and indifference to God's grace. On the one hand, we must "pray into" ourselves that the thing we are asking for is not our Savior or God or glory! But, (on the other hand) after we repent and refine our desire, we should "pray into" ourselves that God is our Father and wants to give us good things, so we can ask in confidence. Also, intertwined with our petitions should be praise and marveling that we are able to approach God, and be welcomed in Christ.
This is gospel-centered prayer, rather than anxious petitioning. Our desires are always idolatrous to some degree, and when we pray without dealing with that first, we find our prayers only make us more anxious. Instead, we should always say, in effect, "Lord, let me see your glory as I haven't before, let me be so ravished with your grace that worry and self-pity and anger and indifference melt away!" Then, when we turn to ask God for admission to grad school or healing of an illness, those issues will be put in proper perspective. We will say, "Lord, I ask for this because I think it will glorify you – so help me get it, or support me without it." If the overall focus of the prayer is on God's glory and the gospel, our individual petitions will be made with great peace and confidence.
2. On the other hand, our prayer can have "heat without light."
Unlike the "light without heat" prayer, focused on anxious personal petitions, there is a kind of prayer which is its direct opposite – "heat without light." This is prayer with lots of "fire" and emotion. It focuses on boldly claiming things in Jesus' name. A lot of military and conflict imagery is usually used. Often the prayers themselves are said (either in your head or out loud) in a very unnatural, dramatic kind of voice and language.
Now, if (as stated above) prayer focuses on the gospel and glory of God, and if by the Spirit's help, that glory becomes real to us as we contemplate it, there will be passion, and maybe strong and dramatic emotion. But "heat without light" prayer always begins with a lot of drama and feeling automatically. I think that many people who pray like that are actually reacting against the very limp kind of prayer meetings that result from anxious personal petition. But they respond by simply trying to directly inject emotion and drama into prayer.
This kind of prayer is also not gospel-centered. Just as the anxious-petitioning is often legalistic and fails to base itself on God's grace, so the bold-claiming is sometimes legalistic and fails to base itself on God's grace. There is a sense that "if I pray long and without any doubts at all then God will surely hear me." Many people believe that they must suppress all psychological doubts and work up tremendous confidence if they are to get answered.
In addition, often personal problems are treated abstractly. People may say: "Lord, I ask you to come against the strongholds of worry in my life." Or "Lord, I claim the victory over bitterness," instead of realizing that it is faith in the gospel that will heal our worry and bitterness. Ironically, this is the same thing that the "anxious petitioner" does. There is no understanding of how to "bathe" the needs and petitions in contemplating the glory of God in the gospel until the perspective on the very petition is combined with joyful yet profound repentance, e.g. "Lord, I am experiencing such fear – but you are the stronghold of my life. Magnify your name in my sight. Let your love and glory ravish me till my fear subsides. You said you will never forsake me, and it is sheer unbelief that brings me to deny it. Forgive and heal me."
So, ironically, we see that "heat without light" prayer and "light without heat" prayer both stem from the same root. They come from works-righteousness, a conviction that we can earn God's favor, and a loss of orientation with respect to our free justification and adoption.
Practice
How can we very practically move toward a gospel-centered prayer life that aims primarily at knowing God? Meditation and communion.
This essential discipline is meditation on the truth. Meditation is a "crossing" of two other disciplines: Bible study and prayer. Meditation is both yet it is not just moving one to another – it is a blending of them. Most of us first study our Bible, and then move to the prayer list, but the prayer is detached from the Bible you just studied. But meditation is praying the truth (just studied) deep into your soul till it catches "fire." By "fire" we mean – until it makes all sorts of personal connections – with YOU personally, so it shapes the thinking, it moves the feelings, and it changes the actions. Meditation is working out the truth personally.
The closest analogy to meditating on the truth is the way a person eagerly reads a love letter. You tear it open and you weigh every word. You never simply say, "I know that" but "what does this mean? What did he or she really mean by that?" You aren't reading it quickly just for information – you want to know what lies deep in the clauses and phrases. And more important, you want the letter to sink in and form you.
Augustine saw meditation, "the soul's ascent into God," as having three parts: retentio, contemplatio, dilectio.
First, retentio means the distillation of the truths of Scripture and holding them centrally in the mind. This means study and concentration on a passage of scripture to simply understand it, so you see its thrust. "Retentio" is thus learning what a passage says. The many books on Bible study and interpretation can help us here.
