POWER-START YOUR DAY

A 60-Day Quiet Time Challenge

Paul warned us that our true enemy is not physical or material, but spiritual. If we hope to move beyond a superficial faith we must be willing to go down into the inner world of prayer and meditation. I want to challenge you to join my 60-Day Quiet Time Challenge (starting on May 4th) and Power-Start your day by meditating on God’s Word! CLICK HERE to find out more [note: this sounds like I’m selling something, but there’s no cost. I never charge for anything].

Sunrise

 

Our Spiritual Struggle

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Eph. 6:12).

 

Psychiatrist Carl Jung once remarked, “Hurry is not of the Devil; it is the Devil.” Plato said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” Both were observing that the person who does not stop long enough to engage in serious contemplation on life is headed for disaster.

 

The Christian who does not invest time in mediation is always living with some form of spiritual poverty.

 

Meditation in the Bible

Meditation was very familiar to the people of the Bible. The Bible uses two different Hebrew words to convey the idea of meditation, and together they are used some fifty-eight times. These words have various meanings: listening to God’s word, reflecting on God’s works, rehearsing God’s deeds, ruminating on God’s law, and more. In each case, there is stress upon changed behavior as a result of our encounter with the living God.

 

Isaac “went out to meditate in the field in the evening” (Gen. 24:63). Moses, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Daniel are all depicted as practicing meditation. The Old Testament Hymn Book (the Psalms) is shocked full of calls to meditation —

 

“I think of thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the watches of the night” (Ps. 63:6).

“My eyes are awake before the watches of the night, that I may meditate upon thy promise” (Ps. 119:148).

“His delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law, he meditates day and night” (Ps. 1:2).

“Oh, how I love thy law! It is my meditation all the day…. I hold my feet from every evil way, in order to keep thy word. I do not turn aside from thy ordinances, for thou hast taught me” (Ps. 119:97, 101, 102).

 

Just to name a few.

 

Jesus spent considerable time in meditation (Mark 1:35, 45, Luke 5:16). He taught his disciples to do the same (Acts 10:10; 11:15; 2 Cor. 12:1-4).

 

The end goal of Christian meditation is to be filled with Jesus. That’s it. It’s very simple. We want to make the physical, emotional, and spiritual space for Jesus to fill us with his spirit. We want to hear no other voice — no other guide — no other spirit — but that of Jesus.

 

A Place to Start

In order to be sure that happens I would recommend starting your meditation practice with something that the devotional masters called Meditatio Scripturarum, the meditation upon Scripture.

 

My 60-Day Quiet Time Challenge will help you make this type of Scripture Reading and Meditation a daily habit. CLICK HERE to learn more about it (It’s free!).

 

Whereas the study of Scripture centers on interpreting the Word of God, the meditation of Scripture centers on internalizing and personalizing it. The written Word becomes a living word addressed to you.

 

There is an important place for the technical study of the Bible — a quest to understand what the original writers were saying to the people they were writing to — but, that is not the end goal of Meditatio Scripturarum.

 

Foster explains, “This is not a time for technical studies, or analysis, or even the gathering of material to share with others. Set aside all tendencies toward arrogance and with a humble heart receive the word addressed to you” (Celebration of Discipline, p.29).

 

Meditation is meant to satisfy your longing to hear the living voice of God, to sanctify the imagination as a powerful gift of God, and to fasten you to the heart and spirit of Jesus.

 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, “…just as you do not analyze 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.”

 

This is not the only form of meditation, but it is a great place to start because it keeps you safely tied to Scripture and to the spirit of Jesus.

 

 

60-DAY CHALLENGE

The best research shows that if you do something every day for sixty to seventy days, it will become a habit.

 

I want to challenge you to a 60-day, journey to forming a habit of scripture meditation. I will guide you each day. Together we can learn to make Scripture reading and meditation a daily habit.

 

CLICK HERE to subscribe to my YouTube channel — Daily Scripture Meditations — and join the 60-Day Challenge (starting May 4th).

 

Starting your day with God’s Word, every day, for 60 days will revolutionize your life.

 

Join me for the adventure!