A man uses the classic spiritual disciplines to put himself before God so that the Holy Spirit can do a work in him. In this addendum to a previous sermon, I provide a primer on the discipline of Meditation using my own practice as an example.
*Let me start by apologising for the poor quality of the audio of this video. I spent a whole week trying to ascertain my hardware for recording videos. Once I finally found pieces that would work with my laptop, I forget the set the recording to the correct device. Hence, I recorded from my webcam’s microphone rather than my lapel microphone. Anything that can go wrong will go wrong —Murphy’s Law.
I have previously published the notes for a sermon of mine which introduces the classic spiritual disciplines. You can watch, listen to or read that sermon at your leisure another time. I do not want to rehash it here, except to set the following groundwork: the classic spiritual disciplines are practices one uses to draw closer to God. They create the space in your life for spiritual transformation to happen. A man uses the disciplines to put himself before God so that the Holy Spirit can do a work in him.
There are three categories of spiritual disciplines: the Inward disciplines, the Outward disciplines and the Corporate disciplines. A man practices inward disciplines on his own; the outward disciplines for others; and, the corporate with others.
Each category has four types of disciplines and each type has multiple forms through which one can practice that discipline. In my sermon, I illustrated all of this by explaining in some detail the Inward discipline of Meditation. While I described four forms of Meditation, I realise that I did not provide enough practical advice for how to get started with this discipline. I am going to fix that neglect right now by describing for you my practice of Meditating On Scripture.
Before I get into that, I want to reiterate that the classic spiritual disciplines are “classic” because Christians have been practising these since the time of Jesus. There is no debating that. Jesus regularly departed to deserted places early in the morning to pray (see Mk 1:25) and He spent entire nights in prayer before making significant decisions, such as selecting His apostles (see Lk 6:12). Jesus fasted 40 days and nights in the wilderness before beginning His public ministry (see Mt 4:1-2). During that time of fasting, Jesus resisted the temptations of the satan by quoting from the scriptures, showing He had spent time in the discipline of study (see Mt 4:4). According to His custom, Jesus went to synagogues for corporate worship (see Lk 4:16).
The apostles followed Jesus’ example and taught others to do the same. In our day, especially in Evangelical Protestant churches, the practices of Study, Prayer and Worship are promoted and often to the exclusion of all the others —when was the last time you heard a sermon on Fasting and were encouraged to actually give up food? And, no, giving up coffee or chocolate does count as fasting!
These are four spiritual disciplines but there are so many other resources available to us, proving true the scripture, “By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence.” (2 Pe 1:3) How do we come to know God? Through the spiritual disciplines. How does He give us everything we need for a godly life? Through the spiritual disciplines.
With all that in mind, I want to share with you a spiritual discipline I am developing in my life. Essentially, it is my variation of the form called Meditation On Scripture, or Meditatio Scripturarum if you, like me, are pretending you have a grasp of Latin 😁
Remember, there is nothing magic about the practice itself. The purpose is to focus your mind and heart in such a way that God can change you into a new person by changing the way that you think —more on that in a minute.
Create a Space for Silence
The first thing I do is to start my practice with the physical act of the sign of the cross called signum crucis —again, with the Latin 😂 I cannot help it that these things were created in the Middle Ages when Latin was the language of worship.
Anyway, the physical act of the sign of the cross starts with touching your forehead, then core, right and left while reciting the words:
In the name of the Father,
and of the Son,
and of the Holy Spirit.
This physical act creates space for silence. It is a physical way of stating, “let us begin”. After making the sign breathe deeply and slowly a few times to centre yourself and focus on the moment, shutting out all else. This is a holy moment between you and the Holy Spirit; it deserves to be marked with reverence.
Affirmation
The next thing I do is affirm the foundation of my faith, the “Why?” behind placing my faith in Jesus and my desire to live a Christian lifestyle. For this I recite the verse:
It is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him. (Hebrews 11:6, NLT)
I believe it is important to say out loud these words and what follows. Not loudly, of course. If you are in the midst of people or others are nearby, you may want to say all this in your head. Speaking all this out loud makes it a public confession because someone could hear you, but it also engages your sense of hearing. Keeping your eyes open during this practice engages your sense of sight as well. The point is to present all of yourself to the Holy Spirit. So speak all of this out loud.
Speak this verse slowly for there is no rush. Let the words flow over you. Let the meaning of the words and the verse impress itself upon you. Pay attention to what stands out. You may want to speak it more than once —I tend to repeat these things twice, sometimes a third time.
This verse is important because it reminds us either God exists or not. I have come to believe God exists because it makes sense of my life and the experiences I have had. That He exists is not merely an abstract idea though. He rewards those who believe it and seek Him. So I meditate.
