58 Sermon Illustrations on Meditation

By meditation, one of the greatest of English engineers, a man uncouth, and unaccustomed to regular discipline of mind, is said to have accomplished his most marvellous triumphs. He threw bridges over almost impracticable torrents, and pierced the eternal mountains for his viaduct. Sometimes a difficulty brought all the work to a pause: then he would shut himself up in his room, eat nothing, speak to no one, abandon himself intensely to the contemplation of that on which his heart was set, and, at the end of two or three days, would come forth serene and calm, walk to the spot, and quietly give orders which seemed the result of superhuman intuition. This was meditation. Rec. F. W. Robertson.

In Directions, James Hamilton writes:

“Before refrigerators, people used icehouses to preserve their food. Icehouses had thick walls, no windows, and a tightly fitted door. In winter, when streams and lakes were frozen, large blocks of ice were cut, hauled to the icehouses, and covered with sawdust. Often the ice would last well into the summer.

“One man lost a valuable watch while working in an icehouse. He searched diligently for it carefully raking through the sawdust, but didn’t find it. His fellow workers also looked, but their efforts, too, proved futile. A small boy who heard about the fruitless search slipped into the icehouse during the noon hour and soon emerged with the watch.

“Amazed, the men asked him how he found it.

“‘I closed the door,’ the boy replied, ‘lay down in the sawdust, and kept very still. Soon I heard the watch ticking.’”

Often the question is not whether God is speaking but whether we are being still enough, and quiet enough, to hear.

"From the time when God became real to me, I knew that communicating with him -- two-way communication -- was the most important thing in the world. To communicate with everyone else and be deaf and dumb to God is to turn our priorities upside down, isn't it?"

-- David Winter in "Christian Classics in Modern English: Brother Lawrence's Practicing the Presence of God"

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Copyright (c) 1995 Christianity Today, Inc./CHRISTIANITY TODAY Magazine

"For the fulhede of joy is to beholden God in al." - Julian, XXXV

(the fullness of joy is to see God in all things)

The Jesuit priest, Gerald Manley Hopkins (1844-89), knew how to see the fingerprints of His Creator: "The world is charged with the grandeur of God. / It will flame out, like shining from shook foil …" Every where he looked he saw reminders of his God: "Glory be to God for dappled things - / For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow; / For rose-moles in all stipple upon trout that swim; / …. / All things counter, original, spare, strange; / Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?) / With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim; / He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:/ Praise Him." The truth is reflected also in the faces of humanity: "I say more: the just man justices; / Keeps grace: that keeps all his goings graces; Acts in God’s eye what in God’s eye he is – / Christ – for Christ plays in ten thousand places, / Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his / To the Father through the features of men’s faces."

"Thee God, I come from, to thee go, / All day long I like a fountain flow / From thy hand out, swayed about / Mote-like in thy mighty glow."

Even in the tragic, Hopkins could see God at work. He prefaces his "Wreck of the Deutschland" with "To the happy memory of five Franciscan nuns … drowned between midnight and morning …". In the poem he writes of the tension we have in this seeing of God: "Thou art lightning and love, I found it, winter and warm; / Father and fondler of heart thou hast wrung." Like Julian, Hopkins does not pretend that seeing God in all things will always be easy, in "Justus quidem tu es …" he asks: "Why do sinners’ ways prosper? and why must / Disappointment all I endeavour end? / Wert thou my enemy, O thou my friend / How wouldst thou worst, I wonder, than thou dost / … Mine, O thou lord of life, send my roots rain." In "Carrion Comfort" he cries out like David in Psalm 22: "But ah, but O thou terrible, why wouldst thou rude on me / Thy wring-world right foot rock lay a lionlimb against me?"

And yet, while struggling for a meaning he still sees the Hand, as he says in the "… Deutschland": "is the shipwreck then a harvest, / does tempest carry the grain for thee? …. Death with a sovereignty that heeds but hides, bodes but abides." The poem ends with a sense of triumph – even in the tragedy the King is "Kind, but royally reclaiming his own."

In Chapter 35 Julian speaks of the way in which evil, though never "worthwhile" or encouraged by God, nevertheless has the advantage of showing us our need for God’s mercy and love. She looks forward to a day when "all will have been brought to righteousness." But in the meantime sees God at work not just in the joyous moments (though there are "many, many" of these), but also in those times when we need to cry out for mercy and grace. "The soul that by grace wisely considers both [times of joy and the need for mercy] is well satisfied, and delights in them forever."

Jude and Doc Martin (JaM) de Graaf <>

[see also HolwickID #17061]

*

We are constantly bombarded with sounds. Either the radio announcer is talking to us, or the voice through the phone receiver is. And if we are able to escape momentarily and grab a moment of silence, we confront the most deafening noise of all: our internal voice. Yes, our days are filled with people speaking to us, but for most, it is our internal speaking that fills every crevice and crack of our conscious moments. When we see a neighbor, our opinions speak a piece about her. As we talk with a coworker, beyond our words, our thoughts speak volumes. Even as we embrace a loved one, our hearts can be quite chatty with criticism or distractions. And most devastatingly, our times of prayer are loud with our voice but soft in the voice of God.

These are all connected. In each we demonstrate our ability to listen: our ability to become quiet, open ourselves to another, and focus upon their concern. True listening only occurs when we disentangle ourselves from our internal morass of self-centeredness. Only as we internally soften the focus upon ourselves and became captivated in concern for another do we begin to listen. It is only via true listening that we will ever consistently hear the people that populate our world. Yes, on occasion, we can be jolted out of the dominance of our internal voice by the tragedy another has suffered or by the lightening bolt of God's conviction. But on a daily basis, on a minute-by-minute basis, unless we take on an attitude of true listening our world will resound with our own internal voice.

The lack of true listening is the cause of much of our spiritual weakness for if we place the mouth before the ear, our prayers will be dominated by our mouths and not our ears. This results in prayers full of our requests and our desires and lacking in God's requests and God's desires. We end up presenting our questions for God, but do not wait to hear His questions of us. Let us learn from Jacob that wrestling with God in prayer means that God wrestles back. This powerful thought should make us tremble. We ought not bend our knees blithely, for God might bend us as we kneel before Him.

Respect for God's power is not the only reason to learn to truly listen to Him. We are also desperate to hear His Word of love. God's one Word of love whispered in the soul is a bounteous feast. Listen and feast.

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Copyright © 2003 Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM). Reprinted with permission. "A Slice of Infinity" is a radio ministry of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries.

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[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #12715]

Discouraged? Take this good counsel from Charles Spurgeon: "Plunge

yourself in the Godhead's deepest sea; be lost in His immensity; and

you shall come forth as from a couch of rest, refreshed and

invigorated. I know nothing which can so comfort the soul; so calm

the swelling billows of sorrow and grief; so speak peace to the winds

of trial, as a devout musing upon the subject of the Godhead." --C. H.

Spurgeon

Have you ever wondered why a pigeon walks so funny? According to an interesting article in the Detroit Free Press, a pigeon walks the way it does so it can see where it's going. Because it can't adjust its focus as it moves, the pigeon actually has to bring its head to a complete stop between steps in order to refocus. This is the way it walks: head forward, stop; head back, stop. Don't laugh -- that's how it goes!

In our spiritual walk with the Lord we have the same problem as the pigeon. We have a hard time seeing while we're moving. We also need to stop between steps -- to refocus on where we are in relation to the World[*] and the will of God. That's not to say we have to stop and pray and meditate about every little decision in life. But certainly our walk with the Lord needs to have built into it a pattern of “stops,” which enable us to see more clearly before moving on.

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[*] Some versions have "Word".

If I had only forgotten future greatness and looked at the green things and reached out to those around me and smelled the air and ignored the forms and the self-styled obligations and heard the rain on my roof and put my arms around my wife -- Perhaps it's not too late.

