- Reflection: Have you mediated before? Has your church or community been involved in meditation?
- "Christian meditation, very simply, is the ability to hear God's voice and obey his word." - p17 (Celebration of Discipline)
- People often can be worried about meditation because of connections to Eastern religious experiences.
- It can just be a "terminology" issue. Many protestant Christians use the words - "being one with the Lord" "surrendered to God" or "being consumed with God's love."
- Biblical & historical Christian meditating is filling our minds with God and his words. Eastern religions encourage an attempt to empty our minds, losing personhood, and merge with the cosmic mind. Christian meditation has a small degree of detachment, (an idea of Sabbath, removal from the regular day-to-day) but mostly it is about attachment to God that brings inner wholeness and Shalom.
- Our team has had a variety of different experiences from life. Leisha as a child in church was encouraged to ponder over a verse. Later she spent time in pentecostal churches and experienced moments with of filling with the Holy Spirit. Lyla said she went to a seminar once where they spent time thinking about Jesus dwelling in each of the members of the audience. Nickson told us about times of meditation in the Quaker church where the whole body would be silent and think on the things of God.
Some Scriptures on Meditating
- Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the evening. He lifted up his eyes, and saw, and, behold, there were camels coming. Gen 24:63
- "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart." Hebrews 12:2-3
- 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. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Joshua 1:8
- "May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer." - Psalm 19:14
- "Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things." - Colossians 3:2
- Unfortunately there is a tendency to perform when I know I am going to present on these topics. I'm looking forward to more of meditation when I'm not reporting to the group.
- On the other hand it is good to be accountable and know I am being held to putting these disciplines into practice.
- I spent time mediating in the mornings, generally for 15 min to ½ hour
- I would start with a time of prayer, read a scripture passage, quiet myself for a few moments, and then think over the scripture and commune with God for the rest of the time.
- I found there was a tendency to evaluate the time as “how it benefits me”. How does it make me happier, more content, less stressed? These can all be great side effects – but I realized I need to shift that focus from an internal idolatry to focusing on God’s amazing person and his movement in the world.
- I didn’t have any moments of emotional highs
- I realize that I need a much better system of reminding myself and making things a priority. I missed 2 days due to "hoping" things will come together". I must make time even in my evenings to go to bed at a good time - in order to wake up and be able to start my day with a time of meditation.
Experiential Application
- Spend 20 minutes each day over this next week in meditation. For starters you can choose a short passage of scripture to "meditate" over - a story from the gospels or elsewhere works well.
- Preferably go somewhere where there is quiet. A garden, a quiet room, or a forest works well.
- Turn off phones, and other distractions if possible.
Next week... Leisha shares on Prayer.
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