Meditation and Study
Celebration of Discipline • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Prayer
Meditation and study can go hand in hand.
We can meditate on Scripture, leading us to want to study more on an aspect of God.
Or we may be studying scripture and it leads us to meditate on this aspect of our life.
Both work together to bring transformation and obedience into our lives through reflection and knowledge.
To state the difference here, at least in my opinion, Meditation is the awareness of God in our life and through our day (obedience and reflection).
Where the study of God and scripture transforms our minds and hearts (transformation and knowledge).
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Interesting that Psalm 1 starts with highlighting the benefits of Meditation and Proverbs 1 the benefit of study through knowledge.
The Discipline of Meditation
The Discipline of Meditation
Let us start with Meditation and like last week with fasting, I will spend more time unpacking what it is because we can all have misunderstandings when it comes to Christian meditation.
Christian meditation is needed now more than ever in our modern society.
Psychiatrist Carl Jung remarked - ‘Hurry is not of the Devil; it is the Devil.’
In society today the Devil majors in three distractions: noise, hurry and crowds.
My passion is to take people out of that place and pace in life and into the silence to hear God.
Contemplative prayer
Biblical Definition of Meditation
Biblical Definition of Meditation
2 Hebrew words for meditation: hitbodedut (self-seclusion - becoming silent and taking time out of the day-to-day) & hitbonenut (Completation - concentration of the mind and soul upon God).
In the bible, they have various meanings in their context: Listening to God’s word, reflecting on God’s works, rehearsing God’s deeds, and reflecting on God’s law.
Repentance and obedience are essential features in any biblical understanding of Meditation. p.20
It is this continual focus on obedience and faithfulness that most clearly distinguishes Christian meditation from its Eastern and secular counterparts.
Eastern Meditation is an attempt to empty your mind; Christian meditation is an attempt to fill the mind.
Very different
Opposites:
Eastern Christian
detaching from the world Detachment to attachment in God
detaching from identity Sabbath rest
tap into a Cosmic mind
Hearing and Obeying
Hearing and Obeying
Christian meditation, very simply, is the ability to hear God’s voice and obey his word. It is that simple. A lot of the time we try to make it more complicated. It involves no hidden mysteries, no secret mantras, no mental gymnastics, no flights into the cosmic consciousness.
All through the bible, we are told the stories of people hearing God’s voice and obeying his word.
Genesis to Jesus - demonstrating the ways followers listened and obeyed.
The Purpose of Meditation
The Purpose of Meditation
To grow in our familiar friendship with Jesus.
To absorb the light and life of Jesus and become comfortable in His presence.
‘He walks with me and talks with me’ becomes more than a song or idea but reality.
Not mushy, buddy-buddy Jesus, but intimate and awe-inducing presence awareness.
It’s all about desiring the living voice of God
There was a time I thought words like this from Fredrick Faber sounded boring:
Only to sit and think of God, Oh what a joy it is!
To think the thought, to breathe the Name, Earth has no higher bliss.
Now that I have experienced it I love being in that place, but it can feel hard to get to.
Brings us back to hurrying, noise and crowds make it hard to spend time in this place.
We often forget the power of these times,
and we experience spiritual inertia, we become too complacent with God’s presence and we lack the desire to go to him.
These things are why we fall into the habit of being happy with someone else telling us what to do or think.
We want someone else to summarise the take-home message and are happy to hear from God second-hand.
Reading a book, watching a video, going to a conference or even more commonly Sunday services - Through me (preaching).
Now none of these things are bad things except if they are the only way you are hearing from God.
Sit in this space
Well God is desiring a deeper relationship with you, to walk and talk with you.
Preparing to meditate
Preparing to meditate
So draw near to God
Like fasting - meditating on God and having a 24-7 awareness of God is not something you just step into.
Here are 3 ways to help
1. To grow into a deeper awareness of God in your life you need to first acknowledge the times you feel the furthest away (the busiest, hurry or stressed).
When we can see the times of the day that our mind is more on the tasks than God we can be intentional to invite God into those times, inviting him into the day and activity so that it is not by your own strength but you are being led by God.
Prayer and meditation at the start or end of the day, before work, 5 minutes before a meeting?
2. If we are constantly being swept off our feet with frantic activity, we will be unable to be attentive at the moments of inward silence.