-- Hugh Prather, Notes to Myself.

See: 1 Peter 1:24-25

Slow Me Down, Lord

Slow me down,Lord!

Ease the pounding of my heart

By the quieting of my mind.

Steady my harried pace

With a vision of the eternal reach of time.

Give me, admidst the confusions of my day,

The calmness of the everlasting hills.

Break the tensions of my nerves

With the soothing music of the sighing streams

That live in my memory.

Help me to know

The magical restoring power of sleep.

Teach me the art

Of taking minute vacations of slowing down to look at a flower;

To chat with an old friend or to make a new one;

To pat a stray dog,

To watch a spider build a web;

To smile at a child;

Or to read a few lines from a good book.

Remind me each day

That the race is not always to the swift;

That there is more to life than increasing its speed.

Let me look upward

Into the branches of the towering oak

And know that it grew slowly and well.

Slow me down, Lord,

And inspire me to send my roots deep

Into the soil of life's enduring values

That I may grow toward the stars

Of my great destiny.

-- Orin L. Crain

See: Psalm 1:2; Psalm 4:4; Psalm 63:6

The 23rd Psalm

The Lord is my Shepherd - THAT'S RELATIONSHIP!

I shall not want - THAT'S SUPPLY!

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures - THAT'S REST!

He leadeth me beside still waters - THAT'S REFRESHMENT!

He restoreth my soul - THAT'S HEALING!

He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness - THAT'S GUIDANCE!

For His name sake - THAT'S PURPOSE!

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death - THAT'S TESTING!

I will fear no evil - THAT'S PROTECTION!

For thou art with me - THAT'S FAITHFULNESS!

Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me - THAT'S DISCIPLINE!

Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies - THAT'S HOPE!

Thou anointest my head with oil - THAT'S CONSECRATION!

My cup runneth over - THAT'S ABUNDANCE!

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life - THAT'S BLESSING!

And I will dwell in the house of the Lord - THAT'S SECURITY!

Forever - THAT'S ETERNITY!

AMEN

I once thought of hermits as shaggy recluses notable mainly for their self-obsession and dearth of social skills - people like the Unabomber. Thomas Merton corrected my misconception. "To be really mad, you need other people," he explained. "When you are by yourself you soon get tired of your craziness. It is too exhausting."

A recent book by Peter France, HERMITS, has helped to fill in the picture. France gave up a high-profile career with the BBC to lead a contemplative life on a Greek island. He did so not as an act of sacrifice, rather as a quest for the wisdom available only through a life of solitude. Living apart from the press of popular opinion "confers insights not available to society," France concluded.

Saint Anthony of Egypt, the famous Desert Father, chose the hermitic life in deliberate contrast to his upper-crust upbringing. After 20 years locked away, not seeing another human face, Anthony emerged healthy, balanced, and full of sage advice. From then on he alternated between solo retreats and pastoral visits. France likens the pattern to that of scientists who work alone in search of cures for deadly diseases.

You cannot read about hermits, of course, without encountering strangeness. One monk lusted after a beautiful woman. When she died he took his tunic to her tomb and used it to dry the pus from her corpse. Keeping the smell close to him in his cell, he reminded himself, "This is what you lust after - take your fill."

Some monks competed in a kind of ascetic Olympics, testing how long they could go without food, water, or sleep. These, too, had a method to their madness: their privations caused so much suffering that they left no mental void for carnal thoughts to fill.

France relates other stories that cast a different light on these eremites. When one brother bragged about his dietary discipline, his spiritual director replied, "Don't tell me, my child, that you've spent 30 years without eating meat. But tell me the truth: How many days have you spent without speaking ill of your brother? Without judging your neighbour? Without letting useless words pass your lips?"

The thirst for solitude seems to increase whenever society is in a state of turmoil. Jewish Essenes retreated into the desert in Jesus' day; the Buddha withdrew in order to purge himself of social illusions; the Hindu Gandhi observed a regimen of strict silence on Mondays, a practice he would not interrupt even for meetings with the king of England.

Solitude rips off all masks and disguises and breaks needless dependence on material goods. Henry David Thoreau perfected a peculiar American blend of asceticism, love of nature, and self-reliance. A friend once remarked that Thoreau could get more out of 10 minutes with a chickadee than most men could get out of a night with Cleopatra. Thoreau insisted, "I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude."

In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the English landed gentry hired "ornamental hermits." Recognizing the value of solitude but unwilling to endure its rigors, the wealthy ensconced these surrogates in little hermitages in their fancy gardens. If you can't devote yourself to a life of simplicity and prayer, why not pay somebody to do it for you?

Thomas Merton was the best apologist for the life of solitude in our century. He viewed life in community as the real sacrifice and made constant appeals for the privilege of solitude, a wish finally granted him after 24 years. Merton longed to join those "men on this miserable, noisy, cruel earth who tasted the marvelous joy of silence and solitude, who dwelt in forgotten mountain cells, in secluded monasteries, where the news and desires and appetites and conflicts of the world no longer reached them." Nevertheless, he insisted that "the only justification for a life of deliberate solitude is the conviction that it will help you to love not only God but also other men."

Merton proved that a life of solitude need not lead to isolation or irrelevance. Has our century known a more acute observer of politics, culture, and religion than this monk who rarely spoke and rarely left the grounds of his monastery?

It surprises me that, amid the moral upheaval of our waning century, the church has not responded again with a movement toward solitude. Elijah, Moses, and Jacob met God alone. The apostle Paul, John the Baptist, and Jesus himself escaped to the wilderness for spiritual nourishment.

Relevance, we have surely mastered. The Web pages of religious organizations are technically advanced. New Christian music groups spring up in response to the slightest cultural tremor. What would happen if we sought a little IRRELEVANCE?

What if every Christian took a two-hour nature walk each weekend, without speaking? Or if, like Gandhi, we observed a day of silence. He chose Monday; what if we agreed to maintain silence after church on Sunday? More radical still, what if we silenced all Sunday sporting events on television and radio?

I had best stop. As the hermits remind us, these spiritual disciplines can get out of control.

COPYRIGHT © 1998 BY THE AUTHOR OR CHRISTIANITY TODAY INTERNATIONAL/CHRISTIANITY TODAY MAGAZINE. FOR REPRINT INFORMATION CALL 630-260-6200 OR E-MAIL CTEDITOR@CHRISTIANITYTODAY.COM.

APRIL 6, 1998 VOL. 42, NO. 4, PAGE 80

Does your spiritual life sometimes seem more like a burden than a blessing? Does your spirituality seem to exhaust you as often as it refreshes you? Have your spiritual practices become “just another thing to do” in an already overcrowded, stress-filled schedule? If so, then you need to simplify your spiritual life.

We should expect part of true spirituality to exhaust us, for it exists not merely for our own edification, but to serve the glory and purposes of God. Jesus' spiritual labors occasionally so fatigued Him that He could fall asleep in an open boat in the middle of a lake during a life-threatening storm (Luke 8:22-25).

Likewise, the Apostle Paul knew the depletion of inner resources that results from the willingness to “spend and be spent” for the sake of the souls of others (2 Corinthians 12:15). All aspects of externalized spirituality -- serving people's needs, doing good works, taking the Gospel to the spiritually lost, working in church ministries -- all these expend the reserves of both body and soul.

There's a problem, though, when the inflow of spiritual renewal doesn't replenish the outflow of spiritual ministry. For the spiritual life also should be the source of inner recreation and restoration since it is the way we most directly experience the Lord Himself in daily life. Through our spiritual disciplines (rightly motivated and practiced) come many of the most refreshing blessings of knowing Christ.

