Meditate and Pray

Introduction - I just wanted to spend a few moments and speak to you concerning a practical subject dealing with the Christian life.

That is, the subject of personal time with the Lord.

If you will please turn your Bible to John 15.

Please read with me John 15:1–5

“1 I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. 2 Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. 3 Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. 4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. 5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.”

Let’s Pray

What does it mean to abide in the Lord?

The term abide means to ‘dwell’ and in context of what the Lord is teaching, we must dwell together; fellowship.

It also can give the idea of continuing together.

In other words, what begins with reconciliation to God through Christ Jesus, ought to be ongoing.

Albert Barnes said it this way, “Remain united to me by a living faith. Live a life of dependence on me, and obey my doctrines, imitate my example, and constantly exercise faith in me.”

I believe this gives the idea of fellowship with the Lord.

Many Christians today are told to ‘have devotions.”

I do not much care for the term devotions— or devotional.

The only reference to the word devotions in our Bible is found in Acts 17:23 “23 For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.”

There are five references for the term ‘devoted’—most appear in Leviticus and have the idea of dedicating something to the Lord.

The term ‘devotions’ is a catch word for Christians to connote a short shot of surface reading of the Bible in place of intimate fellowship with the Lord.

The word itself is not evil and I completely understand what folks mean when they say they are having ‘morning devotions.’

To be devote is to be consecrated by a vow. It is the idea of giving oneself to the Lord.

This surely I am not against.

But I am against, the empty religious exercise of turning in a book to May 15th reading one verse and then five paragraphs of what someone else has to say and then calling my ‘personal time’ with the Lord good.

Please do not misunderstand what I am saying. There is plenty of good ‘devotional’ material out there that can and should be used in additional to regular Bible reading.

But in our effort to encourage folks to read the Bible, oftentimes we can give the impression that it is some empty exercise to be checked off of a list.

I would like for us to think on our personal time with the Lord.

We speak much about needing to spend personal time with the Lord… And examples abound in the Scriptures of our necessity to meet with the Lord… but

What does this look like?

Let me first say what it is not:

It is not an itemized to-do list.

You will find no formalized prescription in the Bible. For the Christian, this is something we get to do—

I want you to realize that the local church meetings very much so mirror our time with the Lord in many respects.

It is not something that is specifically formulated in the Bible.

We will find the command to meditate on the Word of God, we will find the command to pray. But we do not find a set form to spending time with the Lord.

Meaning, though the components of spiritual disciplines for the Christian life are found in the Bible and commanded, they are not ordered. As in (1—do this, 2-do this, 3-do this…etc…)

Much the same could be said as we look at the local church service.

We understand the components of the church meeting — Prayer, Singing, Giving, Preaching, Fellowship, Decisions Made For The Lord— Perhaps Baptism, the Lord’s Memorial Supper etc…

We understand the components— but as we look in the biblical record we see no formal order given.

3. It is not compulsory—- however it is commanded and it is necessary.

In other words, we do not require you to fill out time sheets with activities on how you have spent time with the Lord.

Ordinary Christians

The Lord’s words in John 15 are for ordinary Christians.

John 15 is a record of the words given to the disciples, the apostles of the Lord, but the Holy Spirit of God had them recorded for you and me.

This does not mean the Christian life is dull or boring or ineffective…or perhaps in contrast to the world is not extraordinary.

Surely the Light of Christ shining in a cursed world will always shine brightly… but it does mean that there is only one standard.

Peter stated this in 1 Peter 1:16 “16 Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.”

The standard is plainly given by Peter’s quotation of Leviticus 11:44 is God Himself.

(It is interesting to note that in Leviticus 11:44 it speaks about not being defiled with a creeping thing… I personally have no problem with that… I do not like creeping things that much…. But when you look at that at the beginning of Peters first epistle and then think about Peters vision of the rooftop of Simon the Tanner about unclean things… it makes me think that Peter no doubt meditated on that verse many times after the Lord make clear what was going on.)

