Monday, May 11, 2009

Meditating Musings

5/11/09 More Thoughts on Meditation
Last Thursday on “National Day of Prayer,” I, along with others that week, had an assigned time to go to the “24/7” prayer tent erected by First Evan’s college ministry. I used the Bible in the tent---The Message. In the intro, Eugene Peterson, listed the components of lectio divina (spiritual reading): read, think, pray, live. To me, that’s another way of defining meditating on God’s word. When I first typed the list my typo had love listed instead of live----but that just emphasized to me that we’ll live out in His love, what we’re learning as we read and meditate on His word.
Within his components, I have reiterated some of last Monday’s ideas to encourage meditation as a way of knowing God.
Read---to truly read, you must soak yourself in it--be immersed—read more than once, read aloud, read in a different version
Think---turning it over and over in your brain, reflecting on it, maybe even committing to memory, as needed (& jot down your ideas or questions for THOTSTrusting Him On This Subject)
Pray---more than petition, it’s acknowledging what God has been saying to you as you read and meditate & ask for understanding or direction for your THOT questions
Live---this is where God’s word and life learnings that you gain from the first 3 components begins to take shape in your life & you act on what you have heard

Assignment: meditate on this meditation passage from Psalm 1.
1Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. 2But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. 3And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. (King James Version)