An example of how the spiritual disciplines can be an ongoing means of reinvigorating the soul occurs in Psalm 1:2-3. Frequent meditation on (and not just reading) God's Word so continually refreshes the meditator that, “He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper.”

However, as everything else in our lives becomes more complex, so can our spirituality. As one writer observed, “The pattern of over- involvement, clutter, and busyness that is a part of our lives at home and at work will follow us into our spiritual lives unless we are vigilant.” With increasing prosperity and technology come increasing opportunities and options -- even in our spiritual practices -- that weren't available a short time ago. For instance, instead of simply sitting in a comfortable chair by a sunny window with our Bible, journal and pen, now we can:

-- Receive devotional readings sent daily by automatic e-mail.

-- Read the Bible in several of the many translations we possess, including those on our computer.

-- Make journal entries on the computer by keyboard or voice- recognition software, inserting interesting graphics along with the text.

-- Envelop our devotional experience with worship-enhancing audio and/or video.

But it all needs to be done faster than ever before because of the strangling demands on our time.

The growing frustrations of hurry and complexity affect the practice not only of our personal spiritual disciplines, but of our congregational spiritual disciplines (the ones we practice with other Christians) as well. There's less time for church involvement than previously, and yet there are more church activities to choose from. We're so far behind in so many things that sometimes we wonder if what we receive from church is worth the overwhelming effort just to get there.

In some ways we're doing more than ever spiritually, but enjoying and profiting from it less. Many areas of our lives are productive and prosperous, yet we've never felt so spiritually withered. Our calendars are full, but our souls are empty.

The time has come to evaluate whether what we are doing in our spiritual lives is taking us where we want to go.

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Donald Whitney is associate professor of spiritual formation at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Mo. This article is excerpted from Whitney's new book, “Simplify Your Spiritual Life” (Colorado Springs, Colo.: NavPress, 2003). Copyright 2002, Donald S. Whitney. All rights reserved.

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They burrow. They bore in. They attach themselves inside your head. They become a part of your brain. (And they’ve been an ongoing fear of mine ever since I saw Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan.)

Earworms. According to James J. Kellaris, Ph.D., the worst culprits are Chili’s “Baby Back Ribs” jingle and the Baha Men’s Song, “Who Let the Dogs Out?” (Woof! Woof! Woof!)

Yes, an “earworm,” once exclusively an insect, has become the name for those unrelenting tunes and jingles that you can’t get out of your head. Others in the Top 10 list are: The Kit-Kat candy-bar jingle (”Gimme a Break . . . “), “YMCA,” “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” and my personal nightmare: “It’s a Small World After All.”

Often the only way to rid yourself of the insidious infestation is to replace it with another tune — your “cleaner song.” The new words crowd out any earworms that have taken up residence.

Sometimes we could use a “cleaner song” for our thought-life as well. Bitter, lustful, vengeful thoughts attach themselves and hang on to our gray matter for their lives.

When we can’t shake sinful thoughts, reading God’s Word or remembering Bible verses we’ve memorized and repeating those words over and over can help clean up our minds.

Here are some great ones: “Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things” (Philippians 4:8). “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37-38). “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2).

God is interested in our thought-life, and He’s provided a way to cleanse it through the reading of His Word and allowing it to control our hearts and minds.

Now, how does the “Barney” song go again? — Cindy Kasper

DESTINATION POINTS

• What song is my worst “earworm”?

• What thoughts have infested my mind and are starting to control my attitude? Have I asked the Lord for help to change?

• What Bible verses can I read and memorize?

• Meditate on good words, leaving the bad behind.

Two people who love each other are intentional about spending meaningful time together. To do this, both discipline and love must work together. Taking time requires deliberate planning.

A similar focus is necessary to cultivate meaningful time with God. Often we begin the day fully intent on having devotions at a set time. But as the day goes on, we are bombarded by one urgent item after another. Soon devotions are postponed until tomorrow.

But when a quiet time is the priority, centering ourselves in God puts things in perspective. And this relational connection requires discipline.

In 1 Corinthians 9, the apostle Paul used the imagery of athletic games to illustrate the need for spiritual discipline. The term used for “temperate” really means “the power of self-control; to practice abstinence.”

When athletes say “yes” to the Olympics, they say “no” to other distractions. Rigorous control of diet and exercise are the only way to win in their chosen competitive sport.

Similarly, by setting up a daily devotional discipline and making it the priority, a host of other positive habits can follow.

Here are some ways to set up a quiet time before you actually begin:

• Reserve A Daily Time To Reconnect. Whether we need a highly disciplined schedule or prefer a more relaxed one, we all need a plan. If you are using a daily planner, computer software, or some other calendar, you might want to set aside a time when you will meet with God daily.

• Determine How Much Time To Spend. When I was taking classical guitar lessons, the instructor told me, “It’s better to practice 15 minutes a day every day, and then to practice for several hours on only a few days.” He was right, especially when it comes to establishing new habits. But new habits are sometimes hard to form.

It’s not by accident that the author of Hebrews wrote that we are not to forsake “the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some” (Heb. 10:25). He understood that church attendance, like any other activity, is a habit that needs to be cultivated.

This principle clearly applies to our devotional time. It’s better to block out 15 minutes and seek to remain faithful to honoring that time than it is to let our daily discipline be eaten away by daily distractions. After praying about how much time to spend, enter that time block into your calendar.

• Find A Quiet Place. We all concentrate or are distracted in different ways. C. S. Lewis brings up a surprising suggestion in his book Letters To Malcolm. His admonition on the “quiet time” is to make sure we have “just the right amount of distraction” to help us concentrate. Lewis tells the story of a man who would have his devotional time in a railway compartment because complete silence left him open to inner distractions. Ironically, his focus was enhanced when it was challenged just slightly.

The point is that we’re not always going to find a place that is as quiet as an undiscovered cave. Invariably, minor distractions are likely to occur. But we need to look for a place where we believe it is sufficiently quiet to help us concentrate.

Now jot down in your calendar the place for reconnecting with the Lord.

Set Up Realistic Expectations. I knew a student a number of years ago who was an excellent writer. The problem was that he always turned in his papers late. Why?

“If I can’t do it right, I won’t do it!” was his response. His commitment to perfectionism led him down a path of inconsistency. This is a common problem in maintaining a quiet time. It is a “throwing the baby out with the bath water” mentality. It is the “all or nothing” approach to a devotional life.

But in a realistic sense, daily devotions are about progress more than perfection. It’s better for us to have a shorter and even less meaningful devotional time on a given day than it is to skip it in the name of high standards. When we wait for the perfect circumstances to have “quality time” with the Lord, they rarely occur. Manageable bite-size devotional times can lead to greater consistency.

But what happens when the time and place are reserved and you actually show up for your quiet time, but you’re not in the mood to have one?

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“Those who wait on the Lord shall renew [exchange] their strength” (Isa. 40:31).

Isaiah believed that waiting on the Lord was anything but a passive process. This idea of “staying power” required a radical exchange of human for divine strength. The Hebrew word for renew means “to substitute, to exchange, to show newness, to sprout.” The Christian is not supposed to stir up his or her willpower, but instead to exchange human energy for divine energy.

When I was a sophomore in college, I had a discipline problem when it came to studying. I found all kinds of other activities with my friends that competed with getting assignments in on time and being fully prepared for exams.

One night after class, I discussed my problem with one of my professors. After talking to him, I felt compelled to single out my devotional time as the top priority of the day. It would be the one project I planned on getting done first thing every morning.

The next day as I began my new commitment to prioritize my quiet time, I found a sudden sagging in my resolve. I just didn’t feel like it. I wasn’t in the mood.

Claiming Isaiah 40:31, I decided to become transparent with the Lord and “exchange my strength” for His. I told Him my heart was cold and that I felt little motivation to spend time with Him. I confessed my apathy as sin, and then I thanked Him for His forgiveness (1 Jn. 1:9).