Who are we to be compared with? Or we might say what is goal? The Lord Jesus Christ.

We are so use to compartmentalizing life, that we gauge our Christian lives by others. However the Bible tells us that this is not wise (2 Corinthians 10:12)

The true measure of the Christian is Christ.

We do the same with our time at work —- etc… and other areas of our lives.

2 Corinthians 10:12 “12 For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.”

When we think about God—the Lord Jesus Christ, Hebrews 13:8 tells us, “8 Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.”

Likewise, we read in Malachi 3:6 “6 For I am the Lord, I change not; Therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.”

In other words, we could say it this way, our standard of measurement — the Lord Jesus Christ, changes not.

Christians are followers of Christ.

The word ‘christian’ is given to us in Acts 11:26 “26 And when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass, that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church, and taught much people. And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.”

The term apparently has caught on for we find it again in Acts 26:28 “28 Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.”

The only other occurrence is found 1 Peter 4:16 “16 Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf.”

What I am trying to say is God does not intend for there to be exceptional Christians— and those who are not.

We could look at history and see there are some Christians that have led exceptional lives for the Lord Jesus Christ, however, there is only one standard for following Christ.

There are Christians who are following Christ and there are those who are not.

The Lord is looking for ordinary Christians.

This is important— because we can look at personal time with the Lord as being for the ultra-spiritual and those who do not spend time with the Lord as normal/typical.

This is not the case—-every Christian ought to enjoy fellowship with the Lord. This is normal Christianity.

“The New Testament emphasis is not that you receive life, backslide, and then get revived. The New Testament emphasis is that you receive life and then live in that abundant life. Jesus said in John 10:10 “10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” The New Testament focus is that the life of Christ be manifested in the believer as the standard and norm.” (John R. Van Gelderen - The Revival Journey)

In relation to our topic, I want you to think about your personal time with the Lord as part and parcel of what God has for you.

It is necessary. It is exampled and commanded. But it is wonderful.

What should we expect to find in our personal time with the Lord?

That brings me to point number 2, not only do we need to think about normal (ordinary) Christians, but secondly,

Order Your Personal Time

Our personal time with the Lord will be similar to what we see at our church meetings.

We should see prayer, reading of the Word of God, yielding to God, singing…

As we think about ordering our personal time, consider a couple of things:

We are always to be aware of the Lord’s presence in our lives.

We live in the presence of the Lord. Galatians 4:9 speaks to this relationship that began at Salvation. God knows all men. But according to Matthew 7:21–23 some the Lord will tell them, I never knew you…

In other words, we live in the presence of God by relationship since salvation and in fellowship.

Elijah understood He was in the presence of God when he stood before Ahab in the Old Testament.

1 Kings 17:1 states. “1 And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.”

Later Elisha would repeat the same the phrase, 2 Kings 3:14 “14 And Elisha said, As the Lord of hosts liveth, before whom I stand, surely, were it not that I regard the presence of Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, I would not look toward thee, nor see thee.”

This great truth means certainly we can sing spiritual songs in hymns going down the road in the car.

Certainly, we can be instant in prayer, and speak to the Lord at any moment.

Certainly, we can think on Scripture, and God’s goodness, and God’s greatness, all that the Lord is doing.

The Lord made clear in John chapter 4, that we are not bound by a certain place to worship the Lord. Further there are no exclusions on places we can pray.

We realize Samuel prayed from the battlefield. 1 Samuel 7.

We realize the Jonah prayed from the belly of a great fish. Jonah 2

Jeremiah prayed from a dungeon. Lamentations 3

We realize in the NT, Paul prayed from a jail cell.

Stephen prayed while being stoned. Acts 7

Peter prayed from a rooftop. Acts 10

We should have specific time set aside for targeted prayer and Bible reading.

I think about the great example the Lord gave us in the lives of the disciples.

