Category: Discipleship

Christian Meditation: What is it and what does it involve?

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Discipleship, Practical7 Comments

About a month ago, I had the opportunity to talk with one of my good friends about our time with the Lord. During our discussion we attempted to answer the question: What does it mean to commune with the Lord? As we came to an answer, we opened the door to a second question dealing with meditation in the Christian life.

After thinking and reading about Christian Meditation for the last month, I finally am at a place where I want to share my thoughts, but first lets answer our original question – What does it mean to commune with the Lord? – before moving on to an in-depth look at Christian Meditation.

Communing with the Lord occurs:

(1) When we spend time reading His Word

(2) When we spend time in prayer

(3) When we spend time meditating on God’s Word

It is on this last point that I would like to focus because I am afraid we do not understand what it means to meditate on Scripture, nor do we understand the benefits and purpose. As a result, I would like to provide you with a definition of Christian meditation, its scriptural warrant, a guide to meditation, and the advantages of meditating on God’s Word.

Chewing the Cud

Chewing the cud is a process that takes time and effort. In order for a cow to digest his meal, he must chew on it for an extended period. Swallow it, allow for digestion to occur, then bring it back up and chew on it some more. This process is repeated until it is able to be fully digested.

I believe we should take this same approach with Scripture. Like chewing the cud, meditation takes time and effort. It is a focused time where we chew on a small part of Scripture for an extended period to come to a place where we understand God’s Word more deeply with the purpose of obedience, repentance, sanctification, and increased heavenly affections.

Scripture

This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. (Joshua 1:8)

What Does It Mean To Meditate on God’s Word?

Meditation, in a Christian sense, can be defined as “an holy exercise of the mind, whereby we bring the truths of God to remembrance, and do seriously ponder upon them, and apply them to ourselves” (Thomas Watson Heaven Taken By Storm, 42).

Watson’s definition can be broken down into three parts:

(1) Remember God’s truths

(2) Think deeply upon God’s truths

(3) Apply God’s truths to our lives

How to Practice Meditation

Meditation is not the process of clearing your mind, so the universe can come in. It does not involve chants, postures, or New Age music. Meditation is active, and it has content, namely, God’s Word. In order to meditate properly, you need to:

First, separate yourself physically from the World. Meditating on Scripture at Starbucks is not going to work. You need to free yourself of all distractions and get alone somewhere.

Second, read Scripture, or repeat a verse you have recently memorized so your mind is saturated with God’s Word.

Third, gather your thoughts and remember the truths about God you just read. The purpose is to begin to think deeply about God’s Word. A singular focus on Scripture is what we should be after.

Fourth, examine your life to discover how the truths about God, sin, humanity, and salvation apply.

Fifth, pray and ask God to help you apply the truths of Scripture to your life through the work of the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit working in your life, you have no hope of knowing where you need to change.

Finally, change must occur. Meditation “is not just about seeing where [you] lack or what [you] need to change;” it must include actual change in your lives (Neimeyer, 172).

The outcome should be a recognition of your sin, a willingness to repent, a deeper understanding of God’s provisions and holiness, along with increased affections for your Savior.

Meditation Allows One to Progress in the Christian Life By

(1) Motivating one to repent from sin

As the sin in your life becomes more vivid, and your understanding of the gospel becomes more ingrained, you will be motivated to repent of your sin.

(2) Causing one to grow in holiness

As you repent of your sins, you will grow in holiness becoming more like your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

(3) Improving one’s relationship with others

By thinking on Christ’s love for you, your love for others will grow.

Meditation Enhances

(1) Your Prayer Life

(2) Your Personal Reading of the Word

(3) Your Hearing The Word Preached

Conclusion

Given all the benefits of Meditation – a deeper understanding of God’s Word, a clearer realization of your sin, a more vivid picture of the Gospel, increased repentance, a greater love for others, a deeper prayer life, and increased affections for your Lord and Savior – we should be spending the effort to meditate on God’s Word more regularly.

