Sunday, March 1, 2009

This is the second week in our series on Spiritual Disciplines. Many of you are joining me on this journey during Lent; reading through the Gospels, giving up something, and learning the disciplines. This week we are looking at the two inward disciplines of meditation and prayer.

Meditation
Unlike the meditation taught by eastern religions, the meditation taught by the Bible doesn’t empty the mind but opens it to the work and presence of God. Richard Foster says that “meditation creates the emotional and spiritual space that allows Christ to construct an inner sanctuary in our heart.”

The two Hebrew words used for “meditation” in the Bible are hagah (ponder, groan, sigh, utter), and siyach (talk about, contemplate, muse, rehearse). The book of Psalms talks a lot about meditation. Psalm 1:2 says that we are blessed when we meditate on God’s law day and night.  To meditate is to think about, mull over, rehearse, and contemplate God, His Son, His creation, His word, and His work in us. It is actually a time of fellowship with God that He desires to have with us, and that He can use to transform us through his Spirit.

Some suggestions:

• Set aside a time of quiet and solitude
• Center your attention on Christ, and on God’s glory in His Son
• Meditate on God, His attributes, His glory, His works
• Meditate on a passage or verse of the Bible
• Ask God to help you internalize the passage

Prayer
We often associate prayer with desperation and crisis.  When things are going well, we tend not to pray as much. But prayer is actually one of the most important ways that God uses in our spiritual formation. It is a conversation, a relationship with God.

God wants His people to pray. Abraham, Moses, David, and Jesus modeled a life of prayer.

What is prayer like?

• It is simple, not complicated
• It should be direct and honest
• We should pray in faith, believing in God’s ability to answer
• We learn to pray by praying

This week’s application
Here’s how I’d like us to implement these two disciplines this week:

• Find a time and a place free from distractions
• Start with 10 minutes a day (meditate for 5 and pray for 5)
• Possible things to pray about: CrossPoint, family, against evil and suffering, for protection, for our nation and other nations, or whatever is on your heart
• Possible passages of the Bible to meditate on: Matthew 13:44-46 and Matthew 18:1-5 (these are in our Lent readings this week).
• If you miss a day, don’t worry or try to catch up – just start the next day
• Let me know how this is all working for you!

Pastor Mike