Meditating?
For starters, there must be content, must be truth, must be solid reality. Not mere silence—as if in the silence, the nothing, someone will speak.
We must meditate on truth—there are so many lies we might listen to. There is really only one sure truthful person we can meditate upon. Forget holy men. Forget bloggers.
GOD HAS SPOKEN!
The living true God—let God be true and every man a liar.
Jesus emphatically said I only speak what my Father says and I am the truth.
The apostle Paul wrote In Him are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
So let me encourage everyone to meditate of the word of God. Recently I shared some personal experiences with Gilly. And these I share with you also.
I find by concentrating on each word in a text and asking questions like who said this, to whom said, why it was said, things like that. I don’t just concentrate on just one word but on what is being said–on content and context. Be part of the conversation.
Gilly, let’s take your Proverbs 4:20-23 text:
Pay attention to my words, How? We start by listening with trust, expectancy and then obeying.
So incline your ear to my sayings—you can hear them with your inner spiritual ears! Can you Gilly? keep them in the midst of your heart, Imagine, yes there they are! now in your heart. See them?
do not let them out of your sight— maybe create little signs, maybe sketches also and placed where you get to see them over and over
for they are LIFE to those who find them–you have found them, so see His life received into you and enlivening your whole body and soul.
Another example: John 14:1-3. Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me.In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.
So I ask why are they troubled? It’s because he has told them he is about to be crucified—I can feel their horror, their pain, their fear. But don’t be troubled–I am going to prepare a place for you. Good news takes away the fear! And then he says I am coming again and receive you to myself. Wow–a COMING AGAIN!? So that gives me something to really ask Him about! So I can pray as I read and expect answers from him. Looking at each word carefully in context.
In reading narratives, it’s like I am a movie script writer or a director and visualise like a movie scene what I am reading–I see the narrative being played out in my in-built screen in my mind, adding light, sound, movement, emotions.
These are ways I get insights that excite me and I can share them with others.
Ian Thomson 