Resource

This post was developed from an article in the Puritan Reformed Journal from January 2010 Vol 2, Num 1. Written by Jennifer C. Neimeyer and is Entitled: Thomas Watson: The Necessity of Meditation found on pages 166-181.

What Does it Mean to be Godly?

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Discipleship, Practical4 Comments

I have been reading Thomas Watson’s The Godly Man’s Picture this week. Watson defines godliness by saying,

Godliness is the sacred impression and workmanship of God in man, whereby from being carnal he is made spiritual.

He goes on to say,

When godliness is wrought in a person, he does not receive a new soul, but he has ‘another spirit’ (Num. 14:24). The faculties are not new, but the qualities are; the strings are the same, but the tune is corrected.

Watson then gives seven propositions concerning godliness:

(1) Godliness is a real thing

It is not a fantasy, but a fact. A Christian is no enthusiast, one whose religion is all made up of fancy.

(2) Godliness is an intrinsic thing

It lies chiefly in the heart. The moralist’s religion is all in the leaf; it consists only in externals, but godliness is a holy sap which is rooted in the soul.

(3) Godliness is a supernatural thing

By nature we inherit nothing but evil, but godliness is the wisdom from above. It is given by the Spirit because a man has no more power to change himself than to create himself.

(4) Godliness is an extensive thing

He who is godly is good all over. Godliness is a sacred leaven that spreads itself into the whole soul.

(5) Godliness is an intense thing

It does not lie in dead formality and indifference, but is vigorous and flaming. He whose devotion is inflamed is godly and his heart boils over in holy affections.

(6) Godliness is a glorious thing

As the jewel to the ring, so is piety to the soul, bespangling it in God’s eyes.

(7) Godliness is a permanent thing

A blush of godliness is not enough to distinguish a Christian, but godliness must be the temper and complexion of the soul. Godliness is a fixed thing.

Resource

Today’s post was adapted from Thomas Watson’s The Godly Man’s Picture, pp. 12-14. You can pick up a copy by clicking here.

X-Ray Questions: What makes you tick?

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Discipleship, Practical, X-Ray QuestionsLeave a comment

This week we continue our X-Ray Questions series, as we look at what makes you tick. You can read the other posts in this series by clicking here.

X-Ray Question:

(9) What makes you tick? What sun does your planet revolve around? 

Where do you find your garden of delight? What lights up your world? What fountain of life, hope, and delight do you drink from? What food sustains your life? What really matters to you? What castle do you build in the clouds? What pipe dreams tantalize or terrify you? What do you organize your life around? Many gripping metaphors can express the question, “What are you really living for?”

To be ruled, say, by deep thirsts for intimacy, achievement, respect, health, or wealth does not define these as legitimate, unproblematic desires. They function perversely, placing ourselves at the center of the universe. We are meant to long supremely for the Lord himself, for the Giver, not his gifts. The absence of blessing – rejection, vanity, reviling, illness, poverty – often is the crucible in which we learn to love God for who He is. In our idolatry, we make gifts out to be supreme good, and make the Giver into the errand boy of our desires.

Understand

This weeks question is designed to help you answer the question: what are you really living for? The answer to that question will reveal our deepest most hidden idols. When we desire, as our end, things such as intimacy, achievement, respect, health, or wealth, we are seeking to place these things at the center of the universe instead of God. As creatures created by the one true God, we are meant to long for God Himself, not for the things that He can give us. When we long for the things He can give us, and seek to please Him only so He will give us what we want, we have turned the all powerful Creator of the universe, the One we should be worshipping, into our errand boy.

Repent

First, we should repent by realizing our desires can get in the way of our relationship with God.

Second, instead of desiring the things God can give us, we should desire God for who He is. He is the one that regenerated us, and provides us with everlasting life. He is the Creator of the universe, the reason we all exist, the reason we are able to eat, sleep, live, and breathe. Without His hand on our life, we would not have the things we have currently. God, not self, should be the one we live for. Pleasing Him should be the heartbeat of our lives.