Second, contemplatio, means "gazing at God through this truth." It is to pose and answer questions such as:
•what does this tell me about God; what does it reveal about him?
•how can I praise him for and through this?
•how can I humble myself before him for and through this?
•if he is really like this, what difference does this particular truth make to how I live today?
•what wrong behavior, harmful emotions, false attitudes result in me when I forget he is like this?
•how would my neighborhood, my family, my church, my friends be different if they saw it deeply?
•does my life demonstrate that I am remembering and acting out of this?
•Lord, what are you trying to tell me about you, and why do you want me to know it now, today?
Above all, the purpose of contemplatio is to move from a kind of objective analytical view of things to a personal dealing with God as he is. It is to deal with God directly, to stretch every nerve to turn this "knowing about" into knowing – to move from knowing a fact about him to actually "seeing" him with the heart – to adore, to marvel, to rest in, or to be troubled by, to be humbled by him. It is one thing to study a piece of music and another to play it. It is one thing to work on a diamond, cutting and polishing it; it is another to stand back and let it take your breath away.
Third, dilectio means delighting and relishing the God you are looking at. You begin to actually praise and confess and aspire toward him on the basis of the digested and meditated truth. If you have moved from learning to personal meditation, then, depending on your spiritual sharpness, the circumstances of your life at that time, and God's sovereign Spirit, you begin to experience him.
Sometimes it is mild, sometimes strong, and sometimes you are very dry. But whenever you are meditating ("contemplatio") and you suddenly find new ideas coming to you and flowing in, then write them down and move to direct praising and confessing and delighting. That is (as Luther would say) the "Holy Spirit preaching to you."
4/17/2009
The Process of Lectio Divina
"...lectio divina has no goal other than that of being in the presence of God by praying the Scriptures." ______________________________________________________
Experiencing God's Presence and His Word through:
1. Reading 2. Meditation 3. Prayer 4. Contemplation
I. The Process of Lectio Divina
A very ancient art, practiced at one time by all Christians, is the technique known as lectio divina ("divine reading") - a slow, contemplative praying of the Scriptures which enables the Bible, the Word of God, to become a means of union with God. This ancient practice has been kept alive in the Christian monastic tradition.
...time set aside in a special way for lectio divina enables us to discover in our daily life an underlying spiritual rhythm. Within this rhythm we discover an increasing ability to offer more of ourselves and our relationships to the Father, and to accept the embrace that God is continuously extending to us in the person of his Son Jesus Christ.
1. Lectio: Reading / Listening
The art of lectio divina begins with cultivating the ability to listen deeply, to hear "with the ear of our hearts" as St. Benedict encourages us in the Prologue to the Rule. When we read the Scriptures we should try to imitate the prophet Elijah. We should allow ourselves to become women and men who are able to listen for the still, small voice of God (I Kings 19:12); the "faint murmuring sound" which is God's word for us, God's voice touching our hearts. This gentle listening is an "atunement" to the presence of God in that special part of God's creation which is the Scriptures.
The cry of the prophets to ancient Israel was the joy-filled command to "Listen!" "Sh'ma Israel: Hear, O Israel!" In lectio divina we, too, heed that command and turn to the Scriptures, knowing that we must "hear" - listen - to the voice of God, which often speaks very softly. In order to hear someone speaking softly we must learn to be silent. We must learn to love silence. If we are constantly speaking or if we are surrounded with noise, we cannot hear gentle sounds. The practice of lectio divina, therefore, requires that we first quiet down in order to hear God's word to us. This is the first step of lectio divina, appropriately called lectio - reading.
"Lectio is reverential listening; listening both in a spirit of silence and of awe."
The reading or listening which is the first step in lectio divina is very different from the speed reading which modern Christians apply to newspapers, books and even to the Bible. Lectio is reverential listening; listening both in a spirit of silence and of awe. We are listening for the still, small voice of God that will speak to us personally - not loudly, but intimately. In lectio we read slowly, attentively, gently listening to hear a word or phrase that is God's word for us this day.
2. Meditatio: Meditation
Once we have found a word or a passage in the Scriptures which speaks to us in a personal way, we must take it in and "ruminate" on it. The image of the ruminant animal quietly chewing its cud was used in antiquity as a symbol of the Christian pondering the Word of God. For us today these images are a reminder that we must take in the word - that is, memorize it - and while gently repeating it to ourselves, allow it to interact with our thoughts, our hopes, our memories, our desires. This is the second step or stage in lectio divina - meditatio. Through meditatio we allow God's word to become His word for us, a word that touches us and affects us at our deepest levels.