Then I chose to surrender my mood to God and asked Him to change it. I began to depend on Him to replace my stagnation with His vitality. I read through the biblical passage again that I was scheduled to read. I recommitted myself to pray for transformation.

After about 20 minutes of this, I began to pray over other projects that needed my attention later in the day. I told God about assignments I didn’t want to do and asked Him for the strength necessary to deal with them.

By the time my feet hit the asphalt on my way to class, I began to feel an energy, a focus, and most important, a discipline that I had previously lacked. My grades went up that semester. I had found a way of exchanging my strength for that of the living God.

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Have you ever written a letter to someone in which you really opened your heart? You probably felt vulnerable as you waited for a response. How would you feel if the written response to your letter ignored everything you had said but talked only about issues that concerned the other person?

This could be the view of heaven as many a quiet time goes on day in and day out. The Bible is a love letter from our heavenly Father. Yet too often our prayers do not reflect the actual portion of Scripture we have read. Instead, the content of the love letter is ignored as our many pressing needs are petitioned upward.

What needs to happen, however, is spiritual two-way communication.

God Speaks To Us Through His Word. First Samuel 3:21 says that “the Lord revealed Himself to Samuel … by the word of the Lord.” The Hebrew word for reveal means “to show or uncover.” The Creator discloses His thoughts, character, and will through His Word. In biblical history, God either spoke directly or inspired His meanings into the sacred text. Today, He illuminates the Bible so we can have our understanding enlightened by the Holy Spirit as we read it.

In approaching a portion of Scripture, there is a time-honored process that can help make examining the Word of God fruitful.

• First of all, we need to ask, “What does the passage say?” We answer this by looking at the actual words of the text as they are used in context. Allow the Bible passage to speak for itself in its original historical and cultural setting. For example, let the Bible character wear his robe and sandals instead of expecting him to wear a business suit.

• The second step is to ask, “What does it mean?” Within the Bible passage is an eternal spiritual truth that is meaningful in all ages. Often the main idea is not time-bound to an era hundreds of years ago but can be seen in our own time’s contemporary clothing.

• Finally, we need to ask, “How does it apply?” The indwelling Holy Spirit will change our thoughts, speech, and behavior when we allow Him to use the spiritual principles we find in God’s Word. A key question to ask is, “In what measurable ways should my life change as a result of studying this passage?”

Now let’s look at our conversational response to God.

We Respond To God In Prayer. Daniel 6:10 says that Daniel “prayed and gave thanks before his God, as was his custom since early days.” A group of the king’s advisers knew about Daniel’s prayer habit and plotted to use it against him. They were angry and jealous that the king was considering giving Daniel political power. So they influenced the king to pass an edict that would put to death anyone who prayed to any god or man other than the king himself. Yet, despite the danger, Daniel kept his appointment with God at an open window as he had always done.

During this established time of prayer, Daniel undoubtedly petitioned God about his own personal needs and interceded on behalf of the needs of others.

As Daniel was making his requests known to God, a spirit of thanksgiving permeated his prayer-time. The whole idea of giving thanks carries with it the idea of gratefully responding to God for gifts already given. It is part of the dialogue that expresses appreciation. Immersion in the Word has a way of serving as a springboard of praise to God for who He is and what He has done for us.

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“Your words were found, and I ate them, and Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart; for I am called by Your name, O Lord God of hosts” (Jer. 15:16).

A delicious meal is not very appealing if you experience indigestion afterward. Slowing the intake of the Word through careful reflection is also essential.

When encountering the pages of the Bible, it is so easy to skim over a given passage without seeing its significance. But the prophet Jeremiah, with his deep love for the Word of God, made it his first priority. The Hebrew word translated “were found” means both “to acquire and secure” and “to encounter and meet.” When looking at a passage, we should slow down and acquaint ourselves with the text until it becomes secured in our soul.

The passage then refers to one of the most enjoyable aspects of the culinary experience — actually eating the food. The word eat can mean “devouring, consuming food” as well as “burning fuel like a fire.” When we begin to “chew” on a passage we begin to taste the wonderful spiritual flavors it contains.

Have you ever been hungry and found yourself sitting down to a wide range of entrees with distinctive flavors? As your stomach begins to fill with protein, fat, and carbohydrates, you actually begin to feel a lifting of your mood emotionally. Jeremiah felt a rush of “joy and rejoicing” as he ingested God’s Word into his heart. The word the prophet used for “heart” means “the inner man, thinking, reflection at the seat of appetites.” The Word of God nourishes our thoughts and emotions, and brings joy.

The foundation for delighting in feeding on God’s Word can be seen in the concluding section of this small but meaningful verse: “I am called by Your name, O Lord God of hosts.” To Jeremiah, meaningful time in God’s Word is always tied to our relationship with Him. In our devotional time, we become aware once again that we are called by the eternally existing Lord of heaven and earth. And this realization transforms our spiritual dryness into a dynamic encounter with the One who created us for fellowship with Him.

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Without getting buried in paperwork, there are some advantages to writing down your personal time with the Lord.

Our thoughts and feelings are a constant revolving door of varied life experiences. If we have a written record of what is covered in our quiet time, various trends in our walk of faith will be revealed.

In addition to this, we will see progress that has been made in different areas of our lives that would go unnoticed if it were not written down.

The guide given below could be copied down in a notebook and kept as a concise record of your daily quiet time.

DEVOTIONAL GUIDE

Date:____________________

Passage Read Today: _________________________

Version:__________________

Highlight (chapter & verse): _________________________

Insights:_________________________________________________

Application:_______________________________________________

Prayer-time:_______________________________________________

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Recently I was at a local Christian bookstore doing some browsing. I asked the woman behind the counter about books to help with daily devotions. She took me over to a whole section of different helps for a personal quiet time.

There was a popular day-by-day devotional. Not far from it was My Utmost For His Highest by Oswald Chambers, a devotional classic adapted for a daily quiet time. Farther down the aisle was another selection of readings for going through the Bible in one year.

In most of these books, a relevant inspirational excerpt or story draws a lesson from a suggested Bible reading. One reason for the popularity of this kind of devotional guide is that it has a short, memorable lesson that is both inspiring and applicable to daily life.

One caution in using this kind of guide, however, is the temptation to just read the story and skip the Bible reading for the day. Once this becomes a habit, the believer can find his life built on inspirational thoughts instead of the Word of God-a spiritual life that is built on very shaky ground.

If you use one of these devotional guides, be sure to read the Bible passage along with the stories that illustrate the biblical truth. If we build our lives on anecdotes and excerpts rather than on the Word of God, we can develop an improper view of the Christian life and may be setting ourselves up for a fall. God has promised to bless His Word, not our illustrations about it (2 Tim. 3:15-16).

In addition to the wonderful resources for daily devotions that you can find in any Christian bookstore, there are Web sites where additional help can be found (see www.gospelcom.net).

There is such a variety of different methods for effective devotional times and Bible study, that there’s bound to be a suitable approach for you.

In our drive to make our method work, it’s important to remind ourselves about our motivation. Spending time with God to experience His presence, comfort, and guidance should be our goal-not to be more “spiritual” or to alleviate guilt for our own shortcomings.

Consider the example of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was perfect and never sinned, yet He looked for undistracted time with His Father. Why? Because Jesus functioned on earth as every human being was intended to function-in total dependence on the Father. Let’s take a look at how He sought out time to commune with His heavenly Father.

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In Mark 1:35-39 we see the priority that Jesus put on prayer. After an exhausting time of healing sick and demon-possessed people late into the night, Jesus woke early in the morning, went to a solitary place, and prayed. I believe that Jesus used this time for regaining His spiritual center. Peter interrupted Jesus’ devotional time to express the further demands of the needy crowd. Rather than responding to the immediate need, the Lord reaffirmed a commitment to greater outreach in other cities.