However, in our sinfulness, living for God, not self, is a foreign concept, but because of the regeneration our hearts experience through Christ’s death, we are able to live for God alone. Through the death of His Son Jesus Christ, and our subsequent belief that His death paid the price for our sins, we are able to enjoy a relationship with God. Since we are able to commune with God, we should seek to worship Him and do the work that He would have us do, remembering we were not created for our glory, but for the glory of God.

Scripture

Here are a few passages from God’s word to meditate on this week, as you consider what makes you tick: Isa. 1:29-30; 50:10-11; Jer. 2:13; Matt. 4:4; 5:6; John 4:32-34; 6:25-69.

All X-Ray questions taken from David Powlison’s book Seeing with New Eyes.

Image: Suat Eman / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

X-Ray Questions: What are your plans designed to accomplish?

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Discipleship, Practical, X-Ray QuestionsLeave a comment

This week we continue our X-Ray Questions series, as we look at what your plans are designed to accomplish. You can read the other posts in this series by clicking here.

X-Ray Question:

(8) What are your plans, agendas, strategies, and intentions designed to accomplish?

This is another way to size up what you are after. The egocentricity lurking within even the most noble-sounding plans can be appalling. No one ever asserts,” The expansion of our church into a mega-church will get me fame, wealth, and power,” but such motives are garden-variety human nature. Their presence, even covertly, will pervert and stain one’s actions.

Understand

We should realize that by asking ourselves what our plans, agendas, strategies, and intentions are designed to accomplish will allow us to search out our true motivations for our actions. Our plan may be to do something noble, such as expanding our church. But we may be expanding our church for the wrong reasons. We need to check our motivations by asking ourselves what are we hoping to accomplish. Our human nature is geared toward self promotion and pride, so we must proceed with caution in all of our actions.

Another example may drive the point home better. Helping out at the local homeless shelter is a noble way to spend our time, but if we serve at the shelter with the intention of promoting ourselves to our community as a kind and charitable person, so we will be recognized or praised, even if the recognition or praise we are seeking is subtle, we have allowed our sinful nature to creep in and affect our intentions.

Repent

We must repent by meditating on the gospel. The gospel message teaches us that Christ humbled Himself to the point of death. He faced the cross for our sins. On the cross He atoned for our unrighteousness. Jesus could have followed His own agenda, worked off of His own plan, but He did not. Rather, He followed His Father’s plan. A plan that was designed to bring glory to God.

Christ’s death frees us from the bondage of sin. When we place our faith in Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we are given the power to resist sin, giving us the ability to glorify God through our actions. Since we have been freed from the bondage of sin, we should seek to be like His Son and glorify God, rather than ourselves.

Since Christ has given us the power to cast down our fleshly desires and passions, we should desire to be obedient to God (1 Peter 1:13-21). This obedience includes exalting God over ourselves.

Next time we make plans, we should ask ourselves if our ultimate end is to glorify ourselves or the Lord.

Scripture

Here are a few passages from God’s word to meditate on this week, as you consider what your plans are designed to accomplish: Matt. 6:32-33; 2 Tim. 2:22.

All X-Ray questions taken from David Powlison’s book Seeing with New Eyes.

Image: africa / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

X-Ray Questions: What do you think you need?

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Discipleship, Practical, X-Ray QuestionsLeave a comment

This week we continue our X-Ray Questions series, as we look at what you think you need. You can read the other posts in this series by clicking here.

X-Ray Question:

(7) What do you think you need? What are your felt needs?

Questions 2 and 3 exposed your aims in terms of activity and pursuit. This question exposes your aims in terms of what you hope to receive, get, and keep. Felt needs are frequently taken as self-evident necessities to be acquired, not as deceptive slave-masters. Our culture of need reinforces the flesh’s instincts and habits. In most cases, a person’s felt needs are slang for idolatrous demands for love, understanding, a sense of being in control, affirmation, and achievement.

Understand

First, understand that your needs are already known by (Matt. 6:8-15) and taken care of by the Lord (Matt. 6:24-32).

