Readers -
I have been reading lately (it's not on my list at right) Joel Beeke's excellent "Puritan Reformed Spirituality", and in it I was reminded of my neglect of a spiritual discipline that once I had hopes of cultivating: meditation on the Scriptures. I note this here just to put myself on notice of my commitment to begin again...
It is, as so many of the Puritans have noted, an important practice for the spiritual health of the saints. It was a time-honored practice, particularly in the Reformation era, among orthodox believers. Yet today do we do it? Mention 'meditation' and your listener will think you've gone off the deep end into some Maharishi's cult or something.
Meditation is neither simply Scripture reading or devotional scanning... but prayerful reflection on Scriptural passages or themes, as a means of exciting the affections toward devotion to the triune God. It is, in the words of Thomas Watson, "a 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." From Edward Calamy we find "A true meditation is when a man doth so meditate of Christ as to get his heart inflamed with the love of Christ; so meditate of the truths of God, as to be transformed into them; and so meditate of sin as to get his heart to hate sin." Watson noted, "A Christian without meditation is like a soldier without arms, or a workman without tools. Without meditation, the truths of God will not stay with us; the heart is hard, and the memory slippery..."
I pray that my desires to renew myself in this practice be fulfilled, and I ask for your prayers that I might be yet again more diligent in this aspect of my walk. Perhaps if you have not much experience with meditation on God's truths, and if the exhortations of the men above excite in you an appreciation of its worth, you'll join me in this arena.
Posted by toddpedlar at June 7, 2004 09:25 PM | TrackBack