3. Oratio: Prayer
The third step in lectio divina is oratio - prayer: prayer understood both as dialogue with God, that is, as loving conversation with the One who has invited us into His embrace; and as consecration, prayer as the priestly offering to God of parts of ourselves that we have not previously believed God wants. In this consecration-prayer we allow the word that we have taken in and on which we are pondering to touch and change our deepest selves. ...God invites us in lectio divina to hold up our most difficult and pain-filled experiences to Him, and to gently recite over them the healing word or phrase He has given us in our lectio and meditatio. In this oratio, this consecration-prayer, we allow our real selves to be touched and changed by the word of God.
4. Contemplatio: Contemplation
Finally, we simply rest in the presence of the One who has used His word as a means of inviting us to accept His transforming embrace. No one who has ever been in love needs to be reminded that there are moments in loving relationships when words are unnecessary. It is the same in our relationship with God. Wordless, quiet rest in the presence of the One Who loves us has a name in the Christian tradition - contemplatio, contemplation. Once again we practice silence, letting go of our own words; this time simply enjoying the experience of being in the presence of God.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I I. The Underlying Rhythm of Lectio Divina
If we are to practice lectio divina effectively, we must travel back in time to an understanding that today is in danger of being almost completely lost. In the Christian past the words action (or practice, from the Greek praktikos) and contemplation did not describe different kinds of Christians engaging (or not engaging) in different forms of prayer and apostolates. Practice and contemplation were understood as the two poles of our underlying, ongoing spiritual rhythm: a gentle oscillation back and forth between spiritual "activity" with regard to God and "receptivity."
Practice - spiritual "activity" - referred in ancient times to our active cooperation with God's grace in rooting out vices and allowing the virtues to flourish. The direction of spiritual activity was not outward in the sense of an apostolate, but inward - down into the depths of the soul where the Spirit of God is constantly transforming us, refashioning us in God's image. The active life is thus coming to see who we truly are and allowing ourselves to be remade into what God intends us to become.
"At intervals the Lord invites us to cease from speaking so that we can simply rest in his embrace."
In the early monastic tradition contemplation was understood in two ways. First was theoria physike, the contemplation of God in creation - God in "the many." Second was theologia, the contemplation of God in Himself without images or words - God as "The One." From this perspective lectio divina serves as a training-ground for the contemplation of God in His creation.
In contemplation we cease from interior spiritual doing and learn simply to be, that is to rest in the presence of our loving Father. Just as we constantly move back and forth in our exterior lives between speaking and listening, between questioning and reflecting, so in our spiritual lives we must learn to enjoy the refreshment of simply being in God's presence, an experience that naturally alternates (if we let it!) with our spiritual practice.
In ancient times contemplation was not regarded as a goal to be achieved through some method of prayer, but was simply accepted with gratitude as God's recurring gift. At intervals the Lord invites us to cease from speaking so that we can simply rest in his embrace. This is the pole of our inner spiritual rhythm called contemplation.
"Lectio divina teaches us to savor and delight in all the different flavors of God's presence, whether they be active or receptive modes of experiencing Him."
How different this ancient understanding is from our modern approach! Instead of recognizing that we all gently oscillate back and forth between spiritual activity and receptivity, between practice and contemplation, we today tend to set contemplation before ourselves as a goal - something we imagine we can achieve through some spiritual technique. We must be willing to sacrifice our "goal-oriented" approach if we are to practice lectio divina, because lectio divina has no other goal than spending time with God through the medium of His word. The amount of time we spend in any aspect of lectio divina, whether it be rumination, consecration or contemplation depends on God's Spirit, not on us. Lectio divina teaches us to savor and delight in all the different flavors of God's presence, whether they be active or receptive modes of experiencing Him.
In Lectio Divina we offer ourselves to God; and we are people in motion. In ancient times this inner spiritual motion was described as a helix - an ascending spiral. Viewed in only two dimensions it appears as a circular motion back and forth; seen with the added dimension of time it becomes a helix, an ascending spiral by means of which we are drawn ever closer to God. The whole of our spiritual lives were viewed in this way, as a gentle oscillation between spiritual activity and receptivity by means of which God unites us ever closer to Himself. In just the same way the steps or stages of lectio divina represent an oscillation back and forth between these spiritual poles. In lectio divina we recognize our underlying spiritual rhythm and discover many different ways of experiencing God's presence - many different ways of praying.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I I I. The Practice of Lectio Divina
Choose a text of the Scriptures that you wish to pray. Many Christians use in their daily lectio divina one of the readings from the...liturgy for the day; others prefer to slowly work through a particular book of the Bible. It makes no difference which text is chosen, as long as one has no set goal of "covering" a certain amount of text: the amount of text "covered" is in God's hands, not yours.