A closer look at the text will show the inner workings of our Lord’s own devotional life.

SEEKING ISOLATION AND COMMUNION

“Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed” (Mk. 1:35).

Have you ever thought about why Jesus Christ even needed a quiet time? We are all aware of our own weaknesses and sins. The need for cleansing and renewal is often the felt need of the committed believer. But the Bible teaches the sinlessness of our Lord-He “who knew no sin” (2 Cor. 5:21). So why did Jesus go out to a solitary place while the disciples slept in?

During His ministry on earth, the Lord Jesus chose to limit the exercise of His divine attributes. He was fully God, but He chose to depend on the Father and the indwelling Spirit working through Him. He did this to show us how we are to depend on God. That dependence can be seen in the way Jesus sought time alone with His Father. The term translated “solitary place” means “a desert, wasteland, uninhabited region.” After such dynamic emotional interactions as healing many crippled and sick from the night before, Christ needed solitude to make communion with the Father most effective.

The walk of faith requires coming repeatedly to God for His unique guidance. The result of Jesus’ time alone with God redirected His vision from local needs to greater outreach.

LISTENING TO GOD’S DIRECTION AMID DISTRACTION

“Simon and those who were with Him searched for Him. When they found Him, they said to Him, ‘Everyone is looking for You.’ But He said to them, ‘Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also, because for this purpose I have come forth’ “ (Mk. 1:36-38).

The word found in verse 37 is better translated “hunted down.” Can you imagine a more annoying scenario? Peter thought he knew best how Christ should spend His day. And he was even willing to interrupt the Lord’s prayer-time to offer his advice. The need Simon Peter was expressing was clearly an urgent one: “Everyone is looking for You.”

No one active in ministry (either fulltime or as a volunteer) has escaped the pressure of certain ministry “interest groups.” Their needs are often valid and they sometimes have representatives who plead for immediate attention. Yet look at what Jesus did. He was not worried about being perceived as someone who wasn’t responsive to immediate needs. Having only a limited amount of time and energy, He had received direction from His Father to go elsewhere.

You would think Jesus’ quiet time would have made Him more sensitive to the people right there with Him. But to meet only the needs directly in front of us is to ignore God’s ever-expanding concern for those who are lost. Time alone with His Father brought Jesus back to the purpose for which He came into the world: “to seek and to save that which was lost” (Lk. 19:10).

CARRYING OUT APPLICATION

“He was preaching in their synagogues throughout all Galilee, and casting out demons” (Mk. 1:39).

It’s so easy to skip over the significance of the last verse of this section. It’s not just a review of what was said in the previous verse. Not by a long shot! Verse 39 is the payoff to the whole passage. Jesus actually did what He said He was going to do. He went to the synagogues and preached.

The word preaching would be used over and over again within the pages of the New Testament as the apostles duplicated the Lord’s pattern for spreading the good news in expanding circles of outreach. Jesus’ target area for ministry was expanded to include “all Galilee.” Later, as His disciples followed in His steps, it would extend “to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

It’s important to apply what comes out of our prayer-time. Meaningful fellowship with Christ comes when we follow His example (1 Pet. 2:21) and we apply His Word in the power of the Spirit.

Jesus said, “He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him” (Jn. 14:21). If we see our quiet time only as a spiritual oasis once a day, we may fall into the trap of compartmentalizing our spiritual life. From the Garden of Eden until now, God has desired to walk with His people in life’s journey (Gen. 3:8). So it’s essential that we take what we learn in our quiet time with us throughout the entire day.

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Our Lord’s encounter in Luke 24:13-32 with the two men walking on the Emmaus Road is filled with insights about how to keep the divine dialogue with God going throughout the day.

ENCOUNTERING JESUS IN REAL-LIFE PROBLEMS

Have you ever poured a lot of spiritual attention into your quiet time and then left it behind to face the problems of the day in your own strength? This is called compartmentalization or confining your spiritual life to an exclusive part of the day. But Jesus never intended for us to go it alone. He is eager to help us solve life’s problems. Let’s take a look at how He did this on the road to Emmaus.

“Now behold, two of them were traveling that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was seven miles from Jerusalem. And they talked together of all these things which had happened. So it was, while they conversed and reasoned, that Jesus Himself drew near and went with them. But their eyes were restrained, so that they did not know Him.” (Lk. 24:13-16).

Little is known about the two who walked the well-worn path from Jerusalem to the village of Emmaus. But the Bible indicates that they were troubled. They had an internal conflict, an emotional struggle that was based on a disappointing experience. And this problem was being discussed by these two friends. Human beings are problem solvers by nature, and they usually don’t do it alone.

It was in this context of human need that Jesus approached the two men as they walked. “Jesus Himself drew near and went with them” (v.15). What wonderful words! The risen Christ really does want to invade our human circumstances and carry on a dialogue with us. Life is a journey and Christ wants to be our companion on it, not just someone we talked to at the last rest stop.

TRYING TO MAKE SENSE OF GOD’S WAYS

One of the great challenges of the Christian life is trying to make sense of the apparent contradictions and setbacks we all face. Much of our perplexity comes from having only part of the whole picture, which distorts our perspective. The two men on the road to Emmaus illustrate this inadequacy and how the Lord Jesus helped them correct it.

[Jesus] said to them, “What kind of conversation is this that you have with one another as you walk and are sad?” Then the one whose name was Cleopas answered and said to Him, “Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem, and have You not known the things which happened there in these days?” And He said to them, “What things?” So they said to Him, “The things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a Prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him to be condemned to death, and crucified Him. But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, today is the third day since these things happened. Yes, and certain women of our company, who arrived at the tomb early, astonished us. When they did not find His body, they came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels who said He was alive. And certain of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but Him they did not see” (Lk. 24:17-24).

In response to Christ’s question, the two went into detail about what was troubling them. Their summary is a concise review of the hope that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah who would redeem the nation Israel. Instead, He had been put to death in the most cruel form of execution-crucifixion. And to make their thoughts even more agitated, there had been reports of His tomb being empty and the appearance of angelic messengers.

The two who walked next to the Lord were troubled by soaring hopes followed by shattered dreams. Their experience is similar to what many of us have experienced. To be human is to look at life’s events through a keyhole. Each of us is finite and can take in only part of the picture of any circumstance.

So often what we believe the Bible teaches doesn’t make sense in our limited perspective of an apparent tragedy. Whether it’s our expectations of how God should answer a prayer or how we view life’s apparent misfortunes, we are limited in our understanding.

But Jesus wants us to tell Him our concerns. He has a listening ear and is concerned about all the details of our lives. Our unique relationship with Christ allows us to communicate with Him through prayer in any of life’s experiences.

LETTING JESUS EXPLAIN HIMSELF

It must have been devastating for Jesus’ followers to have their hopes and dreams crushed right in front of their eyes. But when Christ was allowed to illuminate their understanding of the Word of God in their experience, they began to get a fresh outlook on their circumstances.

Then He said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?” And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself (Lk. 24:25-27).

Our Lord’s response sounds abrupt. Yet in reality, this situation is a case study in education. Look at the wording. “Foolish ones” is a compound word that literally means “without knowledge.” The disciples on the Emmaus Road were handicapped by having only part of the information.

“Slow of heart to believe” is a rebuke of their slowness in trusting God for what He had promised.

Jesus then provided the only remedy for spiritual ignorance-more information. The Teacher focused their attention on key passages of the Old Testament that explained that the Messiah must suffer before being glorified.