Second, understand that our culture drives/reinforces these felt needs through both electronic (t.v., internet, and radio) and print (magazines, books, and photography) media.

Third, by reflecting on the things we think we need, we can gain a good understanding of the ways we are seeking love and affirmation from others. It also shows us what we think we need to control and/or achieve, in order to gain affirmation.

For instance, we may believe we need a new car, new clothing, a certain degree, job, apartment, etc, so we will be accepted and loved by others. Instead of finding our acceptance and love in our relationship with Christ, we are seeking acceptance and love from others through certain possessions that tell the world we are successful.

When we truly reflect on the reasons we desire the things mentioned above, we learn what we hope to, receive, get, and keep from buying a new car, new clothing, acquiring a certain degree, job, or apartment.

On the one hand, we may be seeking these things as a status symbol. On the other hand, we may be seeking these things for our own comfort and protection. When we seek these things for comfort or protection, we are seeking to control the universe, rather than subjecting ourselves to God’s rule. We forget God is in control that He alone is the Sovereign Ruler of the universe.

Repent

We should repent by realizing we do not need to manufacture a certain status that gains us acceptance, love, or affirmation from the world. As Christians, our status before God should be enough because through it we gain genuine and everlasting acceptance, love, and affirmation from God.

Through our belief in Christ, we are made sons of God. Our relationship with God is repaired, and we enjoy the love, mercy, grace, and acceptance of God through Christ. As a result, we should not desire, nor do we need, the acceptance of the world.

Scripture

Here are a few passages from God’s word to meditate on this week, as you consider your felt needs: Matt. 6:8-15; 6:25-32; 1 Kings 3:5-14; all the prayers in the Bible express reoriented felt needs.

All X-Ray questions taken from David Powlison’s book Seeing with New Eyes.

Image: scottchan / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

X-Ray Questions: What do you feel like doing?

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Discipleship, Practical, X-Ray QuestionsLeave a comment

This week we continue our X-Ray Questions series, as we look at what do you feel like doing. You can read the other posts in this series by clicking here.

X-Ray Question:

(5) What do you feel like doing? 

This is slang for question 2, what do you desire? To be “feeling-oriented” means to make your wants your guide: “I feel like cursing you. I don’t feel like doing my chores.”

Understand

When we do what we feel like doing, we are allowing our wants to be our guide, rather than Scripture. We must recognize when we are allowing our desires to override what Scripture commands we do. We can check ourselves by asking: Do my actions or thoughts align with Scripture? Is this something I feel like doing, or is it something God would have me do?

When we are leading ourselves, God is not leading us. Which is opposed to the examples put forth in Scripture. Consistently the Psalmist calls God his refuge and his protection, the One who leads and guides him with His wise counsel (Pss.13:23-28). God’s wisdom far outweighs our wisdom, His counsel is better than the wisest man. As a result, we need to seek God and His leading, rather than allow our feelings to lead us.

If we are Christians, when we are led by our feelings, we are allowing our unregenerate nature to lead us. The same nature that is contrary to the Lord. As a result, when we allow our feelings to lead us, we will almost always seek to gratify the desires of the flesh and glorify ourselves, rather than God.

Repent

Repent by realizing that by allowing our feelings to lead us, we are reverting back to the leading of our sinful nature, and we are not being guided and led by the wisdom of God.

When we put our faith in Christ, trusting that His sacrifice on the cross paid the price for our sins, our relationship with God is restored, and we are released from the bondage of sin, making us free to follow and serve Him.

Scripture

Here are a few passages from God’s word to meditate on this week, as you consider what is leading you: Pss. 17:14-15; 73:23-28; Prov. 10:3; 10:28; 11:6-7; Gal. 5:16-25; Eph. 2:3; 4:22; 2 Tim. 2:22; Titus 3:3; 1 Peter 1:14; 2:11; 4:2; 2 Peter 1:4; 2:10; James 1:14-15; 4:1-3.

All X-Ray questions taken from David Powlison’s book Seeing with New Eyes.