Place yourself in a comfortable position and allow yourself to become silent. ...Use whatever method is best for you and allow yourself to enjoy silence for a few moments.
"...listening for the "still, small voice" of a word or phrase that somehow says, "I am for you today." "
Then turn to the text and read it slowly, gently. Savor each portion of the reading, constantly listening for the "still, small voice" of a word or phrase that somehow says, "I am for you today." Do not expect lightning or ecstasies. In lectio divina God is teaching us to listen to Him, to seek Him in silence. He does not reach out and grab us; rather, He softly, gently invites us ever more deeply into His presence.
Next take the word or phrase into yourself. Memorize it and slowly repeat it to yourself, allowing it to interact with your inner world of concerns, memories and ideas. Do not be afraid of "distractions." Memories or thoughts are simply parts of yourself which, when they rise up during lectio divina, are asking to be given to God along with the rest of your inner self. Allow this inner pondering, this rumination, to invite you into dialogue with God.
"Finally, simply rest in God's embrace. And when He invites you to return to your pondering of His word or to your inner dialogue with Him, do so."
Then, speak to God. Whether you use words or ideas or images or all three is not important. Interact with God as you would with one who you know loves and accepts you. And give to Him what you have discovered in yourself during your experience of meditatio. Experience yourself as the priest that you are. Experience God using the word or phrase that He has given you as a means of blessing, of transforming the ideas and memories, which your pondering on His word has awakened. Give to God what you have found within your heart.
Finally, simply rest in God's embrace. And when He invites you to return to your pondering of His word or to your inner dialogue with Him, do so. Learn to use words when words are helpful, and to let go of words when they no longer are necessary. Rejoice in the knowledge that God is with you in both words and silence, in spiritual activity and inner receptivity.
"...lectio divina has no goal other than that of being in the presence of God by praying the Scriptures."
Sometimes in Lectio Divina one will return several times to the printed text, either to savor the literary context of the word or phrase that God has given, or to seek a new word or phrase to ponder. At other times only a single word or phrase will fill the whole time set aside for lectio divina. It is not necessary to anxiously assess the quality of one's lectio divina as if one were "performing" or seeking some goal: lectio divina has no goal other than that of being in the presence of God by praying the Scriptures.
...In lectio divina we discover that there is no place in our hearts, no interior corner or closet that cannot be opened and offered to God. God teaches us in lectio divina what it means to be members of His royal priesthood - a people called to consecrate all of our memories, our hopes and our dreams to Christ.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Article written by Fr. Luke Dysinger, O.S.B. This article may be downloaded, reproduced and distributed without special permission from the author. It was first published in the Spring, 1990 (vol.1, no.1) edition of Valyermo Benedictine. It was reprinted as "Appendix 2" in The Art and Vocation of Caring for People in Pain by Karl A. Schultz (Paulist Press, 1993), pp. 98-110.
____________________________________
(Note: This article was edited for length by The Prayer Foundation
Experiencing God's Presence and His Word through:
1. Reading 2. Meditation 3. Prayer 4. Contemplation
I. The Process of Lectio Divina
A very ancient art, practiced at one time by all Christians, is the technique known as lectio divina ("divine reading") - a slow, contemplative praying of the Scriptures which enables the Bible, the Word of God, to become a means of union with God. This ancient practice has been kept alive in the Christian monastic tradition.
...time set aside in a special way for lectio divina enables us to discover in our daily life an underlying spiritual rhythm. Within this rhythm we discover an increasing ability to offer more of ourselves and our relationships to the Father, and to accept the embrace that God is continuously extending to us in the person of his Son Jesus Christ.
1. Lectio: Reading / Listening
The art of lectio divina begins with cultivating the ability to listen deeply, to hear "with the ear of our hearts" as St. Benedict encourages us in the Prologue to the Rule. When we read the Scriptures we should try to imitate the prophet Elijah. We should allow ourselves to become women and men who are able to listen for the still, small voice of God (I Kings 19:12); the "faint murmuring sound" which is God's word for us, God's voice touching our hearts. This gentle listening is an "atunement" to the presence of God in that special part of God's creation which is the Scriptures.
