When I Meditate: Reclaiming a Key Facet of Prayer

Art Toalston

Description

When I Meditate conveys this central message: It's good to pray and it's good to meditate.

Some Christians find this hard to believe. They know that meditation is mentioned in the Bible, but they tend to think it is a practice that belongs in other religions. When I Meditate sets forth a winsome alternative – a Scripture-based, you-can-do-it understanding of meditation as a life-changing facet of prayer. Within a biblical context, When I Meditate relays an array of insights and illustrations for an enlivened readiness to pray – and to follow Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, into tender communion with the Father and to live out his message of redemption in a world of needy souls.

Compared to religions and techniques that center on meditation, mantras, and physical postures for emptying one's soul into an impersonal cosmos, Christian meditation, in its all-important uniqueness as described in When I Meditate, entails God's use of Scripture to transform our minds and hearts. The riches of Scripture, when set in motion by prayer and meditation, can address any human need or yearning. Even one Scripture passage when memorized – and re-memorized as need be – and then internalized through meditation can be a catalyst for personal renewal and for conveying God's grace by word and deed to anyone, near or far, who yearns for a vibrant faith.

Sujets

• Santé et bien-être
• Développement personnel
• développement personnel
• Meditation
• Mindulness

Informations

• Publié par: eBookIt.com
• Date de parution: 08 janvier 2016
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781456609634
• Langue: English

Extrait

When I Meditate:
Reclaiming a Key Facet of Prayer
 
 
by Art Toalston
 


 
 
Copyright 2012 by Art Toalston
 
Published in eBook format by eBookIt.com
http://www.eBookIt.com
 
ISBN-13: 978-1-4566-0963-4
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.
 
Scripture references in When I Meditate, unless otherwise noted, are from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
 
Cover design by Katherine Motta
Cover drawing by Joe McKeever
 
www.arttoalston.com
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Chapter 1: A definition
A Christian view of meditation
To see me meditate in times of prayer, it would not be a very impressive sight.
I’m just sitting there. Usually comfortably.
Seemingly doing nothing.
Or seemingly sleeping, because my eyes are closed and my feet are elevated a bit by a footrest or another chair. If I remain there longer than fifteen or twenty minutes, I think I even might snore sometimes, I’m embarrassed to say.
If, however, you could join me in such moments of prayer – and I surely wish you could – you might be amazed to learn what’s going on. At least I’m amazed nearly every time I meditate, even if it yields but a tender thought or insight about God’s love for me or a few heavenly moments that transcend any earthly activity.
Perhaps a starting point for sharing this experience is to propose a description of it from a Christian perspective:
* Meditation is a prayer encounter with God – the eternal Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
* It is quiet/solitude with our creator as well as an exchange of thoughts with this divine source of life; it is contemplation on his revelation in the pages of Scripture; and it is petition for oneself and for others.
* While its duration may span a few minutes to an hour or more, there is no “correct” way to meditate. Nor is there a “correct” posture or location for meditation.
* At different moments, meditation can entail a tender responsiveness to the Holy Spirit; a humble sense of awe whenever a divine encounter occurs in the milieu of holy silence; and a divine attentiveness to the words of Scripture, particularly Bible verses that are being memorized and re-memorized and called to mind whenever needed.
* Meditation often is buffeted by a restless or wandering mind and various distractions or interruptions, and certainly these are magnified by any ongoing agony, dire circumstances, or looming crisis.
* Nevertheless, meditation can yield joyous and/or sobering moments of revelation about oneself and the world in which we live. It can stir us toward repentance; it can refresh our souls; it can lead to any number of interactions with the heart of God.
* The precious connection with God may seem very brief, yet fully worth every minute expended in waiting to experience it.
* While meditation may seem to be a “God and me” prayer practice, the transformation it nurtures manifests itself in our thoughts, attitudes, and actions – our graciousness and compassion – in our day-to-day world. Optimally, it stirs us to a sacrificial readiness for God’s passionate redemption to reach the hearts of men, women, and children locally, nationally, and to the ends of the earth.
* Meditation does not override other modes of prayer. It infuses them and deepens them. Our prayers of intercession, for example, likely will become increasingly attuned to the needs of family, friends, and acquaintances. Likewise, meditation is likely to enhance our moments of seeking God’s highest intentions for our lives as well as our exploration of the Scriptures and our yearnings for God’s transforming love to reach all of the world’s peoples. Meditation, most properly, is not an escape from the emptiness, the challenges, and the turmoil in the world but, rather, an empowering to live as a redemptive servant wherever we go.
Innumerable passages of Scripture can be pondered at various times, and some of them memorized over time (and periodically re-memorized) to nurture a wondrous connection with God. The words of Jesus and of Paul and other apostles in the New Testament as well as the psalmists and prophets in the Old Testament – every word, phrase, sentence, and paragraph is part of a divine, dynamic, enduring revelation to mankind.
Regarding, for example, Scripture’s centrality in meditation – and in all of life – a simple New Testament verse, Matthew 4:4, recounts Jesus’ declaration from the Old Testament that every element of God’s revelation is a vital source of spiritual sustenance: “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”
Regarding our responsiveness to the Holy Spirit, Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 2:11-12 convey insight into the process by which God interacts with us: “For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us.”
Regarding holy silence, God clearly states in Psalm 46:10 that it is one of the most fruitful pathways to spiritual knowledge: “Be still, and know that I am God … .”
Opening our hearts to God through Scripture, through the Holy Spirit, and through a tender attentiveness to everything that is sacred is to “pray as never before,” as I’ve experienced it, because there is a stirring newness each time we encounter our creator in his wisdom and compassion.
 