Because I seek to be close to my creator, I then speak out my intention for the Holy Spirit to change the way that I think by reciting words from Paul the apostle:
Lord, may I use Your mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of my own human reasoning and to destroy the false arguments in my mind. Help me destroy every proud obstacle in my life that keeps me from knowing You. Help me capture my own rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ. So that I may become fully obedient to You, I surrender myself completely, trusting You to strike down and remove any remaining disobedience within my heart. (2 Corinthians 10:4-6, NLT)
The spiritual discipline of Meditation is the way to fulfil these words. Acknowledging that my thoughts are often corrupt, and offering my mind and heart to God, allows the Holy Spirit to do her transforming work in me.
Speak this passage out loud, repeating it once or twice if you feel compelled to do so. Speak it slowly. Focus on the words and whatever sensations arise.
I then conclude this affirmation section by reciting a prayer that voices my intention to glorify God in all I think, do and say:
Almighty God,
to whom all hearts are open,
all desires known,
and from whom no secrets are hidden:
cleanse the thoughts of my/our heart(s)
by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit,
that I/we may perfectly love you,
and worthily magnify your holy name;
through Christ my/our Lord. Amen.
(Alcuin of York, 8th cent., Book of Common Prayer)
I only recite this once. Like the sign of the cross, it is a marker, it concludes this affirmation section of my practice. It affirms my status in relation to God and my desire to both seek and to glorify Him.
Meditation
Now that I have affirmed my intentions, I now meditate on two key scriptures for the friend of Jesus. The first comes from The Letter to the Philippians:
Fix your [mind] on what is true, and honorable, and right; [on what is] pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. (Philippians 4:8, NLT)
If you look this passage up you will notice this is not a direct quote. I have adapted the words of Paul for the purpose of my meditation. I have turned his words to the Philippian Christians into words for me. And that is okay.
These words perfectly express what is the purpose of Meditation: that we push out thoughts that harm us and focus instead on thoughts that build us up. Surely I do not need to prove to you how what we watch, listen to and read forms our minds. Our brains are rewired by what we consume, of that there is no debate, so make the conscious decision to take your thoughts captive, as per the passage I recited earlier in this practice. Through the spiritual discipline of Meditation, the Holy Spirit helps you to reassert control of your thoughts, insofar as we control our thoughts.
After our thoughts, we need to regain control of our behaviours. Again, it is a interesting question for debate how much we actually control our behaviours, but let us set that question aside for the moment. Insofar as we do control our behaviours, the discipline of Meditation helps us to reorient what we say and do to the glory of God.
Therefore, spend some time reciting and reflecting on the following words from Paul the apostle:
Give your body to God because of all he has done for you. Let it be a living and holy sacrifice —the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will, which is good and pleasing and perfect. (Romans 12:1-2, NLT)
Recite this slowly. Focus on the thoughts and sensations that arise as you do. Imagine what this would look like for you in real time, in the spaces you inhabit, among the people with whom you mix and mingle, and for whom you have responsibilities. These words certainly invite reciting more than once. Take your time as you do so.
These words represent the outcome of placing our faith in Jesus and our commitment to learning and practising a Christian lifestyle. Let them fill your heart and mind and animate your body, for all these aspects make up our whole self.
Breathe deeply and slowly as you do all of this, pausing between each section and passage. This meditation can take as long or as short as your schedule allows. You need to do this, just as I do, as often as you can, but do not feel guilty when you are not able to do it. Sometimes your schedule does not allow time for such a practice. And that is okay.
You read these verses during this practice but, better yet, you would benefit from memorising the passages. That way you can use this practice at any time anywhere but, especially, you can use it to help you focus and regain control of your thoughts.
Finally, I should mention these are the passages that are meaningful to me at this time and phase of my life. They represent to me the core of Christian discipleship. If you adopt this practice, you may want to add to these verses, replace some with others that are more meaningful, or take some away entirely. It is up to you what you find helpful as a spiritual discipline that draws you closer to the Holy Spirit so that she may do her transforming work in you.
Once I am done meditating in this way, I bring my practice to a close with the sign of the cross:
In the name of the Father,
and of the Son,
and of the Holy Spirit.
And that is how I practise the discpline Meditate On Scripture. Let me know if you have found this helpful to you as you experiment with it. If you have any questions or want further clarification on anything I have said or described, you may contact me using the links below.
I have prepared a sheet you can download that includes the scriptures I use in this practice. You can download that resource at this link.
For a really cool and interesting article describing the demonstrable physical benefits of Meditation, Dr. Rhonda Patrick interviewed Dr. Richard Davidson on his research. You can read, listen to or watch her interview at this link: “How Meditation Rewires Your Brain, Gut, & Immune System“
Until next time, may Almighty God bless you and keep you and fulfil in you the free, full, and forever life promised by Jesus to His friends!
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