The cry of the prophets to ancient Israel was the joy-filled command to "Listen!" "Sh'ma Israel: Hear, O Israel!" In lectio divina we, too, heed that command and turn to the Scriptures, knowing that we must "hear" - listen - to the voice of God, which often speaks very softly. In order to hear someone speaking softly we must learn to be silent. We must learn to love silence. If we are constantly speaking or if we are surrounded with noise, we cannot hear gentle sounds. The practice of lectio divina, therefore, requires that we first quiet down in order to hear God's word to us. This is the first step of lectio divina, appropriately called lectio - reading.
"Lectio is reverential listening; listening both in a spirit of silence and of awe."
The reading or listening which is the first step in lectio divina is very different from the speed reading which modern Christians apply to newspapers, books and even to the Bible. Lectio is reverential listening; listening both in a spirit of silence and of awe. We are listening for the still, small voice of God that will speak to us personally - not loudly, but intimately. In lectio we read slowly, attentively, gently listening to hear a word or phrase that is God's word for us this day.
2. Meditatio: Meditation
Once we have found a word or a passage in the Scriptures which speaks to us in a personal way, we must take it in and "ruminate" on it. The image of the ruminant animal quietly chewing its cud was used in antiquity as a symbol of the Christian pondering the Word of God. For us today these images are a reminder that we must take in the word - that is, memorize it - and while gently repeating it to ourselves, allow it to interact with our thoughts, our hopes, our memories, our desires. This is the second step or stage in lectio divina - meditatio. Through meditatio we allow God's word to become His word for us, a word that touches us and affects us at our deepest levels.
3. Oratio: Prayer
The third step in lectio divina is oratio - prayer: prayer understood both as dialogue with God, that is, as loving conversation with the One who has invited us into His embrace; and as consecration, prayer as the priestly offering to God of parts of ourselves that we have not previously believed God wants. In this consecration-prayer we allow the word that we have taken in and on which we are pondering to touch and change our deepest selves. ...God invites us in lectio divina to hold up our most difficult and pain-filled experiences to Him, and to gently recite over them the healing word or phrase He has given us in our lectio and meditatio. In this oratio, this consecration-prayer, we allow our real selves to be touched and changed by the word of God.
4. Contemplatio: Contemplation
Finally, we simply rest in the presence of the One who has used His word as a means of inviting us to accept His transforming embrace. No one who has ever been in love needs to be reminded that there are moments in loving relationships when words are unnecessary. It is the same in our relationship with God. Wordless, quiet rest in the presence of the One Who loves us has a name in the Christian tradition - contemplatio, contemplation. Once again we practice silence, letting go of our own words; this time simply enjoying the experience of being in the presence of God.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I I. The Underlying Rhythm of Lectio Divina
If we are to practice lectio divina effectively, we must travel back in time to an understanding that today is in danger of being almost completely lost. In the Christian past the words action (or practice, from the Greek praktikos) and contemplation did not describe different kinds of Christians engaging (or not engaging) in different forms of prayer and apostolates. Practice and contemplation were understood as the two poles of our underlying, ongoing spiritual rhythm: a gentle oscillation back and forth between spiritual "activity" with regard to God and "receptivity."
Practice - spiritual "activity" - referred in ancient times to our active cooperation with God's grace in rooting out vices and allowing the virtues to flourish. The direction of spiritual activity was not outward in the sense of an apostolate, but inward - down into the depths of the soul where the Spirit of God is constantly transforming us, refashioning us in God's image. The active life is thus coming to see who we truly are and allowing ourselves to be remade into what God intends us to become.
"At intervals the Lord invites us to cease from speaking so that we can simply rest in his embrace."
In the early monastic tradition contemplation was understood in two ways. First was theoria physike, the contemplation of God in creation - God in "the many." Second was theologia, the contemplation of God in Himself without images or words - God as "The One." From this perspective lectio divina serves as a training-ground for the contemplation of God in His creation.
In contemplation we cease from interior spiritual doing and learn simply to be, that is to rest in the presence of our loving Father. Just as we constantly move back and forth in our exterior lives between speaking and listening, between questioning and reflecting, so in our spiritual lives we must learn to enjoy the refreshment of simply being in God's presence, an experience that naturally alternates (if we let it!) with our spiritual practice.