There were specific times, that the Lord taught them specially by His Word.

We think about the so-called Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7.

I think about our text- John chapters 13-17.

We could consider the specific example given to us of Mary given to us in where the Bible says, Luke 10:41–42 “41 And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: 42 But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.”

Within our personal set-aside time would you consider the following as a loose fitting guide:

Pray-Read-Study-Meditate-Pray

There are many other things we could add into this time; reading good Christian resources—-singing unto the Lord.

I want you to realize though that there is an emphasis in the Bible on the intake of the Word of God.

Reading Passages

Reading Particular Verses or Verse Lists

Within the realm of reading the Word of God comes those three above words, Read-Study- Meditate.

Intake of the Word of God is necessary, because it is food.

The Lord Jesus Christ spoke of this in rebuking the Devil, He stated in Matthew 4:4 “4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”

In this the Lord cited Deuteronomy 8:3— a literal example of the nation of Israel’s dependence on the Lord.

Without the Lord, the nation was doomed.

We must take in the Word of God.

1 Peter 2:2 alludes to this when He states—the last part being particularly important, “2 As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:”

The Lord further tells us, that it is the Word of God, which is used by the Holy Spirit to conform us to the image of Christ. He states in John 17:17 “17 Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.”

The above words are important, however, I want you to pay particular attention to the exercise of meditating on God’s Word.

The emphasis is on quality time with the Lord— not quantity.

This means we spend time with the Lord for the right purpose— with a right understanding of what it is we are doing.

I want to emphasize again — thinking— meditating on the Word of God.

I have given you along with these notes the verse references for this wonderful Bible word, meditate and meditation.

Meditation provides you and I with the catalyst to pray spiritually.

That brings us to the final point:

Our Response To God - Prayer

When we read the Word of God— God is speaking to us.

When we pray we are speaking to the Lord.

Again, I want to stress that there is no specific prescribed order found in the Word of God.

In fact, certainly there will be times in the life of a Christian where perhaps you spend an entire time in prayer.

There will be times when you may spend an entire set aside time reading the Word of God.

But may I suggest that careful reading and meditation will lead us to prayer.

In other words, the question before us is this, What is your response to God?

I would like to share with you an excerpt from the journal of George Mueller to illustrate this truth,

“In the spring of 1841, George Muller made a discovery regarding the relationship between meditation and prayer that transformed his spiritual life. He described his new insight this way:

“Before this time my practice had been, at least for ten years previously, as an habitual thing, to give myself to prayer after having dressed in the morning. Now, I saw that the most important thing was to give myself to the reading of God’s Word, and to meditation on it, that thus my heart might be comforted, encouraged, warned, reproved, instructed; and that thus, by means of the Word of God, whilst meditating on it, my heart might be brought into experimental communion with the Lord.

I began therefore to meditate on the New Testament from the beginning, early in the morning. The first thing I did, after having asked in a few words of the Lord’s blessing upon His precious Word, was to begin to meditate on the Word of God, searching as it were into every verse to get blessing out of it; not for the sake of the public ministry of the Word, not for the sake of preaching on what I had meditated upon, but for the sake of obtaining food for my own soul.

The result I have found to be almost invariably this, that after a few minutes my soul has been led to confession, or to thanksgiving, or to intercession, or to supplication; so that, though I did not, as it were, give myself to prayer, but to meditation, yet it turned almost immediately more or less to prayer. When thus I have been for a while making confession or intercession or supplication, or have given thanks, I go on to the next words or verse, turning all, as I go on, into prayer for myself or others, as the Word may lead to it, but still continually keeping before me that food for my own soul is the object of my meditation. The result of this is that there is always a good deal of confession, thanksgiving, supplication, or intercession mingled with my meditation, and that my inner man almost invariably is even sensibly nourished and strengthened, and that by breakfast time, with rare exceptions, I am in a peaceful if not happy state of heart.