Chapter 2: Motivations
Why I meditate as I pray
“What do you mean?” we sometimes ask in the midst of a conversation.
One person has been trying to describe an experience, an opinion, a feeling, and the other person is trying to comprehend it. Depending on the importance of the topic, some of these exchanges can stretch beyond a few moments toward an hour – or numerous hours over the course of time.
A definition can help clarify what someone is trying to describe, but at times, more is needed. Conversations sometimes require an explanation of motives, a list of reasons, an openness or courage to reveal one’s beliefs and emotions.
Meditation’s intimate connection with God, though it transcends the confines of human language, nevertheless merits every effort to put into words.
For me, though the words on these pages may seem relatively straightforward, this effort has entailed numerous hours in prayer, in Scripture, and in front of a computer, fine-tuning these thoughts about meditation to reflect the reality of my experience alongside the context of biblical truth.
As best I can express them, my ever-deepening reasons for engaging in prayer and meditation – often starting with a Scripture verse or passage that I have sought to memorize and internalize – include:
* A sense of desperation.
It seems to be my best hope, in tandem with new birth, of seeking to be a redemptive person in my heart, in my relationships, and in the midst of life’s normalcy and its turmoil. When negative or impure thoughts jump into my mind, it seems to be the most effective way to push them aside, particularly by inwardly repeating such Scripture passages as Jesus’ words in the Beatitudes, “Blessed are the pure in heart, / for they will see God.” Going to church for worship, interacting with other Christians, and reading and studying the Bible certainly have been important in my life, but an unexpected, extraordinary amount of inner transformation and responsiveness to God seems to be unfolding through memorizing, re-memorizing, and internalizing Scripture for prayer and meditation. (Note: Various poetic forms in Scripture will be rendered in this book by insertions of / notations.)
* A heightened immediacy and clarity of faith.
On a moment’s notice, wherever I may be, Scripture often helps me think more quickly and clearly about God’s counsel for the basic issues of life, and then apply it to the circumstances at hand. It yields a mobile, vibrant faith, rather than one that requires me to return home and search through the Bible for guidance regarding the problems at hand (though, certainly, this is a good practice as well). One of the most helpful Scriptures has been James 3:17 in helping me think through decisions in tune with “the wisdom that comes from above,” which is “pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.”
* The joy of living in a personal milieu of God’s revelation and love amid the world’s callousness and tumult.
Like breathing fresh air instead of polluted air, the cumulative effect of memorizing/internalizing various passages of Scripture for prayer – even engaging them in a fledgling way – seems to surround me with a godly, spiritual environment wherever I may be. As Psalm 139:7-10 says, “Where can I go from your Spirit? / Where can I flee from your presence? / If I go up to the heavens, you are there; / if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. / If I rise on the wings of the dawn, / if I settle on the far side of the sea, / even there your hand will guide me, / your right hand will hold me fast.” While the Christian faith relays God’s redemption to all mankind, it takes root and blossoms person by person, heart by heart.
* An inner need for accountability to God.
Each passage of Scripture carries me to a direct encounter with the God and creator of the universe, my Lord and Savior, the true source of life. Hebrews 4, for example, says, “… the word of God is alive and active. … [I]t judges the