In ancient times contemplation was not regarded as a goal to be achieved through some method of prayer, but was simply accepted with gratitude as God's recurring gift. At intervals the Lord invites us to cease from speaking so that we can simply rest in his embrace. This is the pole of our inner spiritual rhythm called contemplation.
"Lectio divina teaches us to savor and delight in all the different flavors of God's presence, whether they be active or receptive modes of experiencing Him."
How different this ancient understanding is from our modern approach! Instead of recognizing that we all gently oscillate back and forth between spiritual activity and receptivity, between practice and contemplation, we today tend to set contemplation before ourselves as a goal - something we imagine we can achieve through some spiritual technique. We must be willing to sacrifice our "goal-oriented" approach if we are to practice lectio divina, because lectio divina has no other goal than spending time with God through the medium of His word. The amount of time we spend in any aspect of lectio divina, whether it be rumination, consecration or contemplation depends on God's Spirit, not on us. Lectio divina teaches us to savor and delight in all the different flavors of God's presence, whether they be active or receptive modes of experiencing Him.
In Lectio Divina we offer ourselves to God; and we are people in motion. In ancient times this inner spiritual motion was described as a helix - an ascending spiral. Viewed in only two dimensions it appears as a circular motion back and forth; seen with the added dimension of time it becomes a helix, an ascending spiral by means of which we are drawn ever closer to God. The whole of our spiritual lives were viewed in this way, as a gentle oscillation between spiritual activity and receptivity by means of which God unites us ever closer to Himself. In just the same way the steps or stages of lectio divina represent an oscillation back and forth between these spiritual poles. In lectio divina we recognize our underlying spiritual rhythm and discover many different ways of experiencing God's presence - many different ways of praying.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I I I. The Practice of Lectio Divina
Choose a text of the Scriptures that you wish to pray. Many Christians use in their daily lectio divina one of the readings from the...liturgy for the day; others prefer to slowly work through a particular book of the Bible. It makes no difference which text is chosen, as long as one has no set goal of "covering" a certain amount of text: the amount of text "covered" is in God's hands, not yours.
Place yourself in a comfortable position and allow yourself to become silent. ...Use whatever method is best for you and allow yourself to enjoy silence for a few moments.
"...listening for the "still, small voice" of a word or phrase that somehow says, "I am for you today." "
Then turn to the text and read it slowly, gently. Savor each portion of the reading, constantly listening for the "still, small voice" of a word or phrase that somehow says, "I am for you today." Do not expect lightning or ecstasies. In lectio divina God is teaching us to listen to Him, to seek Him in silence. He does not reach out and grab us; rather, He softly, gently invites us ever more deeply into His presence.
Next take the word or phrase into yourself. Memorize it and slowly repeat it to yourself, allowing it to interact with your inner world of concerns, memories and ideas. Do not be afraid of "distractions." Memories or thoughts are simply parts of yourself which, when they rise up during lectio divina, are asking to be given to God along with the rest of your inner self. Allow this inner pondering, this rumination, to invite you into dialogue with God.
"Finally, simply rest in God's embrace. And when He invites you to return to your pondering of His word or to your inner dialogue with Him, do so."
Then, speak to God. Whether you use words or ideas or images or all three is not important. Interact with God as you would with one who you know loves and accepts you. And give to Him what you have discovered in yourself during your experience of meditatio. Experience yourself as the priest that you are. Experience God using the word or phrase that He has given you as a means of blessing, of transforming the ideas and memories, which your pondering on His word has awakened. Give to God what you have found within your heart.
Finally, simply rest in God's embrace. And when He invites you to return to your pondering of His word or to your inner dialogue with Him, do so. Learn to use words when words are helpful, and to let go of words when they no longer are necessary. Rejoice in the knowledge that God is with you in both words and silence, in spiritual activity and inner receptivity.
"...lectio divina has no goal other than that of being in the presence of God by praying the Scriptures."
Sometimes in Lectio Divina one will return several times to the printed text, either to savor the literary context of the word or phrase that God has given, or to seek a new word or phrase to ponder. At other times only a single word or phrase will fill the whole time set aside for lectio divina. It is not necessary to anxiously assess the quality of one's lectio divina as if one were "performing" or seeking some goal: lectio divina has no goal other than that of being in the presence of God by praying the Scriptures.