The difference, then, between my former practice and my present one is this: formerly, when I rose, I began to pray as soon as possible, and generally spent all my time till breakfast in prayer, or almost all the time. At all events I almost invariably began with prayer.… But what was the result? I often spent a quarter of an hour, or half an hour, or even an hour on my knees before being conscious to myself of having derived comfort, encouragement, humbling of soul, etc.; and often, after having suffered much from wandering of mind for the first ten minutes, or quarter of an hour, or even half an hour, I only then really began to pray.

I scarcely ever suffer now in this way. For my heart being nourished by the truth, being brought into experimental fellowship with God, I speak to my Father and to my Friend (vile though I am, and unworthy of it) about the things that He has brought before me in His precious Word. It often now astonishes me that I did not sooner see this point.… And yet now, since God has taught me this point, it is as plain to me as anything that the first thing the child of God has to do morning by morning is to obtain food for his inner man.

Now what is food for the inner man? Not prayer, but the Word of God; and here again, not the simple reading of the Word of God, so that it only passes through our minds, just as water passes through a pipe, but considering what we read, pondering over it and applying it to our hearts.”

How wonderful it is for us to respond to the Lord as He has spoken to us!

I think what we will discover is this, that our praying whether concerning ourselves or others will be greatly affected by meditating on the Word of God and then replying to the Lord about what He has taught us.

I would close with a simple illustration concerning my personal time.

I have been reading in 1 Samuel chapter 18-19 concerning the life of Saul.

And as I read Saul’s sad case— and His attempt on to smite David to the wall with a Javelin— a small spear.

I thought to myself Lord, I do not want to be entangled with jealousy.

Lord I do not want to be set aside from your work.

Lord, I do not want selfishness and pride to blind me.

And I prayed those things, thinking on the case of Saul—- His humble beginnings,— His wonderful talent, and yet His terrible end.

As we close, I pray as we think about our time with the Lord that first we would consider

Ordinary Christianity— In other words, what does the Lord desire and design for me. Am I following Christ?

Secondly, order my personal time with the Lord.

I am spending time with Him. He is dealing with me through His Word.

Pray-Read-Study-Meditate-Pray

These are all Bible words— the intention is not empty religion, but to draw near to the Savior, the know Him.

And lastly, our response to God.

Our response to God may be a George Mueller put it, confession, thanksgiving, supplication, and intercession.

Let’s Pray.

Meditation

Psalm 5:1 “Give ear to my words, O Lord, Consider my meditation.”

Psalm 19:14 “Let the words of my mouth, And the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer.”

Psalm 49:3 “My mouth shall speak of wisdom; And the meditation of my heart shall be of understanding.”

Psalm 104:34 “My meditation of him shall be sweet: I will be glad in the Lord.”

Psalm 119:97 “MEM. O how love I thy law! It is my meditation all the day.”

Psalm 119:99 “I have more understanding than all my teachers: For thy testimonies are my meditation.”

Meditate

Joshua 1:8 “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.”

Psalm 1:2 “But his delight is in the law of the Lord; And in his law doth he meditate day and night.”

Psalm 63:6 “When I remember thee upon my bed, And meditate on thee in the night watches.” Psalm 77:12 “I will meditate also of all thy work, and talk of thy doings.” Psalm 119:15 “I will meditate in thy precepts, And have respect unto thy ways.”

Psalm 119:23 “Princes also did sit and speak against me: But thy servant did meditate in thy statutes.”

Psalm 119:48 “My hands also will I lift up unto thy commandments, which I have loved; And I will meditate in thy statutes.”

Psalm 119:78 “Let the proud be ashamed; for they dealt perversely with me without a cause: But I will meditate in thy precepts.”

Psalm 119:148 “Mine eyes prevent the night watches, That I might meditate in thy word.”

Psalm 143:5 “I remember the days of old; I meditate on all thy works; I muse on the work of thy hands.”