Joshua 1:8
Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and
night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you
prosper and succeed in all you do.
Psalm 145:5
I will meditate on your majestic, glorious splendor and your
wonderful miracles.
Introduction
We have seen there are so many different ways to pray. We
have discussed Examining Prayer, The Lord’s Simple Prayer, Liturgical Prayer,
Suffering Prayer, Continual Prayer, and Formation Prayer. [Click here for a list of 21 different types of prayer based on Richard Foster’s book Prayer]
One never need become bored with prayer or get stuck in a rut with
their prayers and only pray the same things over and over again. Today,
I want to talk about Praying the Scripture (AKA Meditative Prayer). By
Praying the Scripture, Richard Foster writes in his book, Prayer, “the
Bible ceases to be a quotation dictionary and becomes instead ‘wonderful words
of life’ that lead us to the Word of life. It differs from the study of
Scripture. Whereas the study of Scripture centers on [interpreting Scripture],
the meditation upon Scripture centers on internalizing and personalizing the
passage. The written word becomes a living word addressed to us.”
Praying Scripture Directly
One way of Praying the Scripture is simply to use the words of
Scripture themselves as prayer. There are many, many prayers recorded in
the Bible. You can use these as your own
prayers. We already do this when we pray
the Lord’s prayer, which is found in Matthew 6:9-13 and Luke 11:2-4. But
there are many other Scriptures we can pray.
Much of the Book of Psalms is a collection of prayers that can easily
serve as our prayers. We could pray
Psalm 23, “The Lord is my shepherd. I
shall not want…” We could use Psalm 145, “I will exalt you, my God and
King, and praise your name forever and ever…”
When we are in despair, we can use Psalm 22, “My God, my God, why have
you abandoned me? Why are you so far
away when I groan for help?” Or you could repent and ask for forgiveness
with Psalm 51, “Have mercy on me, O God, because of your unfailing love. Because of your great compassion, blot out
the stain of my sins...”
There are prayers in many other parts of the Bible too. And
you can turn a passage into a prayer. In
Matthew 9:37-38, Jesus “...said to his disciples, “The harvest is great, but
the workers are few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask
him to send more workers into his fields.” You could pray what Jesus
asked his disciples to pray: “Lord,
there is so much work to be done, so many souls to harvest for Your
Kingdom. Please send more people to help
with all this work!”
Acts 4 records the prayers of the early Christian Church as they
faced severe persecution from the Roman Empire. They prayed “O Sovereign
Lord, Creator of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them… And now, O Lord, hear their threats, and give
us, your servants, great boldness in preaching your word. 30 Stretch out your hand with
healing power; may miraculous signs and wonders be done through the name of
your holy servant Jesus.” Acts 4:31 says, “After this prayer, the meeting
place shook, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. Then they preached
the word of God with boldness.” If the prayer was so effective for them,
why not try praying it for our Church today?
Hebrews 4:12 says, “For the word of God is alive and powerful. It
is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit,
between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.”
If the Word of God in the Bible is so incredibly powerful, think how effective it could be to use those words themselves as your prayers.
Meditating on Scripture
But praying the actual words of Scripture is not the only way to Pray
the Scriptures. Another way to pray the Scripture is to meditate on
it. Meditation has been integral to God’s people from the very beginning.
Genesis 24:63 tells us Abraham’s son, Isaac, went out into a field to
walk around and meditate. Many of the Psalms were written as David
meditated about God and His creation while he watched sheep at night. The
Psalms themselves mention meditation 14 times.
Devout Christians down through the ages have always practiced meditation.
Meditation is a firmly established Christian spiritual practice. It wasn't until the last century that
Christians got lazy about meditation so that it is more associated with the
foreign religions of Buddhists and Hindus (or something reserved for the Karate
Kid or Jedi Knights in Star Wars). What would it look like if you and I
recaptured the powerful practice of Christian meditation?
Christian meditation is fundamentally different from meditation in
the Eastern religions. In those religions, a person tries to empty their
mind and become completely absorbed into impersonal, cosmic consciousness.