The lesson for us today is that though we may sometimes struggle with disappointment, we often lack all the information to make sense of it at the time. The Lord may eventually provide the people or the necessary information to bring closure to our problem. In some cases, we won’t get the answer until we meet Christ face-to-face in eternity. But because life on earth is a spiritual bootcamp of sorts, it’s essential to be teachable and in regular contact with our Teacher. Then our faith and knowledge can grow.

LEARNING TO KEEP THE CONVERSATION GOING

Meaningful connection with the risen Christ makes us want to linger in His presence. When the two travelers reached their final destination, they felt a strong need to stay in close proximity to the Savior.

Then they drew near to the village where they were going, and He indicated that He would have gone farther. But they constrained Him, saying, “Abide with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent.” And He went in to stay with them (Lk. 24:28-29).

The disciples had several miles to hear what this “mysterious stranger” had to say, and they wanted to hear more. “Abide with us,” was their response. They wanted to show hospitality to the One who had given such insight into messianic prophecy.

We all have times when our circumstances either nurture or hinder our spiritual development. We need to be sensitive to those times when we begin to lose contact with the Lord. Then we need to find ways of adapting to those circumstances so that we can reestablish our closeness to Him.

RESPONDING TO GLIMPSES OF DIVINE ACTIVITY

The stranger who had walked with the two on their journey joined them for their evening meal. And because of who their guest was, this meal would be accented with the supernatural. To include the Lord in our daily routine often results in seeing His divine activity at work.

Now it came to pass, as He sat at the table with them, that He took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they knew Him; and He vanished from their sight. And they said to one another, “Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?” (vv.30-32).

At dinner that night, after Jesus broke the bread and blessed it, the disciples’ eyes were opened and they recognized Him. Earlier, their eyes “were restrained, so that they did not know Him” (v.16). But now their eyes were opened.

It’s interesting that the word for “opened” has the same root as the word for “foolish and ignorant.” An addition to this root word gives the word opened in verse 31 the meaning “to penetrate the mind.” And once their minds understood who Jesus was, they recognized Him from previous encounters.

Surprisingly, the supernatural disappearance of our Lord didn’t inspire any recorded comment between the two. Instead, they reflected on what it was like to be on the road talking with Jesus about the Scriptures.

Their hearts were aflame with supernatural insight as Jesus Himself explained the Old Testament along the way. The same Greek word used for opening their eyes to recognize Him (v.31) is used to explain how He “opened the Scriptures” to them (v.32). He penetrated their minds with understanding.

Recognizing Christ in the Scriptures and in our life experiences should occur throughout the day rather than being limited to a once-a-day event.

So what can we learn from this incident with the resurrected Lord about extending our quiet time into the day?

• Learn how to pray while “on the go.”

• Let God into your daily problem-solving activities.

• Acknowledge to others your need of divine help.

• Expect God to act outside your own limited perspective.

• Keep reflecting on a biblical theme for the day.

• Be encouraged by the fact that Jesus has promised to stay with us in all of life’s circumstances.

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How do we know if we’re making progress in our personal time with the Lord? One major characteristic will be an increase in appreciation for who and what God is. Our personal quiet time should cause us to praise Him.

The apostle Paul taught about and practiced the dynamic relationship between God’s Word and a lifestyle of praise:

Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord (Col. 3:16).

When we personalize and internalize the Word of Christ, we make a place in our heart where He can feel at home. As this becomes a daily reality, we are moved to teach and admonish and learn from others about the wonders of God’s character and His works. This results in instruction and encouragement, stimulating other people to praise God as well.

A healthy and meaningful devotional time spills over into three types of praise. “Psalms” are “Scripture songs” that have been lifted out of the pages of the Bible and set to music. “Hymns” are those melodies and lyrics that express an individual’s personal relationship with God. And “spiritual songs” refer to a variety of worship lyrics and styles of music. What they all have in common is genuine spiritual content that reflects upon God’s greatness.

The final portion of verse 16 underscores one of the unique distinctives of the Christian life-the realization of God’s grace. Our quiet time should be forever linked to gratitude for the grace of God. It is a recognition that God has saved us from the penalty of sin and now provides the power to walk in obedience to Him.

An amazing characteristic of being in love is wanting to please the one you love. Our ongoing daily time with the Lord will help to increase our love for Him and enable us to please Him in all that we do.

When God spent personal time with the newly created Adam, walking with him in the Garden, it must have been a wonderful time of love, joy, and peace. Today, we too can have a moment-by-moment revitalizing exchange with God.

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Our purpose in these pages has been to encourage a thoughtful, daily, heart-to-heart relationship with God. We’ve written primarily to those who already know God personally but want to know Him better.

But some of you may not yet know God in a personal way through His Son. You may think of yourself as a Christian only because you were taken to church as a child. Or you may take comfort from the fact that you were baptized as an infant and confirmed.

Family and church connections are an important part of religious life. But these experiences don’t make a person a Christian.

Centuries ago, a religious leader named Nicodemus approached Jesus to find answers to his own spiritual questions. Nicodemus said, “We know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him” (Jn. 3:2).

Jesus’ response seems surprisingly unrelated to Nicodemus’ comments: “Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (v.3).

Their conversation underscored the contrast between physical life and spiritual life. In the Garden of Eden, when God began to fellowship with Adam in the cool of the day, Adam had not yet disobeyed God. He was in a state of complete innocence. But after Adam disobeyed God by eating of the forbidden fruit, a fundamental change took place. A great barrier to fellowship between God and man damaged their relationship. When God made Himself available for fellowship with Adam as He had done in the past, Adam expressed his awareness of his disobedience by hiding from God (Gen. 3:8-10).

Sin had created an insurmountable chasm where once there had been an intimate union between God and man. The same alienation has persisted since that fateful day. All of us were made for fellowship with our Creator, but we have chosen to go our own way. The Bible says that “all we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way” (Isa. 53:6).

The tragic result of this rebellion against God is spiritual death. Adam was told that on the day he ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil he would surely die (Gen. 2:16-17). Adam ate of the forbidden fruit and at that moment he died spiritually. Although he lived on physically for many years, his ability to fellowship with God had been damaged by the consequences of sin.

That’s why Jesus’ words to Nicodemus were such good news. Jesus told him that each of us can be made alive again on the inside. God’s Holy Spirit can come inside us and restore our fellowship with God. But how does this happen?

Pascal, the great mathematician, said that inside every human heart is a God-shaped vacuum that can only be filled with the person of Jesus Christ. The Lord is eager to forgive your sin, restore your fellowship with God, and give you the gift of eternal life. But there are some biblical requirements.

• First, we must admit that we are sinners and cannot save ourselves. The Bible tells us that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23).

• Second, we need to recognize the seriousness of our sin. Our human tendency is to rationalize and grade on a curve by comparing ourselves to others. But God sets a standard of perfection in which no one can please Him based on self-effort. The Bible says that “our righteousnesses are like filthy rags” (Isa. 64:6).

“The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 6:23). The good news is that Christ suffered the consequences of our sin, making it possible for us to have eternal fellowship with Him. The apostle Paul wrote, “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8). This means that Jesus Christ, who never did anything wrong, gave His own life on the cross so that the penalty of sin could be paid and His righteousness applied to us (2 Cor. 5:21).

• Third, it’s not enough just to know that Christ died for us. We need to act on this by receiving Him as Savior and Lord. The Bible says, “As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name” (Jn. 1:12).

Are you ready to make that decision? If you are, you can go to Jesus in prayer and share with Him your desire to receive forgiveness for sin and the start of an eternal relationship with Him.

Jesus, I admit that I am a sinner. Thank You for dying on the cross to pay the penalty for my sin. I now receive You as my Savior and Lord. Take control of my life and make me the kind of person You want me to be. Amen.