...In lectio divina we discover that there is no place in our hearts, no interior corner or closet that cannot be opened and offered to God. God teaches us in lectio divina what it means to be members of His royal priesthood - a people called to consecrate all of our memories, our hopes and our dreams to Christ.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Article written by Fr. Luke Dysinger, O.S.B. This article may be downloaded, reproduced and distributed without special permission from the author. It was first published in the Spring, 1990 (vol.1, no.1) edition of Valyermo Benedictine. It was reprinted as "Appendix 2" in The Art and Vocation of Caring for People in Pain by Karl A. Schultz (Paulist Press, 1993), pp. 98-110.
____________________________________
(Note: This article was edited for length by The Prayer Foundation
8/27/2008
Prayers From The Psalms: Speech
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
be acceptable in your sight,
O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. - Psalm 19:14 (ESV)
O Lord, I call upon you; hasten to me!
Give ear to my voice when I call to you!
Let my prayer be counted as incense before you,
and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice!
Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth;
keep watch over the door of my lips!
Do not let my heart incline to any evil,
to busy myself with wicked deeds
in company with men who work iniquity,
and let me not eat of their delicacies! - Psalm 141:1-4 (ESV)
be acceptable in your sight,
O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. - Psalm 19:14 (ESV)
O Lord, I call upon you; hasten to me!
Give ear to my voice when I call to you!
Let my prayer be counted as incense before you,
and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice!
Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth;
keep watch over the door of my lips!
Do not let my heart incline to any evil,
to busy myself with wicked deeds
in company with men who work iniquity,
and let me not eat of their delicacies! - Psalm 141:1-4 (ESV)
6/12/2008
Pslam 19 (E.S.V)
1 The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the sky above [1] proclaims his handiwork.
2 Day to day pours out speech,
and night to night reveals knowledge.
3 There is no speech, nor are there words,
whose voice is not heard.
4 Their voice [2] goes out through all the earth,
and their words to the end of the world.
In them he has set a tent for the sun,
5 which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber,
and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy.
6 Its rising is from the end of the heavens,
and its circuit to the end of them,
and there is nothing hidden from its heat.
7 The law of the Lord is perfect, [3]
reviving the soul;
the testimony of the Lord is sure,
making wise the simple;
8 the precepts of the Lord are right,
rejoicing the heart;
the commandment of the Lord is pure,
enlightening the eyes;
9 the fear of the Lord is clean,
enduring forever;
the rules [4] of the Lord are true,
and righteous altogether.
10 More to be desired are they than gold,
even much fine gold;
sweeter also than honey
and drippings of the honeycomb.
11 Moreover, by them is your servant warned;
in keeping them there is great reward.
12 Who can discern his errors?
Declare me innocent from hidden faults.
13 Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins;
let them not have dominion over me!
Then I shall be blameless,
and innocent of great transgression.
14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
be acceptable in your sight,
O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.
Footnotes
[1] 19:1 Hebrew the expanse; compare Genesis 1:6-8
[2] 19:4 Or Their measuring line
[3] 19:7 Or blameless
[4] 19:9 Or just decrees
and the sky above [1] proclaims his handiwork.
2 Day to day pours out speech,
and night to night reveals knowledge.
3 There is no speech, nor are there words,
whose voice is not heard.
4 Their voice [2] goes out through all the earth,
and their words to the end of the world.
In them he has set a tent for the sun,
5 which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber,
and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy.
6 Its rising is from the end of the heavens,
and its circuit to the end of them,
and there is nothing hidden from its heat.
7 The law of the Lord is perfect, [3]
reviving the soul;
the testimony of the Lord is sure,
making wise the simple;
8 the precepts of the Lord are right,
rejoicing the heart;
the commandment of the Lord is pure,
enlightening the eyes;
9 the fear of the Lord is clean,
enduring forever;
the rules [4] of the Lord are true,
and righteous altogether.
10 More to be desired are they than gold,
even much fine gold;
sweeter also than honey
and drippings of the honeycomb.
11 Moreover, by them is your servant warned;
in keeping them there is great reward.
12 Who can discern his errors?
Declare me innocent from hidden faults.
13 Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins;
let them not have dominion over me!
Then I shall be blameless,
and innocent of great transgression.
14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
be acceptable in your sight,
O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.
Footnotes
[1] 19:1 Hebrew the expanse; compare Genesis 1:6-8
[2] 19:4 Or Their measuring line
[3] 19:7 Or blameless
[4] 19:9 Or just decrees
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