Acting instead of reacting
You know those times when you sit down to spend time with the Lord and all of a sudden all those jobs you haven’t done yet come flooding back.
That is why I try to have an app that captures my to-do list so I can get it out of my head and somewhere I trust that I will see them and deal with them when I am allocating the time for it.
This could be a notebook and intray, a list.
Contemplative prayer - detaching from the tasks by laying them down to Jesus and picking up what is a priority for God.
3. Have a place - Di will share more next week when we look at Solitude but a chair or a room or window with a view that is not where you work or distracts with the tasks for the day.
Turn the phone off - or do not disturb mode
Forms of Meditation
Forms of Meditation
As we move into talking about the discipline of Study - look at the forms of meditation in the bible (study notes) and seek how you can incorporate them into your day.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer - ‘… just as you do not analyse the words of someone you love, but accept them as they are said to you, accept the Word of Scripture and ponder it in your heart, as Mary did. That is all. That is meditation.’
He had his students practice half an hour of silent meditation on scripture.
There are some good apps to help - Bible app. prayer guide
Also Reimagining the Examen nightly reflection.
The Discipline of Study
The Discipline of Study
Now let us look at the more well-known idea of study
He that studies only men, will get the body of knowledge without the soul; and he that studies only books, the soul without the body, He that to what he sees, adds observation, and to what he reads, reflection, is in the right road to knowledge, provided that in scrutinising the hearts of others, he neglects not is own. - Caleb Colton.
What good is gaining knowledge than knowing how to apply it, especially to ourselves
The purpose of all these spiritual disciplines is the total transformation of the person. They aim to replace old destructive habits of thought with new life-giving habits. Nowhere is this purpose more clear than with a discipline of study.
Finally, brothers and sisters, 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.
Such things we should think about and study.
Christianity is not reliant on getting high on Jesus and creating a place of good feelings, that will not set you free.
Without knowledge of the truth, we will not be free.
That is why it was refreshing to do the alpha series.
It had testimonies from academics about their study and conclusions about the truth of God’s existence.
The Alpha course also laid a foundation for the historical accuracy of the bible.
If there is anything you are passionate about in life what do you do?
I would think you study it, you want to gain knowledge so you understand it better.
Similar to Training - applying what you are learning and repeating it until it is muscle memory.
This is true of Physics or biology, finances and running a business, being a good dad or mum, in marriages and human relationships.
But it is especially true and always overlooked in our spiritual life.
A lot of the time our spiritual life suffers because we don’t invest in it or worse yet by allowing false teaching to take hold.
These times we are in, there is so much information at our fingertips which is a blessing and a curse.
Sometimes we can follow teaching as Jesus puts it:
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are.
My job is to help you wade through that in your study, to acknowledge the pitfalls, to practice it with joy and to experience the liberation it brings.
What does Study do?
What does Study do?
Study influences our thinking in a certain direction. You either go in the direction of what you are studying and agree with it or you go in the other and reject it.
Our previous experiences, reading and beliefs will result in what we study and result in our ingrained habits that we might not even notice.
Take for example observing a tree or reading a book. We see it, feel it, understand it, draw conclusions from it. And as we do, our thought processes take on an order in the tree or book. (A tree is standing there, your conclusions on the book)
When this is done with concentration, perception, and repetition, ingrained habits of thought are formed. p80
Maybe you are wondering what I am on about - think about the referendum.
The thoughts that you have formed and the habits about which you support either side or not are based on how much you have studied the subject.
Your viewpoint is shaped by your concentration, perception and repetition on the subject.
They all very on how much you have seen, or felt, experienced and understood to make the conclusions you have today.
What we study matters and the main task of the study is to provide a perception of reality.
It is also dangerous here if we believe what others tell us without studying the facts.
If we are to be mature witnesses for Jesus we must have a habit of study to be able to speak truth into the reality of today and into our culture.
Sharing what I am studying with chat n choose.
Steps to Study
Steps to Study
To close these are the steps to study
Repetition
Concentration
Comprehension
Reflection
Health app - food intake
In our spiritual lives
Repetition - life groups, bible verses
Concentration - counter-cultural
Comprehension - love of God, compassion, forgiveness, our adopted identity in God, The trinity
Reflection - Applying it in our life.
Accountability - Who are you partnering with
Prayer