Did you pray that prayer? If you did, you can have the assurance that Christ is in your life. The apostle John wrote, “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 Jn. 5:13).

The devotional time that this booklet has talked about will now take on new meaning. Jesus Christ looks forward to spending time with you, and you will want to spend time with Him.

”I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.” (v. 8) — For reading & meditation: Psalm 4:1-8

Let your last thought at night be a thought about your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The last thoughts that lie on our minds at night are powerful and determinative, for the door into the subconscious is opening and they drop in to work good or evil. It’s bad enough struggling with evil thoughts while you are awake; don’t let them take control while you are asleep. Your conscious mind may be inactive while you are asleep, not so the subconscious. The last thoughts lying in your mind as you go to sleep usually become the “playthings” of the subconscious, and it works on these during the hours you are asleep.

If it is true that your mind is active while you are asleep — and there certainly seems to be plenty of evidence to support this theory, then make your mind work in a positive and not a negative way. Satan delights in dropping an evil thought into your mind during the moments immediately prior to sleep, because he knows that it will work destructively all through the night, influencing your attitudes and most likely preventing you from enjoying a peaceful night’s sleep. Then when you wake, you find that not only do you have to face the problems of another day, but you also have to face them without having drawn fully on the resources available to you through sleep. Thus begins a recurring pattern which cannot help but drag you down.

So learn to elbow out any evil thought that enters your mind just before sleep, and let your last thought be a thought of Christ.

PRAYER:

Father, if it is true that my mind works when I am asleep, then help me to make it work for good and not for evil. Teach me the art of holding a thought about You on my mind immediately prior to going to sleep. I shall begin tonight, Lord. Amen.

FURTHER STUDY:–- Gen. 1; 24:63; Pss. 1:1-6; 63:6

1. When does God’s day start?

2. Why is it important to meditate on God’s Word at night?

I speak of the things which I Have made touching the king. — Psalm 45:1.

Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things. Matthew 12:34, 35.

Nothing is easier than to catch up the phraseology of others, and to use it without real exercise of heart in the presence of both God and man. Oh, for divine originality! Whether the language be eloquent and grammatical, or neither, let it be ourselves who speak. But this can only be as we give ourselves to the divine exercise of meditation.

Yea, blessed is he who makes God’s Word

His portion and delight,

And meditates upon that Word,

With gladness day and night.

My meditation of him shall be sweet: I will be glad in the Lord. — PSALM 104:34

Take away anything I have, but do not take away the sweetness of walking and talking with the King of Glory! It is good to let our thoughts run away with us sometimes, concerning the greatness of our God and his marvelous kindness to us. As we look back, what wonderful leadings and providences we see; what encouragement we find for the future. — JOHN STAM

You who once stilled the deep with three brief words,

Still now the tempest of the storm-scarred soul

Until each billow folds its turbulence

And yields its restlessness to Your control. — HELGA SKOGSBERGH

In meditation there must first be faith in the reality of God’s life and Spirit within us: that creative life from which our whole life springs, the very substance of our being, the indwelling Spirit of God.

Then we must be quiet in mind and body. Remember that our human nature is made to express God’s nature. Weare made to worship God, and that means to respond to him. So we allow the mind to dwell receptively on the thought of God’s Spirit of Peace within, and so absorb the feeling and emotion of peace.

We contemplate God, and allow the Spirit of God to do the rest. When the fruit of our meditation has been sufficiently absorbed, the mind will express it in a sense of peace. — JIM WILSON

Drop Thy still dews of quietness,

Till all our strivings cease;

Take from our souls the strain and stress,

And let our ordered lives confess The beauty of Thy peace. — JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER

You want to compete with His affection before you have understood it: that is your mistake … Come, then! Show a little more deference to our Lord and allow Him to go first. Let Him love you a great deal before you have succeeded in loving Him even a little as you would wish to love Him. That is all that our Lord asks of you. — HENRI de TOURVILLE

As long as Thou art present with us, O Thou whom our soul loveth, we are in the light; all is brightness, all is sweetness. We discourse with Thee, live with Thee and rest with Thee. Arise in our hearts; make Thy light to shine in darkness as a perfect day. Amen. — HENRY VAUGHAN

O my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs, let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice. — Song of Solomon 2:14.

God’s servants must be taught the value of the hidden life. The man who is to take a high place before his fellows must take a low place before his God. We must not be surprised if sometimes our Father says, “There, child, thou hast had enough of this hurry, and publicity, and excitement; get thee hence, and hide thyself by the brook — hide thyself in the Cherith of the sick chamber, or in the Cherith of bereavement, or in some solitude from which the crowds have ebbed away.” Happy is he who can reply, “This, Thy will, is also mine; I flee unto Thee to hide me. Hide me in the secret of Thy Tabernacle, and beneath the covert of Thy wings.” — F. B. Meyer.

“Come ye yourselves apart and rest awhile,”

The weary world is surging round you still,

And Satan strives your spirit to beguile,

Come, seek your Lord, and ponder o’er His will;

Come, drink the wine, and eat the broken bread,

Meet emblems of the strength ye so much need. — M. B. W.

There is a a movie showing in New York City right now - a three-hour movie about Carthusian monks. What makes it unique is that Carthusians don’t talk. At least, not much (they are allowed a few hours of conversation on Mondays). So the movie follows them as they pray, tend their gardens, cook dinner. All in silence.

The theater has had to extend the engagement because so many people are flocking to it; hundreds are turned away at some performances. With all of our entertainment and stimulation, even modern people sense a need for solitude and quietness.

It was billed as a “Spiritual Warriors” training program. The ads promised both spiritual and financial health. Fifty people paid $9,000 each to be motivated and challenged in the Arizona desert for 5 days. It was the fifth day when things went horribly wrong. The final ceremony was held in a sweat lodge.

After two hours of meditation and exhortation, some began to vomit and pass out on the floor. Those who wanted to leave were told they were stronger than their bodies and weakness could be overcome. In the end, three had heart attacks, two died, and 18 were hospitalized.

The leader of the retreat quickly put together a bereavement session by telephone that one person recorded. Some of the participants had unusual attitudes. One named Brent said, “I think that the people that left [died], I do believe they made their own choices, whether on this level or the next, but I do feel really for the families.” A family member said the comments solidified his belief that the leader is controlling the people involved.

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Adapted from an article at and other internet sources.

A Georgian monk has lived on top of 131-foot pillar of rock for 20 years in a lonely quest to get closer to God. Maxime Qavtaradze is following in the ancient traditions of the Stylites, or Pillar Saints: men of the Byzantine world who believed residing up pillars would remove them from temptation and provide ample opportunity for prayer and contemplation.

The monk’s life of solitude came to light after New Zealand photographer Amos Chapple was permitted to photograph the man and his rock, but only after he had spent four days in intensive prayer.

At first life on the Katskhi Pillar, Mr. Qavtaradze’s limestone monolith which stands in the Caucasus Mountains that run through Georgia, was tough for the monk.

“For the first two years there was nothing up here so I slept in an old fridge to protect me from the weather,” said the 59-year-old monk. Later, Christian supporters renovated a derelict chapel and built a cottage to provide him with a few creature comforts.

Mr. Qavtaradze makes the 20-minute and perilous climb down a ladder attached to the pillar twice a week to pray at a small monastery at the foot of the tower. But he relies on daily provisions winched to him by supporters on the ground.

Once home to Stylites, the Katskhi Pillar had remained derelict for centuries, and it was only in 1944 that a team of climbers scaled the tower, finding at the top the skeleton of its last occupant. Mr. Qavtaradze moved in 1993 after taking his monastic vows, and found it moved him closer to God and help banish a troubled past.

“It is up here in the silence that you can feel God’s presence,” he said. “When I was young I drank, sold drugs, everything. When I ended up in prison I knew it was time for a change.