That is very different from what Christians believe. We believe God is a
Person just as we are. We believe He is
an individual with emotions and a personality. We believe God also made
us as individuals in His image. So, we believe we can talk with
God just as one person talks to another. Through Christian meditation we
don’t seek to empty our minds. Instead,
we try to let God fill our minds with His feelings, His ideas, and His insights
as we focus our minds on Scripture and welcome Him to transform our wills.
How Do You Meditate on Scripture?
Studying Scripture is important and we should do it, but
meditating on Scripture is something different that we should do too.
When Christians meditate, we don’t analyzing the Scripture in order to
merely get more information about it. We
believe the Bible is the living word of God. Therefore, we try to commune with
God through the Scripture.
- Start
by choosing a short passage on which to meditate. Choose just one
passage. Don’t try rush through
many pages of Scripture. Just pick one episode and meditate only on
it. You might pick only one verse
or even just one word to meditate upon. Spend your entire time
meditating on that one passage.
Some have suggested spending a whole week on the same passage,
coming back to it again and again. Sometimes you need time to move
beyond just information gathering to where you are really entering into
the text. Each time you return to
the passage over a course of days, you may may go deeper and deeper.
- Use
your imagination. As you meditate on the passage, use your
imagination to consider what it’s like to be in the story. What do
you see, feel, taste, smell? What emotions
does the text bring out in you?
Why? (God gave us an
imagination and He wants us to use it. So ask God to sanctify your
imagination and use it for the work of His Kingdom. Do not try to impart your own ideas into
the meditation, be totally and completely dependant upon God to give you
His thoughts and His Truth.)
- Try
to relate to the story not just as something that happened a long, long
time ago. It is something that still unfolds today. You are as much a part of God’s story as
were the twelve Disciples who walked alongside Jesus on the shores of the
Sea of Galilee. They were real people--His friends and
disciples. So are you. Through Christian meditation, you open
yourself up to the experience and start to feel the reality of Christ’s
tangible presence with you, right now. Through your intimate,
prayerful fellowship with Him, He begins to change your will. He confronts you, comforts you,
challenges you, and inspires you.
- Let
God change you.
Closing Meditation on Abraham’s Sacrifice of Isaac
I want to close with a meditation on Genesis 22:1-8, part of the
story where God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac. As I read the
passage, close your eyes and try to imagine you are Abraham. What do you see, smell, hear, and how do you
feel as you talk with God and your son and the other characters in the story?
What is it like to chop wood for an offering that will take your own
son’s life? What is it like to walk for
three days trusting God while carrying the burden about what you are about to
do all by yourself? You might be tempted to think, “I’m sure glad I’m not
in Abraham’s shoes.” The Truth is, you
are in Abraham’s shoes. We are all
called to a sacrificial faith in God that puts everything on the line. So, as we meditate, how does it feel?
Genesis 22:1-8
Some time later, God tested Abraham’s faith. “Abraham!” God
called.
“Yes,” he replied. “Here I am.”
2 “Take your son, your only son—yes, Isaac, whom you love so
much—and go to the land of Moriah. Go and sacrifice him as a burnt offering on
one of the mountains, which I will show you.”
3 The next morning Abraham got up early. He saddled his donkey and
took two of his servants with him, along with his son, Isaac. Then he chopped
wood for a fire for a burnt offering and set out for the place God had told him
about. 4 On the third day of their journey, Abraham looked up and saw the place
in the distance. 5 “Stay here with the donkey,” Abraham told the servants. “The
boy and I will travel a little farther. We will worship there, and then we will
come right back.”
6 So Abraham placed the wood for the burnt offering on Isaac’s
shoulders, while he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them
walked on together, 7 Isaac turned to Abraham and said, “Father?”
“Yes, my son?” Abraham replied.
“We have the fire and the wood,” the boy said, “but where is the
sheep for the burnt offering?”
8 “God will provide a sheep for the burnt offering, my son,”
Abraham answered. And they both walked on together.
Take your time and quietly reflect on how this passage makes you feel. resist the temptation to jump ahead and search for a happy ending. Remember, Abraham didn't know how the story was gong to end. And most of the time, we don't know how our troubles will end. We have to walk as did Abraham, buy faith--trusting God will take care of it, but not knowing when or how. Use your imagination to be Abraham in the passage through meditation as you commune with God in prayer.
I hope you found this blog helpful and will give Praying the Scripture (AKA Meditating Prayer) more attention.