“I used to drink with friends in the hills around here and look up at this place, where land met sky,” he added. “We knew the monks had lived up there before and I felt great respect for them.”

First sermon in Lord's Prayer series. Hypocrisy & babbling in prayer.

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BABBLING

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I. Prayer, the basic Christian devotion.

A. Prayer is a mysterious thing.

B. Five reasons we don't pray.

II. The place of prayer in ancient Israel.

III. Selfish prayer.

A. Jesus is against religion that draws attention to self. 6:5

B. Public prayer.

C. Prayer must be to a transcendent God. 6:6

IV. Magical prayer.

A. Jesus is also against prayer that seeks selfish ends. 6:7

B. It is easy for prayer to become routine.

C. Long prayers are not necessarily better.

D. Don't get into a prayer rut.

V. God wants to answer our prayers.

A. He is more willing to answer than we are to ask. 6:8

B. God is willing, but we must know God's will.

#3840

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In Wellesley College a special feature of the daily life of the

household is the morning and evening ''silent time." Both at the

beginning and closing of the day, there is a brief period, marked by

the strokes of a bell, in which all the house is quiet. Every pupil is

in her room. There is no conversation. No step is heard in the

corridors. The whole great house with its thronging life is quiet as

if all its hundreds of inmates were sleeping. There is no positively

prescribed way of spending these silent minutes in the rooms, but it

is understood that all whose hearts so incline them shall devote the

time to devotional reading, meditation, and prayer. At least, the

design of establishing this period of quiet as part of the daily life

of school, is to give opportunity for such devotional exercises, and

by its solemn hush to suggest to all the fitness, the helpfulness and

the need of such periods of communion with God. The bell that calls

for silence, also calls to thought and prayer; and even the most

indifferent must be affected by its continual recurrence.

Every true Christian life needs its daily "silent times," when all

shall be still, when the busy activity of other hours shall cease, and

when the heart, in holy hush, shall commune with God. One of the

greatest needs in Christian life in these days is more devotion. Ours

is not an age of prayer so much as an age of work. The tendency is to

action rather than to worship to busy toil rather than to quiet

sitting at the Saviour's feet to commune with him.

By J. Wilbur Chapan, "Present Day Parables."

What if we could find a place to meet quietly with someone who loves us - someone who accepts us just as we are, while seeing in us far more than we see in ourselves? What if this person could relieve our stress, our guilt, our insecurity, and our boredom?

If such a place and such a person existed, we can be sure that our enemy would try to talk us out of going there. Yet, as RBC writer Dennis Fisher shows us in the following pages, the place and the Person are waiting for us. What remains is for us to find practical ways of wearing a path to Him.

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May the God of all peace fill you with joy as together we learn to walk with Him in the quiet and rush of our days.

• A middle-age executive nervously organizes his weekly calendar, having heard that mid-management downsizing will begin next month.

• A young mother of twin toddlers struggles to get some time to herself, but the children keep waking each other up from their afternoon nap.

• A recent high-school graduate with a newly shaved head struggles for privacy in his bunk at Marine Corps basic training.

The examples mentioned above are busy people who want to walk with God throughout the day. Yet all three have one thing in common. Each is in an environment that makes it difficult to spend quality time with God in prayer and Bible reading. It’s precisely when we are stressed by life’s demands that a time of spiritual refocus becomes all the more important.

Many of us live with a sense of guilt because we are neglecting our personal devotional time with God. During the hectic demands of the day, it’s easy to let the care of our inner life fall by the wayside.

But if we measure our spirituality by counting the number of times we have met with God during the week, we have missed the point. Devotions are a matter of our heart more than a discipline of our daytimer.

Right after the creation of the first man and woman, God is seen “walking in the garden in the cool of the day” (Gen. 3:8). The Sovereign of the universe did not hide behind closed doors and angelic executive assistants to keep His creatures out. Instead, He took the initiative to seek out Adam and Eve for spiritual companionship.

A healthy and consistent devotional time is one important way we can respond to God’s desire to walk with us. Couples who are in love do not need to be coerced into spending time together. Each has a deep longing to experience life in relationship with the other person. When life’s interruptions keep them apart, each one seeks opportunities to reconnect.

That is what the quiet time is all about. We want to spend time with God to experience His presence, comfort, and guidance. And in a mysterious way, as we spend time with God “beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, [we] are being transformed into the same image” (2 Cor. 3:18). We find that spending time with God actually changes the kind of people we are.

This booklet is a short, practical guide on how to “reconnect with God.” It is designed to help you seek the One who created you for a relationship with Him, and to encourage you to draw upon His strength to live a growing spiritual life. In short, it is a guide to “keep our appointments with God” because of what He has done for us.

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Successful marriages are as diverse as the variety of snowflakes. Athletes marry artistic types and social butterflies marry the shy and retiring. The obvious differences can be a source of conflict. Yet with a growing understanding of one’s self and one’s spouse, each can learn to adapt to the other’s idiosyncrasies for the long haul.

Our walk with God is much like a spiritual marriage. Jesus Christ, the Bridegroom, has sought us out for eternal relationship. Because each of us has a different temperament, uses a different thought process, and is at a different level of spiritual maturity, each possesses a unique relationship with Christ. Jesus, our Good Shepherd, is well aware of our individuality and wants to give us just what we need to grow in our walk with Him. As we study the Bible, we learn more and more about His amazing personal qualities and compassion for us. And in response to His overtures of love, we will want to find time to spend with Him.

The same fellowship-seeking God who walked in the cool of the day with Adam and Eve is reaching out to each of us today. But when should we try to connect with Him?

Many people emphasize the importance of starting the day with devotions. I once heard someone say that the guiding code for his own devotional life was “No Bible, no breakfast.” But depending on your metabolism and current lifestyle, you may be more mentally alert at midday, or even late at night. Everyone is different.

The Bible encourages meeting with God during any of these times. David wrote, “O God, You are my God; early will I seek You” (Ps. 63:1). Nehemiah, the great reformer, “read [the Law] …. from morning to midday” (Neh. 8:3). David mentioned his anticipation to meditate on God’s Word during the “night watches” (Ps. 119:148). And the first Psalm mentioned in the Old Testament refers to the blessed man whose “delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night” (Ps. 1:2).

The Bible provides wonderful freedom about when to meet with God. The central issue is not what your metabolism is like, but rather what time of day will work best for you and your schedule. In my current situation, I find morning to be a good time. Often I will read a passage in the morning, reflect on it during the day, and then review it again in the evening. It helps to have the same biblical thought throughout the day.

What matters most of all is to establish a regular time of the day when God can speak to you through His Word and you can respond to Him in prayer.

Once you have chosen a time, it’s important to be disciplined in keeping your appointments with God. But how?

Slow Me Down, Lord

Slow me down,Lord!

Ease the pounding of my heart

By the quieting of my mind.

Steady my harried pace

With a vision of the eternal reach of time.

Give me, admidst the confusions of my day,

The calmness of the everlasting hills.

Break the tensions of my nerves

With the soothing music of the sighing streams

That live in my memory.

Help me to know

The magical restoring power of sleep.

Teach me the art

Of taking minute vacations of slowing down to look at a flower;

To chat with an old friend or to make a new one;

To pat a stray dog,

To watch a spider build a web;

To smile at a child;

Or to read a few lines from a good book.

Remind me each day

That the race is not always to the swift;

That there is more to life than increasing its speed.

Let me look upward

Into the branches of the towering oak

And know that it grew slowly and well.

Slow me down, Lord,

And inspire me to send my roots deep

Into the soil of life's enduring values

That I may grow toward the stars

Of my great destiny.

-- Orin L. Crain

See: Psalm 1:2; Psalm 4:4; Psalm 63:6